Aybar 1

Natasha Aybar

Dr. Guenzel

Self Assessment

11/30/17

Over the course of the semester my writing has progressed significantly from the way I

previously expressed myself through text. Due to the knowledge I have gained in this course I am able to

write in a more academically professional manner using skills I learned while taking this course. This

course is designed to take new college writers and educate them about the rhetorical situation, discourse,

activity systems, and literacy as a whole. I have taken a lot of things out of this course, although this does

not include every topic or outcome we discussed, there is still a lot that I have taken out of this class.

Minor details I have learned from this course are that it is okay to use I in our essays, and

properly citing evidence by the use of directly referencing or quoting the evidence or using a signal

phrase. Due to the prompt of all of our texts being mostly based around us, the professor had showed us

that it is okay to reference ourselves. Prior to this course, all 12 years of school our teachers have taught

us to never place I into our essays because it was wrong. However, our professor showed us that it is

okay to talk about ourselves because we are the author of our text and we were talking about ourselves.

This tied in with the fact that as writers we need to focus on high order concerns such as organization,

formatting, thesis claims, evidence supporting our claims, and properly addressing and communicating to

our audience. Rather than focusing on lower order concerns much like grammar, punctuation, and

sentence structure. The main priority for our texts was to get the message out to the reader and to arise

discourse. Also, when an author wants to directly cite evidence they use what is called a parenthetical

citation. For example, if I wanted to reference an earlier essay I had written I would begin with

introducing the text, quoting the evidence, and citing the authors last name and the page number where

the evidence was found: In the Paper 2 Workshop Draft, the author states that The Air Force Junior
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Reserve Officer Training Corps is an organization that founded in 1911 by Lt. Steevers, ...

(Aybar, 1) By being introduced these simple writing practices, I was able to slowly ease into

learning more higher order concerns within writing.

Before we began writing in this course our professor introduced us directly into several

different and complex texts which we had to read, evaluate, and reflect on. One of the first texts

we read was in the Writing About Writing textbook, a text named Sponsors of Literacy by

Deborah Brandt. At the time this was a seemingly difficult text or me to evaluate because it was

a lot more complex than those I had been introduced to in high school. The author discussed how

our sponsors involve anything that had a direct or indirect impact on our literacy learning

(Brandt, 73). Looking back at that text now I am able to actually understand her reasoning and

what she wants me, as a reader, to really focus on within the text. However, at the time I was

reading and evaluating this text originally it was difficult because of the way the author

expressed her point, the vocabulary used, and the formatting of her text. The day in class in

which we discussed and asked questions about it was when I started to really learn how to read

complex texts. The professor showed us methods on breaking down a text we do not understand

and things to look for when reading. This is what opened my eyes and showed me how to reflect

and evaluate.

After evaluating Keith Grant-Davies, Rhetorical Situations and Their Constituents in

Writing About Writing, I am able to identify rhetorical situations and their factors, as well as

learn how to develop my writing style based on the audience and context of the text. In this text I

was able to identify within my Rhetorical Situation Discussion Reply that the author defines

the rhetorical situation as an activity or event that is created by rhetors to enforce discourse by

proposing an issue in the text (Aybar, Slide 1). Prior to reading this discussion assignment, I
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struggled understanding points made in texts and developing a response for other discussion

posts for this course. However, after addressing this topic in class and asking the professor

questions I am fully able to identify rhetorical situations, discourse, and the other constituents

within a text. I am now also able to structure my writing and its own rhetorical characteristics

appropriately to arise discourse within the audience while introducing specific points as well.

Overall as a reader and writer ENC 1101 at the University of Central Florida has done

nothing but improve my skills. Even outside of an english class setting in my other classes it is a

lot easier to break down difficult texts and analyze them, or write reflections for different writing

work. I learned how to break down writing, look for evidence, edit and revise papers with higher

order concerns, and how to write. We went over several different texts that taught us something

new to add to our individual writing styles. From reading Shitty First Drafts to teach us not to

stress about perfecting the first version of a paper, to evaluating activity theories to break down

the way certain organizations work, this class is designed to make you dig deeper and ask strong

questions. Previous years before college the main goal for english classes was to teach proper

grammar and spelling. Now the goal is to write expressing your purpose through formal format,

literacy, rhetoric, and several other factors. I may not have mastered all the outcomes designed

for this course, but I have the majority. This leaves room for me to continue to learn and grow as

a student.