Writing and Its Role in My Evolution

To what extent have I achieved the course learning objectives this semester?
I have always perceived college to be such a drastic and new chapter of life that I was one
day going to reach. Now that I’m here, I look to my left and I look to my right, and I’m thinking
“Where am I really?”, “Is this the experience I thought I was going to have?”. My experience
entails me being in the city, attending a “vertical” campus, with full independence of everything I
do. Things were foreign, expensive, and sometimes, bland. I kept thinking that I didn’t make the
right choice. But there was one thing that felt comfortable throughout my fall semester. Even
though it took me $12 to travel to the expensive city and enter the bland vertical campus, when I
stepped foot into English class, I felt warm, colors started to blend in, and things were finally
familiar.

Maybe it was because I took Writing 2 previously, but least to say this course went pretty
smoothly. This course was different from what I previously experienced though. It was taught in
four months as opposed to the entire school year. Nonetheless, I did experience more growth as a
writer in this course. I mean, when you have to push out four college essays back to back, there

has to be some kind of development in your skill or knowledge. Overall, I believe that I
respectively reached all the nine learning outcomes for this course.
Beginning with the 8th objective, “Compose texts that integrate your stance (i.e. your
thesis) with appropriate sources using strategies such as summary, critical analysis,
interpretation, synthesis, and argumentation,” I believe that’s how we began this semester.

We began learning about rhetoric and its strong implementation in our works of writing.
In a way, I feel that the entire course was built on this writing element. The strongest way
that I achieved this objective was with my Op-Ed Paper titled Littering In Yonkers. I collected
data in which I was going to argue for change in my community. I first began contextualizing
sources and analyzing the sources with my own connections. This can also be connected with
objective 7 “Locate research sources (including academic journal articles, magazine and
newspaper articles) in the library’s databases or archives and on the Internet and evaluate
them for credibility, accuracy, timeliness, and bias,” as I had to dig into city codes, past news
reports, and conduct interviews. Through analyzing these sources I used them to quote and
paraphrase in my paper as well as in my visual medium. “Dear Professor Crowe,
I hope this letter finds you well. I am writing to you today to present my essay titled
“Littering Issue in Yonkers,” where I have written about the concern that my community faces.
This essay addresses the pressing issue of littering in Yonkers, its causes, effects on public
health, and proposed solutions. In the essay, I highlighted the critical problem of littering that
plagues our city, posing a threat to public health and the environment. Yonkers being the third
largest city in New York is not immune to the effects of littering, which contributes to a
significant portion of overall pollution. Without active measures to combat this issue, we risk
severe repercussions on both social and economic fronts…”

Moving along to the first objective in which “Students will examine how attitudes
towards linguistic standards empower and oppress language users,” I believe to a great degree
this was stressed heavily in the class. Our weekly discussion posts allowed me to truly achieve
this objective. I was learning about new things through narratives from hispanic authors,
indigenous people, authors like bell hooks. In a way, this objective is related to the second
objective, “Explore and analyze, in writing and reading, a variety of genres and rhetorical
situations,” as I read a plethora of works from so many different genres. Cyborg-feminist-
communist-future-death of civilization? Through this very perplexed genre there was knowledge
I gained, especially knowledge to me as a writer that deep down, writing is just thinking before
speaking. Writing comes in all sorts, but it’s truly just you expressing your knowledge almost
telepathically to anyone who can read and understand. It’s because writing is a transcultural
object. Transcultural meaning that it reaches different cultures of people who either keep its
meaning or change it into something of their own. That was the paper I had to write at the
beginning of this semester. The paper wasn’t about writing itself as a transcultural object but
more so how the sport of football transcended to every single culture on earth. Still, I was able to
complete the third objective “Develop strategies for reading, drafting, collaborating, revising,
and editing,” through the paper. The strategy I used to analyze for the paper was figuring out
what each of my paragraphs would touch on. Then I would find evidence for my claim through
sources and form my paragraphs. For my first submission of the semester, I enjoyed the way how
I deeply went into the details and specifics of the topic, and how it resonated with me on a deeper
level. “Dear Professor,
I am writing to submit my essay titled “The Cultural Significance of Football,” which is a
culmination of my understanding of why football is such a prominent sport throughout so
many
different cultures throughout the world. In this essay, I talk about the unifying power of
football that extends beyond boundaries, languages, and nations. The sport’s ability to give
strong emotions and provide physical well-being are my points in this essay. I aim to show just
how football brings people together, fostering unity, teamwork, and a sense of belonging
within diverse communities. I have examined and loved every part of this essay and aim to
show football’s significance and the emotions it stirs worldwide. I can’t wait to receive your
feedback and insights, which will contribute to my growth as a writer

As I’m approaching the end of this essay, I see this class for what it is now. It develops
students to be writing-conscious especially in an age where knowledge is vastly abundant. I got
to reflect a lot on what was taught in this class when reading literature and analyzing themes
which allowed me to achieve objective four, “Recognize and practice key rhetorical terms and
strategies when engaged in writing situations”. Through my field research essay The Financial
Struggle of College Students, I used rhetorical moves to capture my reader’s interest and drew on
the rhetorical narrative of broke college students. The process needed to form my essay was by
asking my fellow peers about what a typical college student goes through allowing me to achieve
objective five “Engage in the collaborative and social aspects of writing processes.” From there, I
surveyed multiple students around Baruch College in order to collect information and write my
paper, which made me achieve objective 6 “Understand and use print and digital technologies
to address a range of audiences.”. Using interview and observation techniques I presented an
issue that my community was facing objectively. I created a bibliography of my sources and it

made forming the essay easier, which allowed me to achieve objective 9, “Practice systematic
application of citation conventions.”

The aspiration I have for learning and writing has been graciously used for all my works
in this course. I don’t believe any course I took this Fall semester touched me on the level that
Writing 2 did. Thankfully, I appreciate all the kind comments and the generosity Professor
Crowe has given to not just me, but everyone around her. I appreciate her duty to provide all
that she can for her students.