Over the course of the semester, I have developed and refined my reading & writing skills, allowing me to write papers, analyze readings and research with purpose. The skills I have cultivated have enabled me to fulfill four course objectives, namely –

• Explore and analyze in their own and others’ writing a variety of genres and rhetorical situations
• Develop strategies for reading, drafting, revising, and editing
• 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
• Compose texts that integrate the student’s stance and language with appropriate sources, using strategies such as summary, critical analysis, interpretation, synthesis, and argumentation

In regards to the first learning objective, one can look at my ‘Rhetorical Exam’ in which I discuss the rhetorical situation of David Papineau’s “Yes, the Players in the World Cup Keep Falling Over for No Reason”. I go in depth explaining Mr. Papineau’s purpose for writing, who he is writing for, his tone, stance, the context in which his article is written and its genre & medium.

The second learning objective was something I had to build upon. I had strategies for reading, drafting, revising, and editing but they were a bit ill fitted to the writing I was doing for this class. I took skimming and quickly jotting down the most important parts of what I had read as compared to doing in-depth analysis and then waiting to write what I had noticed. I gave myself a large breadth and grace when writing my first drafts, with Anne Lamott’s “Shitty First Drafts” serving as a reminder that it did not have to be perfect. And I took great consideration to my peers’ comments when revising and editing my work, when before I would only look over it myself and miss important mistakes. Theses renewed skills were used quite effectively in my Creative Retelling of Perrault’s Bluebeard (for FIQWS 10005).

My achievement of the third learning objective can be seen in the Works Cited page of my papers and Annotated Bibliography. I used the CCNY Libraries online resources, JSTOR and Project Gutenberg to find relevant sources that would validate or serve my points while doing personal research to make sure the authors of my sources were credibly enough for their use in the first place.

Last but not least, my Exploratory & Researched Critical Analysis essays serve as testaments to my prowess in the fourth learning objective. I spoke of my stance, synthesized, analyzed, argued my points (back by evidence) and summarized about Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella respectively. And with grades of 99 (Exploratory) and 98 (Research Critical Analysis), I would say I succeeded.

Feel free to browse and read the work I did this semester. I hope you enjoy.