Throughout the FIQWS 10108 composition course I have learned a lot to improve my writing skills and to write using new techniques I have never used before. I feel that this course pushed me to my limits while also challenging me. From the beginning of this course where we wrote our Creative Non-fiction Essays, I was introduced to research-based writing. The assignments that followed such as the Exploratory Essay, Researched Critical Analysis Essay, and the Multimodal Translation and Presentation allowed me to expand my skills on doing academic research while supporting my claims with the research that I accomplished. Other assignments and artifacts like my essay outlines, peer review, and discussions helped me meet the course learning outcomes for FIQWS 10108.

The Creative Non-Fiction (CNF) Essay helped me to accomplish the course learning outcome of recognizing and practicing key rhetorical terms and strategies. When writing this essay, I needed to figure out the rhetorical situation for this essay. To write this essay I needed to evaluate myself and figure out three important factors of my identity while also considering how media shaped my identity. I wanted to give the audience reading this essay an accurate portrayal of who I was as a person in life. Most of the information I shared was about my life and how events that occurred shaped my identity. For this essay I made family the main focus area since they had a huge impact on my identity.

The Exploratory Essay helped me accomplish the course learning outcome of engaging in the collaborative and social aspects of writing. For this essay, I was tasked to write a research paper exploring the course theme of media and identity. This was an essay in which I needed to have a neutral stance while using sophisticated research. The topic that I chose for this essay was how social media influenced the American electorate. One struggle I had was figuring out my research because I wasn’t used to using credible sources such as online journals. To help me throughout the writing process for this essay I used an outline to organize my ideas to later add to my essay draft. When I was doing my research, I annotated my sources to narrow down the information I would use to support my essay topic. The peer review that was conducted during class helped me get feedback from other people and to improve on areas where my writing was weaker. Collaborating improved my writing development because it allowed me to share ideas with other people while getting advice on improving my essay.

The Report on Research in Progress helped me accomplish the course learning outcome of locating research sources in the library’s databases and on the internet while evaluating them for credibility. For this assignment I was tasked to use my annotated bibliography and RCA Draft to give an update on my research progress. This assignment made me focus on identifying what sources were credible to use for my essay while avoiding articles with a lack of true evidence or based on opinion. Once I had my researched sources, I was able to create strong claims that went with my thesis statement. This was the type of assignment that taught me to look closely at sources and if an author has enough credibility. This report helped me keep track of what research I had done and to figure out what I was missing to complete my RCA Essay.

The Midterm Self-Reflection Essay helped me to complete the course learning outcome of analyzing a variety of genres and rhetorical situations. For this assignment I reflected on my writing progress and the essays I wrote thus far for this class during this semester. For instance, one of the assignments we got assigned in this class was to watch a TED Talk about the danger of a single story. Watching this TED Talk helped me understand more the relationship between media and identity. The information discussed in the TED Talk provided me a great way to see how the different forms of media that was are expose to each day shape our identity and how we see things in society. I also mentioned my Exploratory Essay and CNF Essay where I broke down the rhetorical situation for each of them. Strategies such as using an outline and annotating contributing to a growth in my writing and my development as a writer.

The Researched Critical Analysis (RCA) Essay helped me complete the learning outcome of composing texts that integrate your stance with appropriate sources using strategies such as summary, critical analysis, interpretation, synthesis, and argumentation. For this assignment I was tasked to conduct a researched study of a topic. My RCA Essay was focused on the impact social media had on the mental health of teenagers. I started my research by looking at the CCNY library’s database and found some articles by credible authors to support my claims. I also used Google Scholar which helped me find great articles and journals to prove my argument.

The Multi-Modal Translation (MML) & Presentation helped me complete the course learning outcome of understanding and using print and digital technologies to address a range of audiences. For my MML, I targeted teenagers in an infographic that had huge numbers, lots of pictures, statistics, and facts based on the research I did for my RCA Essay. To create the infographic, I used the online platform Canva. For my presentation, I created a PowerPoint that gave reference to my topic but mostly summarized the study I accomplished on my topic. Since I was addressing other college students, I included more words but added images which I explained in further detail while presenting. Being able to fully understand who my audience is has helped in my development as a writer.

The Semi-Weekly Reflections have been a useful tool to keep track of my development as a writer. There were different prompts for each week which I addressed based on my writing and the assignments done in class. Analyzing the rhetorical situation has been useful as a writer since I am able to figure out the purpose for that writing piece and who is the audience that I’m writing to. Being able to create outlines to organize my research has been crucial to my growth as a writer. I now feel that I’ve improved as a writer than the beginning of the semester and hopefully I can apply these skills along the road ahead in my career.