Writing Experience in English 11000

One wouldn’t expect that 12 to 15 weeks would be enough time for an individual to improve sufficiently as a writer, but this was proven false through my experience in English 11000. Thanks to the various in class readings, literary narrative essay, analysis essay, and finally my researched essay, I can conclude that my writing skills have very well developed since the start of the semester. This is mainly because each of the above mentioned essay focused on a different aspect- the narrative essay focused on my ability to recount a part of my life and illustrate its significance in relation to language, the analysis essay focused on my ability to understand the ways by which other authors tried to persuade me to adopt their view, and the researched essay tested my capabilities in terms of finding usable sources online and then integrating selected evidence into my essay to force my readers to agree with my argument. Each of these essays had a phase specifically dedicated to them so I had the opportunity to spend a few weeks to learn what each essay was about as well as how to successfully construct one, therefore allowing me to grow as a writer since I was exposed to diverse writing styles. There were also several goals that were presented for this semester that I met, which served as major milestones in my writing career in English 11000.

One such goal that I met was that I was able to “recognize the role of language attitudes and standards in empowering, oppressing, and hierarchizing languages and their users and be open to communicating across different languages and cultures.” (English 11000 Syllabus) One such reading that demonstrates my understanding in regards to this learning outcome is “Nobody Mean More To Me Than You And The Future Life Of Willie Jordan,” authored by June Jordan. Reading this text allowed me to understand that languages can be used to oppress and empower specific individuals. In this writing piece, it is stated that the only reason that “broken” English and other similar forms of English are thought to be “wrong” is because white officials have imposed their version of English into the education system, and so people are generally led to believe that “white English” is the only form of “correct” English as it’s taught in schools. (Jordan, 161) The text further hints that as only “white English” is thought to be “correct,” anyone speaking other variations of English is thought by the public/ society to be illiterate. This in turn places individuals who are deemed “illiterate” in a lower social position than people who speak “white English,” thus, lessening the power that these “illiterate” people have in their community and simultaneously empowering people who speak “white English.” Realizing this idea after reading the text, I was able to be more accepting of the ways different people speak, and stopped being critical if people aren’t able to speak school- taught English. The second aspect of the learning outcome can also be seen through Tan’s essay. In Tan’s essay, it states how Tan’s mother had to face degrading situations due to society’s view of her “broken” English. (Tan, 2) These situations are represented through anecdotes which enable readers, including me, to feel sympathetic for Tan’s mother and also for Tan herself as she had to watch her mother confront these situations. This sympathy allowed me to see that it’s unjust to treat someone unfairly just due to their speaking skills, and thus, has allowed me to be more open and accepting of others’ speaking skills when they are “communicating across different languages and cultures.” (English 11000 Syllabus) Moreover, I was also taught to be more open minded through my daily experiences, one such experience being the walk that I took to the park with my grandfather. This experience is very well described under the journal titled, “The Listening.” For this journal, I had to observe how other people speak and the location in which I chose to carry out this activity was a park. At the park, I noticed that people communicate through the use of colloquial English/ slang and also through the use of “broken” English. (The Listening) The experience at the park exemplified to me that English is a language that has become very flexible that it allows people to communicate in unique ways. This understanding caused me to appreciate the English language more and to not immediately reject unfamiliar variations of English that I come across.

Furthermore, the research essay allowed me to “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.” (English 11000 Syllabus) Knowing that the essay for this phase is largely based on research and also learning of the various methods of finding sources in class, I was able to successfully locate the sources. For instance, I placed certain keywords within quotes to locate sources that were specific to my research topic. One such example is “immigrant hardships in the United States,” which I typed up in my search bar when I was trying to find sources. As a result I found numerous sources, but in order to locate ones that are most helpful, I utilized another method that I learned in class, which is using Ctrl F to search for keywords. With the combination of these methods, I was able to narrow down on potential sources that I could use. In order to narrow down even further, I searched through each source for their author to determine the credibility of the sources. Although some of my sources did have authors, most didn’t, in which case I browsed the website name instead to determine the credibility of the source. In terms of the former, I looked to see what education that the author of a particular source had and whether the education that the author had so far allowed him to write about the topic explored within his or her source. In terms of the latter, I surfed through the web to determine if the website was renowned for providing accurate and reliable sources. I also skimmed through each source, due to the multitude of sources that I had, in order to determine the accuracy of the content that was displayed in each source, and also noted down the publishing date to get an indication of if the content displayed were old or had changed in modern times. The skimming also allowed me to get a sense of bias, if any, that was present in each source. After considering all these aspects, I had excluded sources that were written by authors who weren’t proficient in the field to which the topics explored belonged to. I also neglected sources published in websites that were known to publish unreliable sources and also decided to exclude sources that were heavily biased. Of course every source was biased in a way, but I had decided to leave out those that were too biased, as it would highly skew the information to a specific opinion. I also took into account sources that were published before the 2000s as the information presented in those sources might’ve changed in the recent years and consequently, I double checked that the evidence found in a particular source was accurate by browsing the details in a search engine. Afterwards, I had successfully narrowed down my source to just six, all of which worked very well to support my argument.

Moreover, another learning objective that I had met was that I was able to “explore and analyze, in writing and reading, a variety of genres and rhetorical situations.” (English 11000 Syllabus) In terms of the former aspect, “exploring and analyzing a variety of genres,” this could be best seen in my researched essay. (English 11000 Syllabus) For my research essay, I had to search for numerous sources online that would support my argument. Accordingly, I came across different genres of writing while I was searching for such sources. As seen within this essay, I had evidence from a news article and also from two law firm articles and also analyzed these evidence to connect it to my argument, which was that immigrants have to suffer due to the inability to speak english, unfair treatment at work, and housing affordability. The former aspect of the objective can also be seen within a journal that I did, specifically the one titled, “The Walk.” For this journal, I described a walk that I did with my grandfather in the form of a poem. In the poem, I expressed the dreadful hot weather during that day and also talked about my extreme desire to find comfort in the form of water, which I had forgotten to bring. The second half of the poem talks about me finding comfort in the form of a breeze, to which I hadn’t really paid much attention to until my grandfather stated “Nice breeze.” (The Walk) This journal displays the former part of the objective well because I explored a poem, which is a different genre of writing than the ones mentioned earlier. In terms of the latter aspect, this was apparent in my analysis essay. In my analytical essay, I talked about the ways Jordan and Tan conveyed the message that there is no such thing as “standard” english and that every version of english should be accepted. I used evidence from their essays to illustrate to my readers how they went about trying to convince their audience members to adopt their beliefs. In order to talk about their essays, I had to first give the rhetorical situation of each. For “Nobody Mean More To Me Than You And The Future Life Of Willie Jordan,” I mentioned that it was a personal essay which was published on 1988 by Harvard Education Review and it was written by June Jordan (July 9, 1936- June 14, 2002), who was a writer, essayist, and an educator. For “Mother Tongue,” I mentioned that it was published in 1990 by The Threepenny Review and it was written by Amy Tan, who’s an American writer and novelist. I also included the various awards they received as well as their intended audience along with their purpose. Based on all these details it’s implied how I met the third outcome very well since I was exposed to a variety of genres in my third essay and in my journal and as I was able to describe the rhetorical situation of two texts in my second essay critically.

In addition to this, the remaining learning objectives can be distinctively seen within my phase 2 and 3 essays. Two such objectives are: “Compose texts that integrate your stance with appropriate sources using strategies such as summary, critical analysis, interpretation, synthesis, and argumentation,” and “Understand and use print and digital technologies to address a range of audiences.” (English 11000 Syllabus) I met the former objective excellently because in phases 2 and 3, I created two essays, namely the analytical and the researched essays, which both contain cited evidence from various sources that are coupled with analysis of the said evidence, which lead the evidence to connect back to my respective arguments regarding each essay. One example of this can be seen in the third body paragraph of my researched essay. In the third body paragraph, I mentioned an evidence of how landlords don’t provide tenants/ immigrants, who don’t know their rights fully, with proper heating and hot water. (Lamport) In my analysis of this evidence, I essentially talked about how the evidence demonstrates not only how cruel the landlords are since they willingly take advantage of immigrants who don’t know their rights, but also the pain of the immigrants as they have to live in uncomfortable conditions. I further explained that since the landlords are part of the American society and they take advantage of these immigrants, it’s also a sign that the immigrants aren’t accepted into the American society by its members. Both these parts of the analysis connect back to the argument of my researched essay as they illustrate that immigrants have to also face hardships due to housing and that they aren’t readily accepted into the American society. Additionally, I also excelled at meeting the latter objective because I used the analytical and the researched essay, which were both created digitally using a computer, to address various groups of audiences. In my analytical essay, my audience members are the instructor and other students and also people who don’t understand the ways by which they are being convinced to accept Jordan’s and Tan’s arguments. The analytical essay explains how Jordan uses statistics/ facts and tones of despondency to make her readers understand that every variation of English should be welcomed equally. My essay also strives to show how Tan also portrays the same message to her readers through the use of anecdotes. The audience for my researched essay are people who believe that there are no drawbacks to living in the United States. In this essay, I used evidence from various sources to indicate how immigrants have to especially suffer not only because of their inability to speak White English fluently, but also because of housing and unfair treatment at work. 

In addition, another such learning objective that I met which can be seen through my analytical essay and my researched essay is “Recognize and practice key rhetorical terms and strategies when engaged in writing situations.” (English 11000 Syllabus) This can be observed in both of my essays because one strategy I used to get my readers to agree with my argument is appealing to Pathos. One such instance can be seen in my analytical essay, specifically in the third body paragraph when I begin talking about Tan’s essay. In this paragraph, I mentioned an evidence of how Tan’s mother was treated unfairly in various institutions, such as in department stores and also in banks. (Tan, 2) In the analysis of the evidence, I explained that Tan’s inclusion of this anecdote in her own essay allowed her readers to sympathize with her argument, that every variation of English should be welcomed equally, since they get to understand that the reason as to why Tan’s mother faced such injustice was just because she couldn’t speak White English fluently, which was unreasonable. By also including Tan’s own anecdote in my essay, my readers are not only led to sympathize with her argument, but also mine as they get to see how Tan portrays the same argument as Jordan. 

Furthermore, the three remaining objectives can also be discerned through all of my major essays from the three phases. The first of the three remaining objectives is, “Develop strategies for reading, drafting, collaborating, revising, and editing.” (English 11000 Syllabus)  After completing all the three phases, I have learned to annotate texts critically. One such instance would be with Jordan’s essay in which I had annotated fully by summarizing each paragraph so I would be able to retrieve specific information later when I was trying to locate evidence for my essays. This reading strategy worked very well as I was able to quickly locate evidence particularly for my analytical and researched essays. In terms of drafting, one strategy that I have developed is first creating multiple theses for a question or idea that I am exploring and then I narrow down my list of theses by considering which ones are written well, have the most potential, and would have the most nuanced evidence supporting them. After I consider all of these things, I end up with a final thesis which I start working on in my draft. I use this strategy before drafting because then I feel as if I can fully invest in my essay since I have chosen the best idea that I have. Using this strategy also allows me to face less impediments than I would have to face if I chose to go with the first thesis that pops in my head since I have already considered things like which thesis would have the most potential and which ones would have the most nuanced evidence to support them. Moreover, for every essay that we had to do, we always received feedback on our drafts from our peers. As a result, I have created a personal strategy in regards to collaborating, revising, and editing. After my peers and professor have given me feedback on an essay, I revised and edited based on if the feedback worked well within my essay. I made sure that the change that I was advised to make wouldn’t contradict any part of my thesis and would serve to enhance my essay. If the feedback met these criterias, then and only then would I revise and edit my draft to include these changes. Furthermore, the last two of the remaining objectives are: “Engage in the collaborative and social aspects of writing processes,” and “Practice systematic application of citation conventions.” (English 11000 Syllabus) The former objective was very well met since during every phase I was engaged in peer feedback for every one of my essays. This can especially be noted when I gave feedback to a classmate for the self-assessment draft. I looked to see if every criteria of the self-assessment essay was met in the draft and as I noted some to be lacking, I pointed out that she needs to quote the learning objectives she met and also needs to talk about which ones she didn’t meet and the reason as to why. I also added that she should talk more about other feedback she received other than from the professor in her self-assessment essay. For the latter objective, after I finished three of the phases, I had already learned how to do in-text MLA citation, and I also had learned how to create a proper work cited page in MLA, both of which can be seen in my analytical essay.

Conclusively, this semester was intriguing as I was able to improve as a writer within a short amount of time. This is proven by the goals that I met since they serve as checkpoints in my writing career in English 11000. By meeting all of the above mentioned goals, I have understood the various aspects, which are exemplified through my essays, of writing. This essay is important because it shows to the readers that determination is more important than the time that you have, since the goals and the essays were all accomplished within 12 to 15 weeks, therefore indicating that if one is truly willing then one can become a better writer in a matter of moments. 

 

Work Cited Page:

1. Deb, Animesh. “The Listening.” CUNY Login, 2020, bbhosted.cuny.edu/webapps/blogs-journals/execute/viewBlog?course_id=_1877500_1.
2. Deb, Animesh. “The Walk.”CUNY Login, 2020, bbhosted.cuny.edu/webapps/blogs-journals/execute/viewBlog?course_id=_1877500_1. 
3. “English 11000.” file:///home/chronos/u-98c28c0574c360b165f73d42c92dd71af13c0d7a/MyFiles/Downloads/Syllabus,%20Engl%20110,%20Fall%202020%20Crowe%20(1).pdf 
4. Jordan, June. “Nobody Mean More To Me Than You And The Future Life Of Willie Jordan.” On Call, Harvard Educational Review, 1988, 160-169, https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/bfe6/7630450fc970228ad4692ea54a3a9a35bff5.pdf. 
5. Lamport, Joe. “The Housing Problems Of Immigrants.” Gotham Gazette, Citizens Union Foundation of the City of New York, 9 Nov. 2004, www.gothamgazette.com/development/2605-the-housing-problems-of-immigrants. 
6. Tan, Amy. “Mother Tongue.” The Threepenny Review, 1990, pp. 1-4, http://theessayexperiencefall2013.qwriting.qc.cuny.edu/files/2013/09/Mother-Tongue-by-Amy-Tan.pdf.