Self Assessment

This class has been influential in my understanding of rhetorical situations and the components that make it up. Before I began this English class/FIQWS 10113 I was unaware of rhetorical situations but through the various assignments I believe I have gained a great understanding of it. This self assessment will discuss the different key concepts of this class and determine if I fulfilled them based on my work throughout the semester.

One of the learning outcomes I was successful at was exploring and analyzing, in writing and reading, a variety of genres and rhetorical situations. I was successful at this especially in my SBE essay. Some examples that demonstrate this is my analysis of rhetorical situations for the website source and the scholarly article source. For instance, for the website article I say, “The word, however, is analytical in which it is used to compare and contrast ideas. The use of this word can be used to consider one’s idea that is presented but then elaborate how this idea may be wrong using evidence showing its analytical nature. This is the case in this article as they compare how the government is handling the gender wage gap and how the solutions they present are better than those of the government.” Also, for the scholarly source, I say, “ The author’s target audience is fellow economists who are well versed in the gender wage gap issue to discuss their findings on reasons for the gender wage gap to hold up for discussion with fellow experts. They use terms such as “CHF300,” which a regular person reading this will not immediately know if they are not familiar with the subject.” Here I demonstrate an understanding of components of rhetorical situations which in this cases are their purpose in writing and their target audience while being two different genres. I highlight words that act as indicators and explain how these connect back to the rhetorical situation of the articles. By doing this I was also able to recognize and practice key rhetorical terms and strategies when engaged in writing situations, another learning outcome. 

The discussion boards were a very impactful aspect of this FIQWS class. It allowed me to view every article from a different viewpoint gaining a better understanding for the article building on to the information I already had on them which I am grateful for.  Through this I was able to learn a set of learning outcomes and become successful in using them in my writing.  One of them being acknowledging my own and others’ range of linguistic differences as resources, and drawing on those resources to develop rhetorical sensibility. An example of this would be the peer responses that are given after each discussion post, in particular our first drafts for our SBE Essay and Composition of Two Genres Essay. The feedback given addressing components of rhetorical situations were helpful as I used their corrections to help improve my draft to improve my grade on the assignment.  They also allowed me to be successful in developing strategies for reading, drafting, collaborating, revising, and editing by insteading of jumping straight into writing with minimal planning. Now I am taking into account all the instructions regarding the assignment plan and how I will go about doing the assignment.  Also, I was successful in engaging in the collaborative and social aspects of writing processes through my own peer reviews of uses of rhetorical analysis of my classmates in their writing. 

I was successful in understanding and using print and digital technologies to address a range of audiences especially in writing my composition of two genres. I used Twitter to make my social media posts while using a meme generator for my second genre. By doing this assignment I became a bit more equipped in using these platforms in relating my messages to various audiences, a task I had not up until then. While doing the composition of two genres, I was also successful in composing texts that integrate my stance with appropriate sources using strategies such as summary, critical analysis, interpretation, synthesis, and argumentation. For example, I summarize what I am doing in each composition of genre and provide key details that I had in mind before I analyze its rhetorical situation.

I was successful in locating research sources (including academic journal articles, magazine and newspaper articles) in the library’s databases or archives and on the Internet and evaluating them for credibility, accuracy, timeliness, and bias. I did this in an SBE essay when I was looking for a scholarly based article on CCNY Academic Database. While doing this I also practiced my systematic application of citation conventions for this source along with the other three sources each having in text citation in MLA format. All in all, I believe that I was successful in all the learning concepts, and it was really fun getting to learn a new concept of rhetorical situation and with analysis using it, I am able to further my understanding of it.