Dorothy Lu
Professor Matias
ENGL 21003: Self-Assessment Essay
Due: 12/13/2022

A Semester’s Journey of Rhetoric and Writing

Throughout the semester, I have grown much as a writer. Through the series of writing exercises, I could pinpoint my strengths, weaknesses, and areas of improvement. This semester I was able to achieve the course learning objectives fully, as evident in my writing. I have achieved these objectives through drafts, peer reviews, edits, and finals of my Informative Review, Position Paper, Flipped Classroom Presentation, and Collaborative Research Project. These exercises have assisted me with developing more advanced use of rhetorical devices and sources to support my writing.

One way in which I was able to develop my writing is through the acknowledgment of the different points of view for a topic. The use of counterarguments has helped me to build rhetorical sensibility throughout my writing. One example of the use of counterargument can be found in my Position Paper discussing the need for a COVID-19 vaccine mandate. My Position Paper also satisfies another course objective in which we were asked to articulate a stance or position in our writing. In this assignment, I took a stance by stating that it should be necessary to mandate the COVID-19 vaccination to ensure public safety. However, I also acknowledged the opposing views by including a counterargument regarding the side effects of the vaccine. Below is a screenshot from my Position Paper that displays the use of a counterargument. I acknowledge the views that some people may hold against the COVID vaccine, specifically the myths and distrust in government and medical professionals distributing these vaccines.

“Cardiovascular issues such as myocarditis can occur in patients who have received the COVID-19 vaccine and in patients who have not received the vaccine, however, patients who were vaccinated were able to resolve symptoms faster than patients who did not get vaccinated and were infected by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. This shows that although vaccination has both pros and cons, the positive outcomes of COVID-19 vaccination outweigh the potential negatives of vaccination” (Lu 3). I’ve also acknowledged the fact that yes, there are side effects to the vaccine, however, I go on to disprove this argument by asserting that these side effects are typically less severe than contracting the virus itself.

Another objective that I’ve achieved through the assignments in this course was enhancing the methods for researching, drafting, revising, and reflecting on my work. All the writing assignments that I’ve completed through the course of this class have required me to research my topic, draft out my thoughts into a coherent essay, have it peer reviewed and revised, and then finalized and reflected upon it. An example of this would be my Informative Review essay on the topic of animal testing. I first had to research animal testing and its ethics, then I had to organize my thoughts and research as objectively as I could into a well-written and cohesive essay. This informative review was then peer-reviewed by a few other students who offered their advice and revisions. Lastly, I finalized my writing by incorporating the revisions that were presented to me by other students (Lu). An example of reflecting on my work would be the Position Paper assignment in which we were asked to provide a reflection for the task in the form
of a discussion post. In this reflection, I highlighted my writing process for the assignment, my strengths and weaknesses, and areas in need of improvement.

Through my writing assignments, I was also able to achieve my writing goals while also acknowledging my audience’s expectations regarding genre, medium, and rhetorical situations. This objective also coincidentally aligns with another objective in which I and other students had to engage in genre analysis and different methods of presenting research to a public audience. These objectives were achieved through my Collaborative Research Project where I had to choose between two different mediums for presenting research on a topic of my choice. I was to choose between a public awareness campaign or a children’s book. These different modes of writing and presenting allow me to delve into a more creative and unique platform to express my thoughts and research and to stray away from the traditional essay composition. Because this assignment was a collaborative task, I was also able to knock down another objective that requires me to develop and engage in the collaborative and social aspects of the writing process. I ended up choosing to work on a children’s book for the Collaborative Research Project, and since the audience for this task is much younger, I had to utilize different rhetorical approaches to satisfy the audience’s expectations. This includes the use of less advanced and scientific terms and more visuals and imagery in my writing, as evident in my Collaborative Research Project (Lu et al. 10).

Lastly, the remaining two course objectives include the practice of utilizing library resources and online databases as well as effectively evaluating, analyzing, and citing sources. Both these objectives can be depicted through my Informative Review, Position Paper, Flipped Classroom Presentation, and Collaborative Research Project as all of them required some level of research and summarizing sources. For example, in my Flipped Classroom Presentation, I was given an article to analyze and create a presentation summarizing the article, the author’s thesis, and the research methods used. This assignment effectively displays the course objectives because it requires me to deeply analyze a source and use that same source to strengthen my research and provide a summary to the rest of the class through quoting and paraphrasing. These same methods were also used in my other assignments including my Informative Review and Position Paper, as mentioned previously.

The course Writing for the Sciences has allowed me to grow not just as a writer but as a scientific writer specifically. The use of various rhetorical strategies as evident through my writing pieces has really helped me appeal to a wide range of audiences using a wide range of genres and mediums. The two group presentations have also prepared me to present my work effectively to an audience. The peer-review sessions allowed me to accept and work on the flaws in my writing style. Overall, the tasks and objectives that I’ve accomplished throughout the course have better prepared me as a writer and speaker.

References

Lu, Dorothy. “Animal Testing.” Informative Review, 12 Dec. 2022,
https://dorothylu.commons.gc.cuny.edu/informative-review/.

Lu, Dorothy. “COVID-19 Vaccine Necessity .” Position Paper, 12 Dec. 2022,
https://dorothylu.commons.gc.cuny.edu/position-paper/.

Lu, Dorothy, et al. “A Trip Through My Stomach.” Collaborative Research Project, 12 Dec.
2022, https://dorothylu.commons.gc.cuny.edu/collaborative-research-project/.

Lu, Dorothy, et al. “Light Pollution in USA and Europe.” Flipped Classroom Presentation, 12
Dec. 2022, https://dorothylu.commons.gc.cuny.edu/flipped-classroom-presentation/.