Looking back and reflecting on this past semester, I feel that my perspective on writing has not changed much since the beginning. However, I believe that I have developed or recognized my own theory of writing. Coming into the semester I was pretty content with where I sat as a writer, mainly due to the fact that I spent last semester developing very healthy reading and writing habits, which I have stuck true to during this semester. I developed more enhanced ways of reading and understanding material. I began to annotate and take notes of what I was reading, marking my documents with highlights, and pinning certain quotes that would help me understand the topic, and provide a better explanation to my audience. I followed these same ideas during my interviews and research where I would record their responses, and annotate expressions/body language. These new skills later morphed into finding more productive and time-efficient ways of writing and organizing ideas. I was never one for organizing ideas through drafts, and bullet points. However, this class made me realize that drafting and jotting ideas down in bullets was extremely efficient in organizing my ideas before writing my first real draft. As for revising, I’ve stuck true to what I know and what works for me. Which is rereading and going through each paragraph fixing grammar and adjusting the flow, including transitions between each focus point of each body paragraph. While I revise I will usually rearrange sentences, certain critiques, and quotes to make my research easier to digest and understand.
I found that the few times that I was able to refer to my peers were extremely helpful in further improving my writing, when given the opportunity, I used my peers as tools to help review, revise, and critique my writing. Due to their linguistic differences and their different levels of knowledge and ability to understand the text, I was able to receive feedback on my essays regarding editing my structure, fixing grammar, and suggestions with flow and transitions. Additionally, most of my peers helped give me personal feedback on my essays, including what they liked, and what they didn’t. This was especially helpful regarding how accurate my descriptions were of their identity, and how that linked to their subcultures. Most of their feedback was extremely helpful and significantly improved my writing. Besides peer reviews, most of the material I learned and wrote about came from assigned readings and in-class discussions. Furthermore, it came from the constant practice of writing during our free-writes.
Additionally, a pattern I found within my essays was that I would provide context and background knowledge on the subject at hand before getting to my main point. Like in my Field-notes essays and peer profile, I would provide context, and introduce authors, quotes, and important figures to give the reader a better understanding of my essay’s topic. Which I would then use as a base to dive into deep analysis and get to the root of my discussion or report.
This was apparent in all of my academic essays, but it was especially apparent in my off-campus field notes essay. The focus of my essay was following, but also critiquing the path to architectural licensure. Throughout the essay, each step is backed up by summary and context, and then cemented in with multiple examples of thorough analysis, including paraphrasing sources, and cited quotes from sthe interview or my sources. Within the essay, I cited factual evidence from different databases and online sources while providing context and legitimacy to my critique. When looking for outside sources, I would refer to the CCNY library online database to find sites like Jstor, where I could find PDFs and documents that I could use to further enhance my argument, all the while providing adequate context for my audience. I also began to explore Google Scholar, where I found several peer-reviewed sources.
Over the semester I learned to negotiate my own goals as a writer with my specific subculture focus. I wanted to teach my audience about my subculture, and I did this while providing definitions, examples, and quotes from real architects I interviewed. Regardless of the genre of material I used, including scanned documents, interviews, and historical and legal documents. I used quotes and facts from official architectural publications to help break down all of the important steps and requirements needed. In every one of my essays, I stuck true to my own writing goals by attempting to help educate my audience, while also providing a clear purpose and thesis. However, unlike most of my academic essays this semester, this self-assessment essay bears very little resemblance.