Malik 1 Zanali Malik Professor Guenzel ENC 1101-13 3 December 2013 Did I accomplish my goals?

When I set out on my journey to tackle the college milestone, little did I know that each class is a trip in itself. I entered ENC 1101-13 eager, willing, and determined to be a great writer inside or outside the classroom. I was stumped by all the new rules, ever changing standards, and just information on information about topics I thought I knew. The main concepts or topics I learned and planned to master are the writing process, rhetorical situations and strategies, how to understand complex texts by using certain tools to comprehend them on a deeper level, and discourses, lexis, and genres. This essay is not purposed to show what I have learned only but to explain how I mastered these topics or still have not by using essays I have written as evidence but it is also an honest self assessment of skills I have acquired or am trying to obtain to this day. During the first module of class Professor Guenzel explained all the topics he wanted to teach us and like a sponge I wanted to know everything. The first concept of acquired knowledge I obtained and mastered (I will show you through evidence) is understanding the writing process and all the small details that can affect/effect it. He asked us to explain our own literacy narrative with stories because everything and anything is a text. I explained my journey through past experiences, good or bad, that helped shape me into the writer I am today. For example, I barely passed the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade (Page 1) yet my teacher and my mother changed my character and my whole life around so much that I had a 12th grade reading level in 4th grade (Page 2). The overextensive use of examples helped me earn a high grade on my first paper but it is not the

Malik 2 grade that counts but the mastery of the subject that was taught. In all honesty I believe I could develop the essay more and master the topic of Literacy Narratives. The second topic we are expected to understand and demonstrate is how readers read and writers write by analyzing a text using a critical lens from an author with the same or opposing view. The paper I chose to write about was definitely above my skill level at the time of writing. For example I chose Donald M. Murrays article All Writing is Autobiography and used a critical lens of James E. Porters article Intertextuality and the Discourse Community. To put in simpler terms, I tried to compare why the right hand can never be the left but how they are alike also. Very confusing topic I did not understand at the time and truly I did not master this topic because I believe I set myself up for failure by picking such a hard niche to occupy without creating a reasonable argument. With this topic I definitely did not master and I would love to rewrite that essay and establish another niche with someone elses article as a critical lens. A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down, which means we can recover from that horrible loss in the previous paragraph by talking about the third topic which is understanding the writing process and all the teeny tiny details that place a huge role in what everyone does when they write. I personally loved this topic because we essentially were told to research ourselves and see what we did everyday. I learned that if I do not sit at my desk to write a paper or any homework that I need to do, I cannot focus (Page 2). The paper Professor asked us to write was not about the writing process in general but our own writing process which I did not do so my grade was effected by that. The grade is not the focus yet again but the understanding of what was taught to us. I honestly realize my mistake and it is fixable by all means but the work shows I do not fully conceptualize the topic.

Malik 3 Last but not least it is the topic about the hardest paper I was ever asked to write but there are certain reasons to why I considerably failed at it. In my own defense, I was going through tumultuous times which did not allow me to attend class to further divulge in this topic and understand it so needless to say this self assessment will end on a bad note. I did not understand the topic of genre or what Professor was asking from me so I just wrote an essay using topics I wanted to teach someone on my personal journey of how I moved up in Chipotle. It answered topics yet the one it did not was the most important. I failed, and I hate failure so much. A fire has sparked up within me to research this topic and take all of the Professors comments on my paper and turn it into something that sounds like I know what I am talking about. For example, I struggled with transitions, theories, and organization of the overall paper (Page 1-7) by not answering questions I asked myself in the paper. In conclusion, I can score myself a 2/4 or mostly a 50%. I understand the concepts at this very moment since I have revised my papers and took all the Professors comments for the better and not the worst. This is an honest self assessment of my goals, motives, and actions I took to learn and attempt to master these tools (in context).