Over the course of the semester, I wrote various assignments as part of the curriculum. I was in it for the grade for some of the assignments in the beginning but then I became very intrigued in taking this as an opportunity to improve as a writer and take a shot at making writing pieces from an angle so different from the structured way that I was thought to do in High School. Writing and I have such a complicated relationship, I write because of the topics that interest me such as History, Immigration, and culture. While I was limited by the premise of the class to analyze the politics of language and how we convey it. I was actually intrigued because it fitted on the topics that I liked to read and look at as hobby, so much so that I incorporated in my Research assignment how language affects the Colombian Community in New York City or in my first assignment as to how my rivalry with my 7th Grade teacher resulted me in insulting her harshly because she couldn’t understand me and I couldn’t understand her. What I want to get with this is that through the premise of this course I was able to reflect about my writing abilities and express the memories I had repressed for such a long time into writing that I can use for this class, and myself, as I finally reflected these experiences into something meaningful. I was able to do such things while addressing the objectives of the course.
One of the first objectives that I was able to improve drastically in this class was my usage in citation. It might seem silly to point that out, but citations have become critical to me now as I am able to organize my arguments into a more thoughtful manner and not be constantly worried if I the evidence from the excerpt I got is enough or not. In my research essay for example [Llanos 22.] I was able to organize my arguments as to how the hostile environment of the city affected the mobility of Colombian communities and also how it has caused them to shift their speech patterns due to the social status they face as a result of external factors. I was able to prove this by citing a research paper about it [Orozco 18] which also meets one of the objectives of the course Locate research sources (including academic journal articles, magazine and newspaper articles) in the library’s databases.
Another additional objective that I was able to accomplish was Understand and use print and digital technologies to address a range of audiences. This was one was a fun one to do, I decided to do something unconventional which was to use my yearbook from Junior High in order to show who I was during those years, to show the face of the kid that had the guts to insult her teacher and think he was going to come out with no repercussions because the teacher didn’t know Spanish. To show my yearbook during High School for me would have been embarrassing and something I wouldn’t do in a million years because of how I keep things just to myself. The objective of this class along with my SLLN allowed me to reminisce on such a painful memory and how I can take it into a meaningful memory. Another objective that I achieved during the course was Compose texts that integrate a stance with appropriate sources, using strategies such as summary, analysis, synthesis, and argumentation. I did this by making a rhetorical analysis of my own writing [Rhetorical Analysis, Llanos, 22] This was also a fun objective and assignment for me to do as I was able to write on something that grinded my gears for a while; the passive-aggressive conventions in American society and how as an immigrant I made the case of how these conventions are so common due to the social stigmas and individualistic culture of New York C ity normalizes it.
One of the final objectives that I was able to accomplish during the semester was Explore and analyze, in writing and reading, a variety of genres and rhetorical situations. I was able to do this last one of by exploring a different genre, a letter to myself in the future in order to reflect in the events that happened to me recently at the time of course. I was able to express my frustrations in that letter about how I should keep pushing myself and how I should strive to give more of myself when I’m looked at the face of defeat. This last one was the introspection I needed in order to push through my early days in College and show that I can still give the best of myself. Another way I accomplished this objective was through analyzing other mediums of writing such as poetry. In the Poem Theme for English B by Langston Hughes, I explored his underlying meanings of what it meant to be an African American in the United States and analyzed his writing in the poem to show how he truly felt about his counterpart students and teacher that are white and how in the end they are more similar than different since they are under one identity.
