Israt Miah

Professor Sara Jacobson

FIQWS 10108

12/20/2023

Self Assessment Essay 

Writing is a form of expression and communication used by letters and symbols. Over the semester, students were challenged to articulate and provide evidence through writing. Throughout the course of the semester, students were tasked with expressing and defending their viewpoints through writing, practicing their skills in utilizing diverse library resources, online databases, and the Internet to find relevant sources for their writing assignments, cultivating their ability to participate in the collaborative and social dimensions of the writing process, which resulted with the writing of their self assessment essay. Over the course, I’ve discovered many things about my writing, including the fact that my vocabulary is very limited and picking out the least reliable text from the library resources. I believe I did well in my research essay compared to other assignments, as it earned the highest grade I received throughout the semester. When I went back to my exploratory essay, my thesis was strong and concise but then towards the conclusion and my evidence, it was a little unclear and I didn’t really explain thoroughly.  I felt as if the essay was rushed and just needed to be submitted right before the deadline. In terms of my research essay, I took my time to find relevant library resources and dive further into a more focused subject relating to how different social media platforms, such television and internet news, affect people’s political engagement. I can say I did somewhat improve on my writing over the fall semester as I wrote drafts before finally submitting my final drafts on the due dates.

Throughout the semester, I also reflected back on my assignments to see what I could improve on. According to my reflection #2, I wrote down, “It helped me stay focused on the topic and make sure the essay didn’t have rerun sentences. I needed to format my essay correctly such as the Works Cited page by providing the links to the articles used in the essay, not just write the titles.” In my exploratory essay, I often strayed away from the topic but in my research essay, I picked a different and a more concise topic to stay on and write about. I believe writing is a crucial part of everyday society. Writing is everywhere such as paying bills, signing a document, or even just me typing on this computer. All aspects of life are translated into written form, and I view writing as a skill. Not everyone excels at writing, and I happen to be one of those individuals. While I acknowledge improvement over the semester, I recognize the need to enhance my writing skills further, particularly in reinforcing and reinstating my main points in written work. I struggled in formulating and articulating a stance in my writing, strengthening my sources from the library, and engaging in the collaborative and social aspects of writing in the beginning of the semester but I do believe these are skills that I need to continue working on to be a better writer. I intend to focus on creating more accurate and in depth library resources and evidence. This may mean improving my thesis statements, supporting my arguments, and making sure my work flows clearly from beginning to end. I see the need of developing my skills in using the Internet, libraries, and online databases to improve my use of sources. My objective is to get better at locating relevant sources and combining them into my writing, all the while carefully reading and analyzing each one. The extent I’ve achieved throughout this course was not a lot but I hope to see the growth over my college academic career.