Throughout my time in Professor Rodwell’s social science English class I have learned and improved on certain skills. What I learned in my social science english she class was based on the course learning outcomes, some of which I did not grasp. The first course learning outcome is to acknowledge yours and others linguistic differences as recourses, and draw on those restores to develop rhetorical sensibility. I should be aware of the different styles of writing that I may see from my peers, take notice and possibly learn from them because their writing style or technique might be useful in different situations. I have somewhat grasped this course learning outcome, I have not accomplished it fully but I did improve since the first class. A example of when I used this course learning outcome was one of the class’s early assignments where we had to interview a peer in the class room and had to write about it. When I read my peers interview essay that was about me I immediately pointed out the different writing techniques that she had used that was very different from mine, I had admired her play on words, her organization skills and the way she detailed the interview as if it were a story. I compared my interview essay about me to the one that I wrote about her, and after seeing the difference in writing and the difference in the comments from Professor Rodwell I knew that I should take a few notes from her writing techniques and incorporate them into my own work. Although the class is coming to an end I will continue to grow and absorb writing techniques that can be seen as beneficial.

The second class course learning outcome is “enhance strategies for reading, drafting, revising, editing and self assessment.” I should be improving my writing skills all around through my time in this class. I have accomplished this course learning outcome to a certain extent. Although I have slightly improved in all these aspects I have yet to fully accomplish it. One assignment that I noticed I used these skills on was the research proposal, although I did not go nearly as well as I wish I had, I noticed slight improvement when I handed the assignment in for the second time. After getting back the first reviewed copy of the research proposal paper I had to making though editing and revising decisions, for example I had to decide what information was and was not needed while being conscious that a person who does not know all the background information involved in my research. What I can improve on is my drafting and my self assessment skills. I noticed that I do poorly on both, with drafting since I do poorly it caused me to have a rough start with most of my essays. I do poorly on self assessment so I always second guess my writing as well as the changes I make when I do editing or a second draft.

The third course learning outcome is “negotiate your own writing goals and audience expectations regarding conventions of genre, medium and rhetorical situations.” I should set my own writings goals that I will attempt to meet throughout this class, the goals should be revolve around different rhetorical devices. I have made goals for my writing in this class, but have not met them yet therefore I have no accomplished this course learning outcome. A personal example of this course learning outcome is the clothing artifact essay. In my essay I had attempted to write a short but well worded piece about a black button down shirt that I stole from my mother. When writing the essay I thought it was written well, but when I received the grade for the work that I distributed I saw that the essay was not some of my best work. I set a goal when it came to this essay, I wanted to get a 90% because I assumed that this would be an essay task, but receiving my grade showed me that I have to put more effort and care into my work to get the grades that I wish to receive.

 The fourth course learning outcome is develop and engage in the collaborative and social aspects of writing processes. I should engage in the peer reviews as well as the class group discussions, because they will give me insight, as well as honest advice on my work. I have accomplished this course learning outcome. An example of this is when we were creating our research question, and I had met my peer group and asked them for honest opinions on my research question. At first they shot down all of my ideas because they told me that my question was too vague, or not interesting enough, until finally I had a question that was worth researching. My peers as well as this course learning outcome have helped me because it helped me see flaws in my work that I had not noticed, in addition they were honest about my work which is something that I needed before I submitted my work.

The fifth course learning outcome is engage in genre analysis and multimodal composing to explore effective writing across disciplinary context no beyond. I should be open to reading, writing and exploring different types of genres when it comes to writing because it will enhance my writing skills. I have not fully accomplished this course learning outcome. I have become aware to different types of genres as well as analyzing them, but I have not written different types of genres successfully. An example of this is my interview essay, when I had to write about my interview as if I was writing for a news paper, I realized how hard it was. I read interview articles on the New York Times prior to writing the interview essay, but actually writing that type of article was a totally difference experience. Writing the essay was difficult for me because I could not include my essay in the essay, while writing it in a certain narrative that will portray the person that I interviewed in the light that I wanted to portray them.

The sixth course learning outcome is formulate and articulate a stance through and in your writing. I have achieved this course learning outcome, but I did not master it as well as I wanted to. When writing my observations essay, it was supposed to be a piece on what I observed at the location I went for the research project. The observations essay still needed to be written in a stance that would help sway my audience to believe that what I observed not only helped answer me research question, but that my answer to my research question was correct. My essay had a stance that helped me prove my research question was accurate, but it was not written as well as I wanted it to be, I have a lot of room for improvement when it comes to writing in a certain stance.

The seventh course learning outcome practice using different library sources, online databases, and the internet to locate sources appropriate to your writing courses. I should use online sources to help find evidence for my research project. I have achieved this course learning outcome. An example of me achieving this course learning outcome is when I use CCNY’s online database and found a variety of different articles that helped me prove my research question. While using CCNY’s online database I had collected at least three sources, which I did very easily because CCNY’s online database allows their users to find articles directly related to their topics because of their specific search engine.

The last course learning outcome is strengthens your source use practices (including evaluating, integrating , quoting , paraphrasing , summarizing, synthesizing, analyzing and citing sources.) I should add different mechanical techniques in order to improve my writing pieces. I have accomplished this course learning outcome. A example of me achieving this course learning is when I wrote my findings for the research project. In the findings portion of the project I summarized the research question as well as some of the information that I discovered throughout that writing journey as well as analyzed it in order to answer my search question and prove to my audience that I was correct. All of these course learning outcomes are not only important in this social science english but rather in all writing classes and assignment. Although I have not fully accomplished all of the course learning outcomes given, I see where I need to improve and by acknowledging the areas that I need to improve in it helps target those areas and work on bettering them.