Kane 1

Claire Kane

Dr. Reiman

English 1103

10 October 2010

Self-Assessment

In this assignment I was able to look back and realize how much we have actually

done in such a short amount of time and really see that I have learned something.

Sometimes you go so fast that you really do not have the opportunity to stop and see what

you are doing differently in your reading and writing styles and sometimes even how you

interpret ideas and concepts. Although I was not a fan of this assignment at first, I am

now glad I did it because I now see what I have done was not just busy work, but I

learned something and have grown as a student.

Looking Back and Looking Ahead

Throughout the first part of my semester I have written much about different

topics and responses to different articles as well as reading pieces and stories all about

different aspects of reading and writing the their correlations. I feel as though I have read,

written, and gained more knowledge in these subjects in these quick 7 weeks than I ever

did throughout most of my high school career. I have been putting my knowledge and

reading and writing tricks and tips into my papers this year as well though and it seems

every time I write a different paper I gain a new outlook on a topic or writing of some

sort. Not only have all the different writing assignments impacted me, but also all the

articles we have read regarding textuality and our Sponsors of literacy. The belief from

the textuality article that states that no idea solely comes from anyone, but that everything
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that is written stems from a collaboration of something already written really opened my

eyes and inspired me to always make my writing as original and ‘mine’ as I possibly can.

It amazes me that the learning has not stopped and it sometimes scares me to imagine just

how much there really is for me to know. Intertextuality was one of the most confusing

articles I have ever read, but once it was explained to me I was able to understand it and it

made sense in the end. It did not change much of my views on anything, but in the end it

was at least an interesting thing to read and learn about.

In this course we have been able to open our horizons to writing many different

topics due to our writing to explore pieces because the topics create such wide range of

writings we can create. The pieces that I feel most comfortable writing about are the ones

with the most guidelines, the more creative I have to be the more nervous I get, having to

write about anything basically would be the biggest example of me stepping out of the

box that I could do. I am just not a creative enough of a person to write a story, but I also

feel that I am not good at creative writing because I do not like it. For me to do well at

something I need to enjoy what I am doing or you will be able to sense through my final

product that I just wanted to get it finished and be done. The daybook is what I find the

easiest and relaxing because we are answering specific questions, but still going off on

our own writings and ideas that give you a sense of creativity as well. I am trying to be

creative in my writing so that maybe I can evolve into being able to use that creativity

and apply it to a creative writing essay one day because I am sure this will not be my last

writing assignment ever.

Peer workshop has helped me learn what my strengths and weakness’ are and also

I love the people that I am grouped with and feel very comfortable with them. All three
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are so sweet and when they critique me I know it is not to make me feel bad or think they

are smarter, it is them truly trying to help and it always does. They haven’t failed me yet

and I am sure never will!

I haven’t really had set goals for this class expect to get an A, good grades is what

I strive for. I know most people would say the specific knowledge they want to gain

about something, but I look at it as if I get an A than I am learning and doing all that I am

supposed to do and learn and therefore not just getting a good grade is accomplished, but

I clearly learned what I was supposed to and worked hard for it. As long as I keep up the

understanding and correlation there is between reading and writing and apply that to

when I write about a topic, I will feel successful in my reading and writing skills. I am

glad I fully understand the correlation between reading and writing because I have now

had to time to see just how often and necessary it is to apply it to almost all reading and

writing assignments I do so improving that technique can only lead to better success in

reading and writing assignments.

For my inquiry paper I began with the inquiry question of comparing and

contrasting the reading and writing culture in Africa and a country that I had not picked

out yet. After beginning to research my topic when we went to the library I learned that I

did like my topic, but I wanted to edit it a small bit. Instead of it being a compare and

contrast about it being between the reading and writing in the African culture and a

different country, I wanted to narrow it down to a specific topic of reading and writing

the African culture, which I decided on gender inequality when it comes to reading and

writing and how if affects the women of the culture. And also research the gender

inequality of education in other countries as well and compare and contrast the effects.
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After my conference though, I have completely done a 180 with my inquiry topic

and am now going to do more of a survey. The Sponsors of Literacy has been one of the

most fun and intriguing papers I have written. I liked seeing just how much my personal

sponsors of literacy helped me and shaped the way I read and write so I am now doing a

survey of sponsors of literacy for people who are a decade apart form 10 years of age all

the way up to someone who is 70 years of age and see not only see their sponsors of

literacy, but how people’s sponsors of literacy have evolved throughout the years.