Brianne Salamanca

ENC 1102
11/26/23

Self Assessment
Through taking ENC1102 this semester, I have learned a lot about myself in terms of
reading and writing, and just learned a lot about writing and argument as a whole. Before taking
this class, I have realized that I have not necessarily read and conducted readings and arguments
in an effective manner. I have also realized that prior to this course, I did not know how to
properly research. Becoming stronger in all of these areas is going to help me not only in future
courses I will take during my time at UCF, but is going to assist me in life as well.
Being able to get actual inquiry is something I had learned in this class that I was not very
good at and therefore had not really applied much before. As someone going into journalism, this
was an extremely valuable lesson for me to learn and more importantly learn to apply to my
writing. That is also something I have learned in this class. Even though I knew the basis of
journalism roles, this class and research question has helped me really learn and appreciate the
actual jobs of these roles in this field. Additionally, learning about “identity kits” in rhetoric has
helped me become a better writer, and will therefore help me in my future endeavors.
Learning to incorporate all these different sources and gather information from them has
been beneficial to me. Before this class, I was used to using a maximum of 4 sources per paper
whenever I would write an argumentative or research paper. In this class, I used about 9 or 10 in
my research project, and read into even more of them. Without the use of all these sources, it
would have been much more difficult or even near impossible to get my point across with my
research question: “How Does A.I. Affect Journalistic Roles and News Quality?”. Using at least
3 sources to support each of my perspectives, those being “A.I.’s effects on reporters, A.I.’s
effects on editors, and A.I. 's effect on news quality” made for stronger writing. Learning and
understanding intertextuality is also a part of this. Without it I would not have been able to use
the basis of it in my writing, and it then would have been less effective. Incorporation of texts
into other texts is so important to writing in general.
Learning information literacy in this course is also a valuable lesson for me to apply now
and through the rest of my life. Being able to identify what actual good sources were and how
valuable and important information they contained were was a bit of a struggle for me. In all
honesty, I was very used to searching up something simple and using the first three or sources to
come up on Google. For example, in this project I would have looked up “A.I.’s effects on
journalism as a whole”, took the first sources, and then struggled to find actual relevant
information within those sources. Being able to research properly and then recognize the best
sources for my research is an important lesson learned.

Contributing knowledge is a big part of this class as a student. Being able to draw a
conclusion based on research I have conducted is something I think was beneficial to my
research project. The conclusion that I drew in my research paper was that yes, journalism may
be taken by artificial intelligence but that could be years from now and when it does happen, not
every single aspect of journalism will be taken by it. This conclusion was not outright said in any
source I had read or used in the process of this research. Most peer reviewed journals (my most
used type of source) had very mixed reviews. Quite honestly, my findings after using a majority
of these sources were all over the place. However, from reading and analyzing all of these
different writings, I was able to come to this specific conclusion.
Revision is a very helpful skill I have not only learned, but retained in the course of this
class. Prior to this class, I would typically write a rough draft and then a final draft where I
would not change much from the first, maybe just add a period here or there or delete a few
unnecessary words. Throughout the course of this semester, peer review was a key component
when it came to our assignments. Through these assignments, revisions were made and it was a
lot more than the typical fix of a sentence. In these assignments, I have revised not just
paragraphs, but sometimes my entire paper. By doing these revisions, I can improve on my own
skills as a writer and my papers would be all the better because of it. Revision is not a thing to be
scared of, but is something that can help you become better.
This course has helped me learn a lot, including things about myself, rhetoric, and most
importantly, different strategies that helped to improve my critical reading and thinking,
research, as well as writing skills. One strategy that helped me improve my critical reading and
thinking skills is learning how to read an essay or writing and pick out the points that are most
valuable. Learning this skill also helped me learn how to do both of these more efficiently as
well. Additionally, learning how to identify the aspects of an argument in writing has helped me
improve my critical reading and thinking skills as well. Research was something I was not very
good at prior to taking this course. Before, I would simply search up random words and use some
of the first sources that popped up, regardless if it was from a “.com” website or was not a
scholarly source at all. I would then try to find the most information that was relevant to my
topic as I could, although that was a feat considering I did not have the best sources to pull
research from in the first place. A skill I acquired in this class was learning how to use keywords
in order to find the best sources possible, as well as using other search engines such as ECMO
and Google Scholar rather than just Microsoft Edge or Google. Using these keywords helped me
find less broad sources and therefore find and use more relevant information from them. Using
scholarly websites such as those that I mentioned above also helped me find more verified
sources, as well as find peer reviewed journals. Peer reviewed journals were a massive piece of
what I used and drew information from as they are the most relevant to my main research and
research question, that question being “How Does Artificial Intelligence Affect Human Roles in
Journalism and News Quality”. My writing has improved overall because of this, as well as I
learned which parts are most important to include in writing and how to properly format. With
the use of all of these my writing has begun to sound a bit more mature than it had before.
I will use the skills and what I have learned in this class both in my college career and
later in life as I am going into a profession that centers around both writing and human
connection. The skills I learned in this class deal with both of those things, so by learning them
now it will help set me up for the rest of my college career and actual career. Collaboration and
group settings is going to be a main part of my future classes, and in my workplace now and
future workplaces. As for actual writing, I will use these techniques while writing news and
stories.
This portfolio is a representation of my evolution as a student and what I have learned in
this semester. I believe my writing has improved from when I first started this class through now,
and that is evident within my blog posts. I also believe my blog posts show my changing ideas
about rhetoric and other topics we have discussed in this class, due to what my peers have also
come up with. Taking this course has taught me lessons that I will carry on for the rest of my life.