First Year Learning Outcomes:
Compose effective texts for a variety of purposes and audiences using appropriate genre conventions.
Throughout this class, I wrote papers ranging in purpose and target audience. For example, the primary purpose of my synthesis and literacy narrative was to provide an insight on my reading and writing background and approaches, and then discuss what helped me break away from or enhance that approach. Moreover, primary audience for my synthesis and literacy narrative was my teacher, who read it in order to see my past experiences with reading and writing, what has helped me enhance these skills, and how good of I writer I generally am in terms of cohesion and structure.
On the other hand, looking at an assignment like my opinion editorial, the primary purpose of this paper was to create an argument about a particular topic. The main audience of this editorial were students, specifically graduate students and intellectuals. These people would use my editorial as a way to become educated on the subject I am presenting a standpoint on, helping them form their own opinions on said subject.
Apply a variety of active reading strategies across different reading tasks.
One of the many reading strategies I used throughout this class was presented in "The Maker's Eye: Revising Your Own Manuscripts". The reading strategy in this article states that we must read when "our judgement may be at its worst". By reading this way, we are able to be more critical on a written work, which is especially useful when revising our own work
Another useful strategy is through annotating, which comes in handy while reading an article, document, or essay. By annotating, you are able to highlight, comment, and question important aspects of a paper. By doing so, a reader becomes engaged with the text and gains a better understanding of the main ideas or problems of a text.
Evaluate sources of information based on how those sources contribute to a specific writing task.
I fulfilled this outcome through the way I used sources to contribute to various writing assignments. For example, I used the article "Shitty First Drafts" by Anne Lamott and "The Maker's Eye: Revising Your Own Manuscripts" to demonstrate what lead me to break away from by old reading and writing approaches In another assignment, I used Simon Frith's "The Voice" to support the way the artists in the song "Pearl Fountain" use their voice as a musical instrument, and subsequently how the song is a roller coaster of vibes and tones. Finally, in my opinion editorial, I use a wide variety of sources, some of them being scholarly articles, to support my claims that the sexual depiction of female characters in video games has a negative impact of the minds of male and female players alike. In all these instances, I used sources of information based on how they related and could've contributed to a specific writing assignment.
Assess one’s own writing processes using criteria that include quality of critical analysis, incorporation of feedback, revision technique, and editing skills.
Analyzing my writing processes is one of the things that allowed me to improve my reading and writing skills in this class. Whenever I received a grade on a written paper, I always checked the grade rubric to see what I did right on the assignment, as well as where I might have fallen short. I also revised my work through the use of peer reviews. My partner's feedback was always a massive help for me to know where exactly I wrote on a particular assignment, which would help me know if my reading and writing skills were improving.
Identify the cultural, social, and physical features that shape a writing task
The way a culture or social group views writing tasks can influence the way that it comes out in the end. For example, cultural elements can dictate the subject being talked about in a written work, as well as determine its language or potential biases. On the other hand, social factors often determine who exactly gets to read and indulge that text.
Reflect on the relationship between identities and literacies, taking into consideration languages, cultures, interests, knowledge, and experiences.
Identities and literacies are related in a number of ways. First, language influences the way people communicate and think. People that are part of more than one culture often develop unique literacies for each culture they belong to. This brings me onto culture itself, which also plays a key role in shaping the relationship with identities and literacies, as both these aspects range across various cultural contexts. This range in context shapes the way people read, write and even interpret their surroundings. Through extensive exposure to various cultural and linguistical identities and literacies, knowledge and experience are both formed, which are what builds credibility within a person.