This semester has been great in terms of getting used to college and learning. The professor that I’ve assigned for this semester made it easier for me and my classmates to get used to her class. One thing I like about her is that on the first day of the semester she told the class to show respect to our classmates and I am glad she said it because now I felt like I belonged there. The second week of the semester we already began to work and our first assignment was to complete a brainstorm worksheet which consisted of listing different events that had occurred at CCNY and choosing one of those events in order to develop a news feature later in the semester. When we had to start writing our news feature I remember that I was struggling a lot since at the beginning I didn’t know what to write about but when I finally chose a topic the stress started coming in. I was feeling stressed because it was hard to find sources of information regarding my topic for the reason that my topic was an old event. However, I never put my head down and that led me to find great sources that were so helpful throughout the process of my news feature.
The extent to which I have achieved the learning outcomes this semester is really good because the first draft of my news feature wasn’t as great as the final draft since in the first draft there was lack of details that I needed to include and that’s because I was repeating information for the reason that I didn’t know what else to write. Then, in my second draft I was able to add more depth details which led me to get a good grade. Unfortunately, I was not able to get my primary source which was to interview someone who has information regarding my topic. To prove this information I will put a picture of my first draft and a picture of the final result.
This is the first draft and I honestly think there’s a lack of information because when we did peer review in class, my classmate said that I over-explained some things.
This is the final draft, I changed a lot of things starting from the introduction, as well as the first paragraph. Thanks to the feedback I received, my news feature went from having a lack of information to having deeper details. These two pictures show the progression I have made throughout the news feature.
Furthermore, throughout this semester I learned the importance of re-reading, drafting, revising and editing. It’s important for students to follow all these steps before submitting their work because they have to make sure they include everything the professor asked you. I also learned to fix common errors such as grammar, how to cite sources, misspelling, etc. Our class also did peer review and it was very important to me because my classmates gave me ideas on how to make my news feature better and peer review was required before submitting our newsfeature.
Practicing systematic application of citation conventions during college is something important to learn because you want to make sure you cite information from someone else’s work so you don’t get accused. Citing information from someone else’s work shows that you did your research and your professor will notice that because they can detect when a student plagiarized. Plagiarism can get you out of college because it’s illegal and it shows that you only have intentions of copying from someone else’s work instead of doing your own work.
This class taught me how to use rhetorical strategies to make my writing look stronger. Rhetorical strategies help students understand my writing a lot better. I am still learning how to use these strategies because sometimes I get confused when I have to appeal to ethos, pathos, or logos. However, I know that If I keep practicing how to use these strategies, I know that I’ll get better because there’s a saying that says “practice makes better”.
The first day of the semester was hard for me because I did not know how to find my classes, finding academic journal articles, magazine and newspaper articles. When I found out that our college was offering a library’s databases to its students I started to see things differently because it became a lot easier to find sources of information and evaluate them for credibility, accuracy, timeliness, and bias. I used the library’s databases one time because I was having trouble finding information regarding my topic since I wanted to talk about an event that happened centuries ago. Therefore, Having that tool is very useful for us students because it could lead us to find non-recent information.
