Hello everyone,

         My self assessment will reflect much of the readings and writings I have encountered throughout my semester in the composition section of FIQWS. I have always enjoyed writing because of the fact that I am very skilled at it. The essays I have completed throughout high school were always graded with a perfect score and that made me have pride in what I write. I also enjoy reading literature and all kinds of books. I didn’t think twice before choosing Literature and Psycho-analysis as my FIQWS course for my first semester. Writing about literature regarding psycho-analysis was like hitting two birds with one stone. I was able to enjoy writing on different literary works and gain some understanding on psychology since it is the major I am planning on mastering in the future. My writing improved immensely after writing three major essays. The literacy narrative, exploratory essay,and a critical research analysis paper were amply enough to critically analyze my own writing.

        Writing the literacy narrative essay made me uncertain since it was my first paper of the semester in college. I thought about the visual images Ms. Killebrew handed out and began researching its background and its significance. I didn’t just use my research but I used my own thoughts and critics to understand its concepts. Furthermore, general knowledge was amply enough to carry out my writing. I thought about how much I loved talking about myself and I understood this assignment would be a perfect opportunity to do so.

      My professor insisted her class to bring in a first draft of the literacy narrative so that we can have a peer-review workshop. I realized how the format of my peer’s writing was so much different than mine. I understood I was completing my literacy narrative wrong and I asked her to explain to me the right way. If we never had that workshop, I would have submitted this paper with so much errors. I finally submitted my draft and weeks later I got my grade. My professor pointed out multiple grammatical errors within my essay and I even forgot to double space and set the right font for my essay. I then got a golden opportunity to submit a revision essay for my literacy narrative. This time, I knew there should be no errors and I would get an A+.

     For my exploratory essay, I chose to explore the psychoanalytic concepts within “The Black Cat” by Edgar Allan Poe. I chose this literacy text because I was able to amply relate it with Freud’s “Five Lectures on Psycho-Analysis”.

      To begin with, I printed out a pdf of “The Black Cat” and I used Freud’s “Five Lectures on Psycho-Analysis” . By printing out the text, I was able to annotate the story and highlight the appropriate sections that seem to correspond to the psychoanalytic concepts I am familiar to. I connected my points with what I had annotated in Freud’s lectures. Through a discussion board, I posted a brief paragraph of what I planned on incorporating in my exploratory essay:

 

 

        Although I knew my points for this essay was subject to change, I read other discussion threads of my classmates who also chose to write about “The Black Cat” as well. Before submitting the final draft on Turnitin, I sent this essay to my writing professor to give me feedback and comments  on my writing. Here are some of her suggestions so that my writing for this essay would be better:

      My professor essentially pointed out that I was writing in both past and present tense. I knew it was one or the other. I then understood how to change my writing from passive voice to active voice. My main problem in this class was that I was focusing more on the content than the writing.

           For the final critical analysis research paper, I used as much resources that were available to me. Compared to the previous essays, this one I knew was hard to tackle. I visited the writing center two times a week and I kept seeking help to find both scholarly and credible sources. Posting a proposal on Turnitin was helpful since my professor was able to give me feedback on the prompt I was going to write about.

Some of the comments that she posted was as follows:

       “Sazzamataz!!! where has this voice and analysis been all semester??? you have the makings of a          fantastic paper! I have a few minor notes. first is the thesis. you mention the “anxiety” the narrators endured. I think it’s more than simply anxiety and that comes through in your abstract when you mention things like crisis of identity and their place in society and what that means. also, the distinguishing the individual from their society. you don’t have to give everything away in the thesis, but based on this strong abstract, I certainly think you could make it more dynamic. you also have a few grammar and sentence level issues. but nothing that can’t be fixed with a few proofreads, a trip to your tutor, or Ms. K.

Overall I am super impressed with this and very excited to read it!”

When she corrected my thesis,  I was convinced that writing simple is the best.

     For each of the literary texts I utilized, I looked for sources from the CCNY library website. Furthermore, I supported all my sources and points with Freudian texts as well. The workshops that I participated after class were very useful while developing this essay. I had trouble maintaining the word count of this essay but I finally kept up with it.

       It was crucial that I learned some rhetorical terms like purpose, audience, stance, and design. During most of our class time, we were able to engage in free writing which was amazing. Eventually, I learned how to make a website and build my own portfolio that reflects much of the composition I had completed the whole semester.