This is an essay describing what I have learned this year, using proof from my past essays.

“Growth is never by mere chance; it is the result of forces working together.” – James Cash Penney. Over the course of this semester, the class ‘Writings for the Humanities and Arts’ taught by Professor Megan Skelly, has helped me improve in a multitude of ways, not bound to academics. The work I did in this class, physical or collaborative, taught me so much more than I thought I would learn from this class. Looking at my growth from the first paper, the Opinion Editorial piece, up until the latest assignment, the Critical Analysis Paper, you can see all the growth I’ve had. With the goal of using the course learning objectives and putting a lot of work into my assignments, I have achieved great advancement and plan to use these new skills and techniques in all of my future writing.

Starting with the first essay of the year, the Opinion Editorial, or Op-Ed. This was a great assignment to start the year with and it really set the tone as to what type of work we would be doing over the next four months. I thoroughly enjoyed writing this piece and the freedom we had with it. One of the course learning objectives that really hit home while writing this paper was“Formulate and articulate a stance through and in your writing.” Doing an opinion piece forced me to create a clear opinion in my writing. There was no dancing around a couple ideas, I had to make myself clear or else the point would not get across. I exemplify this in my Op-Ed by writings things like “Now don’t get me wrong, I use many different platforms of social media every single day, but the things it does to major world issues is insane.” (Maurer) and “I think we can all see the effects of social media very clearly. It takes major world events and issues and turns them into the latest trend.” (Maurer) Another course learning outcome that was expressed during this writing process was “Negotiate your own writing goals and audience expectations regarding conventions of genre, medium, and rhetorical situation.” During this essay I had to figure out my goals and what exactly I wanted to get across to the audience, and how to do exactly that. 

Even though the second big assignment wasn’t technically a paper, the Visual Essay also taught me a lot. Based on my topic in the Op-Ed, I took that and created a video doing exactly what I was complaining about. The course learning outcomes I achieved during this assignment were “Develop and engage in the collaborative and social aspects of writing processes” and “Acknowledge your and others’ range of linguistic differences as resources, and draw on those resources to develop rhetorical sensibility.” Coming up with the idea and making my visual essay was a challenging process. I wanted it to be understood as satire across all people, but that can be very difficult. I asked a lot of my peers their input and based decisions off of that. The way I talk/narrated might be difficult for other people to understand, but the main message is still there.

The last and most challenging assignment was the Critical Analysis Conference Paper. This paper took me a while, but I ended up loving the process and learning so much. It really forced me to practice researching, sources, and strengthening all that comes along with those practices. I had to not only use information from the library but also from online articles and videos. Combining all of those sources into a coherent paper and using all of them rightfully was harder than I thought it would be. Another course learning outcome I think this essay really pushes is “Engage in genre analysis and multimodal composing to explore effective writing across disciplinary contexts and beyond.” Since this essay had so many sources, I needed to find ways to include them that weren’t just quotes or the works cited page. I added links and causal quotes throughout the essay to make it seem less formal, and more as a conversation. An example of this from the paper “Dr. Lori Brooks, a professor of African-American studies at Fordham University, breaks down every part of the music video in a video from the channel ‘Insider Edition’. Dr. Brooks talks about how this is a rare sighting. Often when we hear stories of African Americans who were killed unfairly by the police, it is after they have passed.” (Maurer) The sourcing and citations I had to do in this piece were beyond challenging and unlike anything I had ever done before. Now, I feel ready to do this in every essay I write.

One thing we did a lot in this class that I really enjoyed was drafting and peer reviews. I never really draft my essays, but this class showed me the importance of creating a draft and listening to feedback on that said draft. As the course learning outcome says, “Enhance strategies for reading, drafting, revising, editing, and self-assessment.” I definitely achieved this with the help of my Professor and peers. It also showed me how everyone’s reading and language style is different. Sometimes I didn’t understand other people’s writing, and sometimes they didn’t understand mine. But that is okay, and it taught me how to work through this and create a better piece that more people can fluently understand.

I plan to continue using the new skills and tools I learned in my future writings. This class has taught me so much and I really enjoyed the process. The course learning objectives and everything else I learned in this class have changed me for the better. I am very thankful for my amazing peers and awesome Professor Megan Skelly for guiding me and helping me achieve my goals. I will use all the things I learned in this class, Writings for the Humanities and Arts, to better myself in the future!