From elementary school to about middle school I’ve always loved English. I loved picking up books and stepping into a new reality but when I moved from high school English to college English it became more challenging and, I honestly started to dislike English classes. I disliked the way I could not fully digest a story and would always have to analyze what I was reading. However, throughout my time in Writing for the Social Sciences from phases 1 through 4, I have accomplished some of the course outcomes and have been able to enjoy reading again.  

During phase one I was asked to take a stance on whether standard English should be upheld in the classroom along with other dialects. This phase was difficult for me because I was ready to state that standard English should be banned, and we should primarily accept other dialects. When I was writing my paper and replaying my thesis over and over it did not make sense to me. Other dialects are important to keep culture and history, but at the same time standard English is what has been approved in the workplace and our education systems. I wanted to believe in one side without analyzing the impacts, if my thesis were to come true. I struggled to realize that one answer is not always completely right, and no answer is completely wrong. I improved on this by placing myself in situations related to my papers. Imagining how I would feel if I were forced to completely follow standard English or if it never existed and having to deal with finding a job in America without it for example. When I analyzed both sides of an argument, I was able to gain a new insight and I was able to gain more knowledge to make a more convincing argument.  What really helped me to accomplish engaging socially and collaboratively during the writing process was our student-led discussions. Being able to hear other viewpoints besides my own was a helpful reminder that everyone views situations differently and that I had to be open and acceptive of someone not agreeing with me. 

      During phase 2 we moved on to our Notice and Focus (NFA) papers. During this phase I think I really struggled with composing texts that integrated my stance with appropriate sources using critical analysis. I really struggled meeting this objective because I had a hard time explaining quotes and having my readers understand. For example, in the NFA paper, when I stated, “This connects to Staples because the stereotypes and treatment he faces is a result of what “Birth of a nation” started. The Ku Klux clan were seen as saviors because of how they were killing black people. Nobody ever corrected or acknowledged these stereotypes as a problem, so they continued to be shared and modified.” Even though it was a decent explanation I probably could ‘ve talked about what exactly birth of a nation started and the exact impact it had. I could have added a part about some of the things the KKK did and their impact within society in the past and in the present as well as explain the concept of DuVernay’s 13th clearly. Overall, I could’ve added more clarification and delivered more information to my readers to engage them more. If I as a writer can’t connect my argument with my resources, then it will throw the reader off and make them confused.  When the reader is distracted by the disconnect it will cause all my writing and information to not be received. I worked on achieving this goal through our peer reading class activity. When we came in and shared our essays with our classmates, I received really good feedback. I received comments like elaborate and how they felt while reading my paper and that really helped because having someone genuinely read my paper in front of me sounding confused made me want to write better. I wanted my reader to be able to understand my paper without having to ask questions to understand my writing better and where I was going with the paper. So that activity actually pushed me to write better. 

      During Phase 3 we reached our Research Essay, and this was also one of the hardest papers I have ever written because I struggled with whether a researched paper should include more numbers and percentages rather than emotional quotes and interpretation. In this phase I really achieved in developing a strategy for drafting, revising, and editing. What really helped me during this phase were the sample papers that were posted along with each phase. When writing my paper, I would try to follow the format as well as using the guiding questions in the corresponding paper outlines. When I answered the question, I always knew what to put next to add more “pizzaz” to my paper and my analysis part. For example, the Researched Essay outline when the outline question asked in the further research section “How does this source offer more insight into the theme?” This question made me think about the true connection of the quote and I also did this by having my mom read my paper because she also challenges me to think more. She has her Social Work degree, so she knows more than me and loves to push me analytically and asks questions I never think of asking. What also helped me in this phase was the one on the one conference because even though I barely had a paper during these conferences my questions were still answered giving me information and ideas for my paper so even though I didn’t physically have anything on my paper it was there mentally. 

In conclusion despite this being a challenging semester I did not meet due dates and paper length and I did not meet all the course objectives. I should have paced myself better and become more responsible with turning things in on time not just to better my grade but to also avoid unnecessary stress. Maybe if I did more work on time, I would be able to achieve more of the course objectives effectively and apply them better to my past papers and maybe my semester would’ve been easier.