TRY ME!
The start of Freshmen Composition I was very difficult for me. It was my first semester here in CCNY. I am from Pakistan and the language course I took there was based on a rather different approach as compared to the one I took this semester here in States. Freshmen composition was based mainly on the idea of language politics and had more freedom in writing as compared to the typical course following basic rules of writing and literature learning. As student who came from a totally different education system, I struggled to understand the expectations of each assignment and activity included in this course. But now that I look back, I can definitely see how my hard-work and consistent dedication to writing brought me so far. I improved immensely in my writing.
The Phase 1 assignment was the start of learning and witnessing “how linguistic standards empowers or oppresses the users of language”. For Phase 1 we read, analyze and annotate different essays. We did rhetorical triangle activity for each of the essays. This helped in analyzing the text, author, the message author wanted to convey, the audience, the purpose and context of each essay. Here are some pictures of phase 1 in-class activities of rhetorical triangle on “Mother tongue” by Amy Tan and “Theme for English B” by Langston Hughes.
Another essay we reviewed was “Nobody means more to me than you” by June Jorden. We also analyzed some ted talks including “Why I keep speaking up, even when people mock my accent” by Safwat Saleem and “3 ways to speak English” by Jamila Lyiscott. I watched Jamila Lyiscott’s other ted talks and heard her stance on linguistic standards and how they are empowering only a part of society and oppressing the part of society that can’t follow the Standard. Throughout all this course we observed the impact of linguistic standards in empowering as well as in oppressing the language users. The part that greatly helped me and many of my fellows in understanding this attitude of linguistic standard was because the focus required by the instructor provided us a free hand in observing and writing about this attitude rather than sticking to the old methods of English language learning.
The learning outcome “Explore and analyze, in writing and reading, a variety of genres and rhetorical situations” was the part which we practiced throughout the course time. The first phase covered this outcome more thoroughly as compared to phase 2 and 3. We read a lot of essays and analyzed them thoroughly to have a deep understanding of language politics that was the focus for this course. While going though this process, it wasn’t easy at first to grasp the idea of all these tools we were learning. The requirement for our first essay based on a personal experience was pretty simple but the expectations or outcomes intended for that essay were unclear to me in the start. The development of our experience and the flow and transitions between explaining it as a memory and then relating it to the concept of language politics was confusing to me. But by the end of phase one these concepts became clearer. The reason I find this very confusing in the start was because we were flooded with the tools that we needed to achieve. Though class activities and peer review helped in clarifying this confusion but I think a simpler approach can be better for the starting phase and then more tools can be added as we proceed forward with the course.
Phase 2 was a big and complex phase as compared to the rest of the phases. “Development of strategies for reading, drafting, collaborating, revising, and editing” was most achieved in Phase 2. Research essay needed more time because gathering authentic data to make the writing genuine and acceptable to the readers require a good amount of time itself. Then drafting, revising and editing is another part of this essay. Though we were short on time given the length of course work, I believe we were still pretty successful in learning how to do drafting, revising and editing essay. After first draft, we did peer review activities both on the first draft and thesis separately.
This in class activity added more value to my already gathered data for the research essay. My original thesis was “It might appear to people that media is a source of information and can be used to create a great influence globally but in actual it’s a powerful tool that had been used for propaganda to outcast Islam not only as a religion but as an identity as a whole” and my final thesis was “There is also no denying that media is a powerful tool that have been used for propaganda to outcast Islam not only as a religion but as an identity as a whole by releasing misinformation and disinformation leading to the horrific consequences of Islamophobia and security concerns for Muslims around the world.” The one-on-one conference with the instructor on our research essay was also a great step in adding the missing details and improvements that were needed. Other phases also included these strategies of reading, drafting, collaborating, revising and editing but they weren’t applied as extensively as they did in the Research essay assignment.
The learning outcome “Recognize and practice key rhetorical terms and strategies when engaged in writing situations” was most achieved in Phase 3. We developed a Rhetorical text and then we write the analysis for our rhetorical text. For this phase we observed a number of memes and advertisements representing rhetorical appeals and strategies. We did in-class activities that involved writing analysis for rhetorical meme/advertisement that was provided to us along with the analysis of our peers’ rhetorical texts and analysis. This helped me in thinking of a rhetorical text that is short but conveys a whole message in a day-to-day context. Here are some pictures of reviews on my rhetorical text and analysis that helped me in improving my rhetorical analysis.
We also reviewed the analysis of a previous student after we were done with the first draft of our Phase 3 essay and that analysis elaborated how we can design our own rhetorical analysis. The use of ethos, pathos and logos and how to present them in the rhetoric text was a bit difficult to comprehend as a short text but reviewing activities greatly helped with that. I think this phase helped more in achieving the goal of writing and recognizing rhetorical text as compared to phase 1 and 2.
The learning outcome “Locate research sources (including academic journal articles, magazine and newspaper articles) in the library’s databases or archives and on the Internet and evaluate them for credibility, accuracy, timeliness, and bias” was the least achieved in this course. We did used the research sources and database for our research essay but we didn’t explore it deeply as we could have to make the research essay writing easier. We instead focused more on evaluation of the data for credibility, accuracy, timeliness and bias. We practiced to provide a just and clear stance for the essay.
I thought my topic might come off offensive to some people (people of different religion) as it involved a particular religion but the way we were guided through each step in shaping our ideas and essay made it turn out much better that I have thought. Especially the focus on the thesis really helped me with the rephrasing of my thesis. This was something new for me and collecting data for my essay was a part which I found challenging for me. I wasn’t completely able to access all of the sources of information for this research essay. I mainly just used scholarly articles and google scholar to collect data for my research essay and I also searched some books online to get the relevant data. This learning outcome in my view was not fully achieved due the extensiveness of the research essay and its requirements.
Overall, this course was made very engaging through class activities, discussions and peer reviews. I think it was a very challenging course for me as I wasn’t good at writing. I tried to keep the attitude of “TRY ME” through out this course. This course helped me open up not only as a writer but as a person as well. I know this might not be one of the outcomes that we were suppose to achieve but to me it was a good change that this course has offered. I became more confident in my writing. It also learned about how I can use my writing in talking about the pressing concerns of todays’ society and be the voice that is loud enough to be heard. I believe out of all the courses I took this semester this course has added the most value to my knowledge.
