Shiym Chastanet

Professor Rodwell

FIQWS 10113

December 5, 2021

During the Fall term of 2021 I took FIQWS 10113 and my professor was Ms. Rodwell. Since day one, I knew that this class was not going to be easy. After Ms. Rodwell explained the intensity of this course, I had become nervous and felt a sense of defeat. As someone that has a specific writing style in which I am accustomed to writing in a text book manner, I felt I was not prepared for her teaching style. Despite the challenges I endured, this course taught me the value of changing up your writing style accordly. The main assignments I had completed throughout the semester were the Formal Letter of Introduction, Product Review Essay, Leadership Presentation, Annotated Bibliography, Research Critical Analysis Essay, Multimodal Presentation, and 3 Self-Reflection Essays. 

The first assignment I had tackled was the Formal Letter of Introduction. This homework has allowed me to express my personal and academic goals in and beyond college. As I had begun to write out my future goals I had felt I could express who I wanted to be without feeling a sense of pressure. I didn’t feel overwhelmed as all the information I provided was what I felt to be important. This assignment had shown me that I should be able to express myself professionally and had given me the opportunity to understand how to write a cover letter.

When Professor Rodwell had mentioned that my classmates and I had to write a product review, I had thought it would have been easy. However as I had started to write out my essay I soon realized this was a different style of writing then I was used to. I had not written an essay in trying to convince my audience to buy a product. My writing process consisted of me ranting on anthropology rather than the product itself. Through all the suggestions and help I had received via tutoring I had understood that revising, reading, drafting, collaborating, and editing are key components in producing the best quality you can.

In this course I had created and presented two presentations. My first one dealt with analyzing a text written by Rachel Carson named “The Obligation to Endure”. I had to lead the class in teaching them about the book. This assignment was difficult as there were moments I couldn’t figure out how to explain a section. Something such as tone is a topic I have difficulties in explaining. The presentation had shown me how important it is to explore and analyze the text in multiple ways. Since I had struggled in understanding how to explain to my classmates the key moments in the text I had researched and read into other readers interpretations of the book. By doing so I had a clearer knowledge of the purpose and what exactly I needed to present to my audience. This assignment had prepared me for my second presentation which was the multimodal presentation. For this one I had two group members and we were tasked on creating an assistive technology product. While we had difficulties in getting a foot we had split the work based on our abilities. It has taught me the importance of communication in research and how working alongside others can require shifts throughout your work.

The annotated bibliography was one that proved to be difficult to me. I only had knowledge in writing my evidence in APA format. My lack of understanding had led me to write vague summaries and format my sources incorrectly. Which ultimately had me do several rewrites of my assignment. Each revision had taught me to become more specific in my summaries and using different websites to format my bibliography. For my final rewrite I went to tutoring which allowed me to get hands on help. My instructor had gone over the process in forming my bibliography, gave me websites to use, and had helped me in simplifying my summaries while still being able to provide adequate information. This experience has shown me the importance of having someone else have a look at your work. This assignment gave me the building blocks in writing my RCA essay. With the sources I had collected and the summaries I had written it allowed my process in structuring my essay to become easy. The essay was built off of my research I had done with my group members. With all of this information at my disposal I was able to write out and structure my essay to my liking. Despite finishing my essay and revising it I felt the need to go tutoring. By doing so I had learned the correct way to cite your source in my writing. The instructor had improved how I expressed my viewpoints and taught me how to narrow down my points. All of this has come together and I need to change my tone throughout my papers and shorten my points by still making them get across to the reader.

Something unique I had not done in previous classes was writing self reflections on my assignments. Out of all my assignments, I had to write a self reflection on my product review essay, leadership presentation, and RCA essay. I was not used to writing about issues I pinpointed in my writing and how I can improve on them. This assignment has taught me the importance of revising my work. Since I typically never did so, going through each of my essays had shown me ways I could have improved and I had pointed out mistakes that were repetitive. 

While this course was truly difficult it taught me how we are more capable than we think. Ms. Rodwell had shown me what it takes to become successful in not only English but college. This course was a wake up call that taught me students can not simply walk their way through college. We need to dig deep in our abilities and allow them to shine in order to produce the best work you can.