Julia Bisbee

Writing for the Social Sciences

Self Assessment Essay

May 12 2022

This Past Spring

During my spring semester in Writing for the Social Sciences, I have learned not only how to write with my own very voice, but also how to shape the tone of my words. With writers like Kurt Vonnegut, Roxanne Gay and Art Spiegelman (who turned out to be my favortie), I have also become more confident in my ability to write and attempted to further intertwine myself into the message I want to convey with each piece.

I feel that this past spring, I applied a healthy amount of pressure to myself when writing and completing assignments. I am proud of the fact that every assignment was turned in on time. In addition, I wrote as myself the entire semester, without a filter and saying what I wanted to say and convery in my writing. 

For the first assignment, where I had to write about myself, I found that it was enjoyable and easy. At first, it was a little bit difficult for me to think about myself but after I began to write, everything came out swiftly. One of my weaknesses was using a passive voice versus active voice, and this was something that I needed to work on in future assignments. 

The second assignment, my research paper, was also something I was proud of. It was also beneficial for me to write about because I had the ability to discuss and inform people on a topic that I was passionate about and interested in. I think I improved and used a more professional perspective for this paper, which served me well. I agree with this for the annotated bibliography assignment as well, and since I was already familiar with writing this way, I feel I did a good job flushing out my sources and building credibility. 

For the third assignment and the biggest one, I researched Breast Cancer in Long Island by using a research method called metaanalysis. Although this was a smart approach, I believe that I could have done a better job conducting my own research. With a topic of this complexity however, I had trouble conducting my own statistical analysis because I already had so many sources I wanted to integrate into my work. However, I believe the writing of my paper was good and I enjoyed discussing another topic I liked. 

While presenting my work, I think I did a fluid job, however, I noticed that I did speak faster than I would have preferred, and I think practicing my presentation could have helped my form achieve a greater demonstration overall. Watching my peers present helped me to establish some new techniques that I should utilize in the future. As for my portfolio, although it is not done, when it will be I know it will be organized, orderly and easy to access. I believe that this will make it easier to grade and more lovely to look at by my fellow classmates. 

To dive deeper into my work, I believe that throughout the semester I kept a friendly relationship with my audience and readers. Something important that I realized was that in order to create a memorable experience for the reader, something needed to be talked about that was once considered taboo, and my approach to this topic also had to be unique. In order to make a greater impact, it was much more beneficial to write about something that was more personable to me, so I could provide more insight in my work, in turn making it increasingly concise, rather than surface level. I had to assess the environment before truly getting comfortable and releasing the best of my work, while utilizing the topics I liked. With the versatility of readings I read, the freedom I had in the class encouraged me to perform creatively and show off my perspective through writing.

I believe that this is one of the most important things I have learned, because I can apply it not only to writing but also to speech. It has become a method of lifestyle and a proper way to display myself to others. 

Another thing that has helped me is being able to peer review my classmates. Although receiving feedback from them is good, I believe that when I can really set an example and grade someone’s work that is already quite good, I benefit just as much as the receiver. In addition, reviewing has helped me to compose better thesis statements. I feel that there would be no proper self assessment without including the development of my own thesis statements, and further knowledge about how to compose them. My most corrected error this semester was creating a thesis statement that was specific yet minimalist, and insightful yet unique. And most importantly to intertwine myself into it. 

I enjoyed the readings of this class and will cherish what I have learned, as I am also grateful to have the experience as a student here. I look forward to composing more as my true self in the future.