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Alexander Carpenter

ENC 1101

November 30, 2017

Self-Assessment

Preface:

Throughout the entirety of ENC 1101 I believe I have improved significantly in respect to

all the learning outcomes for the course. However, some learning outcomes I am more proficient

in than others, and my coursework over the course of the semester reflects this claim. Before

being enrolled in this course, my aptitude for writing was sufficient in terms of being able to

write cohesively, yet this does not mean at all that my writing was at all perfect, or I could not

improve further. Rather than changing the conventions I use when I write, this course has

provided a wide range of tools and perspectives I can use to enhance the way I write by drawing

focus away from how to write and more focus toward what I want to write about and how to best

communicate the ideas I wish to convey.

Understanding Writing Processes and how they Change Based on Context:

My aptitude in understanding how contexts influence writing processes has improved

dramatically over the course of the semester. This ability is most evident in my final paper for

this course. In my final paper, I had the opportunity to fully discuss and reflect upon two of my

previous writings and how my process changed based upon the context of the assignments.

While this paper clearly reflects this learning goal, my overall understanding of how writing
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processes change is a skill that has been developing since the beginning of the course. Prior to

being enrolled in ENC 1101, my understanding of this concept was limited to the extent of only

being acutely aware of the implications context can have to a writing process. I was aware that a

history scholar would prepare a historical analysis in a different manner than a scientist would

for an experiment. I found my initial understanding not to be necessarily wrong, however I

eventually understood that context in this sense can be much more complex than I originally

thought. While I understand this learning goal to a much more significant extent, I still think

there is more I could learn about context and its influence on ones writing practices.

Awareness of Rhetorical Situations and Strategies for Writing Based on Context:

I regard my overall awareness of rhetorical situations to be exceptionally heightened

because of taking this course. Before taking ENC 1101, I was not aware of what qualified as a

rhetorical situation let alone what it meant. However, this lack of comprehension was quickly

remedied. After reading Keith Grant-Davies article: Rhetorical Situations and Their

Constituents, I immediately became aware of the widely applicable nature of rhetorical situations

and how they are shaped by factors such as the rhetor, audience, exigence, discourse, and

constraints. With that understanding I began applying this concept to other situations in and

outside the classroom setting, thus raising my level of awareness for detecting and evaluating

rhetorical situations that I encounter. My awareness of different writing strategies based on

context on the other hand has been a concept that I understood prior to taking this course. Its

importance nonetheless has been communicated to me to the extent of influencing how I write

and revise my work based on the context of what is being discussed, may it be an analysis of a

discourse community or an autoethnographic research paper on how my writing styles have

changed.
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Capable of Reading Complex Texts:

While my ability to read complex texts has improved, there is still a great amount I could

still learn to become even more articulate in reading these types of texts. The shift in my

proficiency with complex texts has been a gradual process that has taken place over the entire

duration of being enrolled in ENC 1101. Where this shift is most discernable are the changes in

my ability to speak about a complex subject matter in an average assignment at different points

in the course. In the first assignment of the course, which was to read and interpret Nancy

Sommers article: I Stand Here Writing, I had great difficulty in articulating my thoughts about

the piece because I was not capable of interpreting all of the complex ideas that were addressed.

Instead of focusing solely on the ideas presented in Sommers work, I could only relate parts of

her ideas to concepts I already understood from taking previous courses. Contrastingly, in later

assignments such as when I was assigned to read and interpret James Porters concept of

Intertextuality I was much more capable of understanding this concept and was able to

communicate and discuss my understanding with my peers. Despite my increased capacity for

reading complex texts, I do not consider myself entirely fluent in being able to interpret complex

texts in a proficient manner. It still takes time and in most cases rereading works enable for me to

fully understand complex subject matters that are presented. Therefore, I trust there is still a

higher capacity for me to read complex texts which will come with more experience in reading

complex texts beyond taking this course.

Awareness of Relationships Between Discourse Conventions, Lexis, Genres, and Communities:

Discerning between these aspects of discourse and how they interact with each other has

become a viable skill for me. My ability to implement my understanding of the nature of

discourse came to floriation in my final product of Paper 2 in this course. In this paper I had the
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opportunity to analyze a specific discourse community in depth, studying how the community

functions and communicates. Due to my fascination with video-games, I decided to study the

Leviathan raid community from the video-game Destiny 2 as my discourse. When researching

this community, I acted as a member for the sake of critically analyzing the community from the

perspective of a member. Consequently, I had to learn the communitys conventions and its

surrounding lexis enable to effectively communicate with other members of the community. For

further analysis, I also studied this community through the lens of Donna Kain and Elizabeth

Wardles Activity Theory to better understand how this discourse community operates as a

self-contained, interconnected system of players. The opportunity to study a discourse in this

manner over the course of writing a paper has dramatically risen my awareness of these

discourse relationships to the extent of being capable of identifying these relationships with any

community I interact with.

Final Thoughts on My Growth as a Writer:

Conventionally, a writing course such as this would have focused on basic subjects such

as expanding vocabulary and eliminating common errors such as comma-splices. Inversely, this

course has reinvented my understanding of writing and the influences that have affected the way

that I write. I greatly value this newfound understanding and believe that it has significantly

impacted the way I write. No longer do I look at a rubric and try to force my writing into that

frame, instead I look at the broad scope of what I want my paper to accomplish and shape my

writing around the message I want to communicate and contribute to the discourse that is my

intended audience. I believe in a greater scope there is still much more I can learn and discover

about my writing, however I can say with confidence that my ability and understanding as a

writer have expanded to reaches far beyond what I thought possible.