Tiana Brandon

Miss Allen
CSP 105 Section 201
14 August 2016
Final Reflection Self-Assessment Essay
One of the most useful tools I have learned to utilize is the reverse outline. When I came
into the classroom, I always struggled to edit my papers. I never knew how to do it because I
could never spot my mistakes as an outsider. As many say, everything I wrote made sense
because it all made sense in my head. When I tried the reverse outline, it forced me to see my
productions as a reader rather than a writer. I utilized this technique on my literacy narrative and
my open letter, and I believe it improved the documents very much. It helps with my
organization because it keeps me focused on the main points I am trying to convey. Truthfully,
this works because writing about my writing helps me make my intuitive responses direct. I can
analyze my papers points, organization, and how it conveys my ideas because I have to write
about it and mentally process it. This writing makes me think through what my essay is doing
piece by piece rather than keeping generic ideas of what it does in my head.
A breakthrough I had in CSP 105 was learning how to incorporate figurative language in
my academic writing. As a poetry writer, I though the two needed to be separated. I believed that
figurative language would make the reader think I am not serious, and therefore cause me to lose
credibility. While I may not have included it in my final draft, because I could not find a place
for it, I enjoyed trying to describe black culture in the five senses in my literary narrative. It
made me have to really think about my surroundings back home and determine an effective way
of communicating them.

I have learned a lot from my peers. Beside gaining an insight to who they are, their
experiences, and their values, I was able to learn writing techniques. NaKia did a great job of
incorporating figurative language, poetry, and a foreign language in a single essay. I found that
challenging because all of the elements can build a paper by themselves. I am always looking for
places to incorporate my poetry because frankly, the world never gets to see it. In future essays, I
may use her strategy to incorporate it in my academic writing. Another thing I learned was how
to take risks. There are strategies that are hard to master, sensitive stories that may make the
writer feel embarrassed, and ideas that are complex. Our classroom has been very inviting and
inclusive, so I became comfortable around my peers addressing sensitive topics. On the first day,
I never would have thought that my peers and I would have established the community we did.
However, it took that one brave person to bring up something sensitive to get to this point. I will
try to be that brave person in the future.
While the peer reviews have been very helpful, sometimes I decide not to listen to my
peers. Usually, this is because my peer is not communicating exactly what he or she wants
effectively. For instance, in my literary narrative, I included an exert where I responded to an old
friends rude comments. One of my peers told me that it should be taken out. What the peer was
trying to say was that I should find a better way of incorporating it into my paper, not that it did
not belong at all. Instead of taking it out, which is what my peer told me to do directly, I did what
I though she meant make it fit and not force it in my essay.
In that same paper, someone else told me that I use too much physics language and that I
should use less. What he really meant to say, I believe, is that I should include my readers who
are not familiar with the sciences to my extent more in my conversation. To do this, I switched
my paper from using only physics lessons to using ore general math and science that my

audience is familiar with. This way, I still convey that the sciences taught me literacy without
shutting out my audience. I did not necessarily use less physics language, I just made sure that
each time I used it, it had a specific purpose and related back to me. I had a friend read my paper,
and she said that she liked the final draft much better the one I submitted at the deadline.
The most significant thing I learned about heterogeneous, academic writing is that there
truly is no box. Writers can make it interesting or bland, depending on who they are trying to
appeal to. There are so many aspects to formats headings, subheadings, alignments, block
quotes, italics, bold, and footnotes are just a few. One does not need to stick to a five paragraph
essay in order to be academic. Actually, it is discouraged. These aspects to writing allows one to
develop a style. A style connects with a name, and before we know it, a writer has a reputation.
This helps me because it broadens my ideas of how I can write in the future. I would like to be
author of some sort, but I do not only need to write in poetry to express myself. It is possible to
create self-expression in academic writing.

Improving My Writing During Bridge 2016

I am utilizing CSP 105 to improve my writing in preparation of my First Year Writing Course,
and for further projects I plan to pursue. Writing poetry and novels; engaging in social activism;
and producing documents of my scientific discoveries are all long-term goals of mine. In order to
complete them successfully, I must master writing, or to be more specific, effectively and
persuasively communicating my ideas to others. To monitor progress, I must take time to reflect
upon myself. Therefore, after taking time to review my DSP essay, I am presenting critiques and
an action plan to foster improvement.
I.

Ditching the Five Paragraph, Hour-Glass Structure

My essay contained a balanced amount of ideas regarding the pros and cons of Soylent. I was
headed in the right direction by incorporating both, rather than only focusing on a single side.
However, I could improve by presenting the information in a way that captivates the audience
more. High school emphasizes the validity of a traditional, five-paragraph essay that starts off
general, gets specific, and then ends dramatically general with something that applies to
everyone or everything. This structure is referred to as the hour-glass format in CSP 105. While
this may work on standardized tests, it does not actually represent the best way to convey an idea
in every situation. Actually, it can cause the opposite effect by boring the audience and
unassertively addressing the prompt. I realized, at the point in my life when I wrote this essay, I
had never tried any other format before.
To fix this problem, I plan on testing other effective formats, deciding what works for me,
and utilizing in in the fall. For instance, up until this day, I have never used footnotes or
endnotes. If I used them, I would be able to establish credibility and give more background on
my resources without sounding like I am summarizing in my paper. In this paper, and my

previous one, I have been practicing utilizing subheadings. This helps me and the reader see my
organization of ideas easier. I may discover that a format helps me convey ideas better than
another. I also need to learn which formats are appropriate for certain prompts. By the end of the
term, I want to master some other format than the five-paragraph, hourglass essay.
II.

Effective Compression of Ideas

When presenting an argument, I utilized quotes well. Usually, they were incorporated into
my own sentences and flowed naturally. Unfortunately, while this trait strengthened my
argument, my overelaboration weakened my points. In previous years, the ones who received the
best grades were the ones who could write the most in a short time period. Quantity was favored
over context, and grammar was favored over understanding. CSP 105 taught me very quickly
that big words and numerous pages will not surpass a shorter one that presents deeper-thansurface level thinking. While my papers currently usually do not lack depth, they do contain
wordy, excessive interpretations. This may lose my audience by causing them to tune-out my
writing.
Spending more time outlining, if applicable to the writing type, and revising my papers will
help me compress my ideas. Every word or sentence needs to have a unique purpose. I will print
out my papers and mark in the margins the purpose of each sentence. If I cannot find a purpose,
or if another sentence fulfills it already, I will take the sentence out. Keeping this in mind and
taking this extra step will allow me to improve the way I present ideas and my ability to engage
my audience.
III.

Being a Human, Rather than American, Writer

I started off well by making my position clear in my introduction paragraph. Then, I

presented the pros of Soylent in my next paragraph. It still seemed to be going fairly well the

second half of my paper. I addressed the cons, but never counter-argued at all, and concluded by
basically stating which side I agreed with. The ending was very choppy with this format. As we
approach another argumentative writing, our letter on a social justice issue, I will definitely not
repeat that mistake.
There are a few ways I plan on improving this aspect of my writing. First, I will use a
structure like Dr. Kings when he was addressing the clergymen: individually disproving each
argument that disagrees with mine logically rather than egotistically. To do this successfully, I
must truly consider the sides of ones who do not agree with me and break down why they are
invalid. Also, rather than assuming that the audience will agree with my opinion, I will write my
paper specifically for an audience who disagrees. Writing with a metacognitive purpose helps by
forcing the writer to assess the other side fully. Not only will this remind me to counter argue,
but it will help me surpass surface-level writing.

Most of my intellectual growth stems from a collaborative effort rather than just mine alone. To
make sure I am able to employ these strategies of improvement, I will utilize office hours and
workshop times. I can also use this document as reference when revising my papers. Keeping
these goals in mind as I edit my work will allow me to ensure I am changing in the areas I want
to develop in.