Here we are, and as the end of the semester looms near, I question myself… Have I changed? I’ve been slaving away for four months on my desktop, writing, writing, and writing for mandatory essays, drafting, drafting, and drafting for much-needed review, but was it all worth it? We’ve gone through the semester writing a boatload of pieces, while some I hated, some I enjoyed. Again, though, I keep asking this question to myself… Have I changed?

Our journey starts with a Painting Analysis essay, just a measly paged essay, nothing too out of the ordinary, though I despised it. Next, we moved to a modest Summary and Response essay, nothing too crazy, but it did up the ante. The Exploratory essay followed closely, a decently long three to four paged piece, which I did well on but could have done better at writing. Lastly, the Critical Researched Paper, with a staggering 4-5 pages, this behemoth of a piece was quite fun to write. I was overzealous with the adjectives there, but honestly, the CRA was the paper I enjoyed the most writing. I truly felt like I knew what I was doing; I wasn’t lost in some spiral abyss trying my absolute hardest to reach the word minimum count. Though through all of these different essays, the question remains… Have I changed?

Throughout the semester, the students were tasked with reading various literary texts, and as students, we had to read, decipher, and understand what they meant. This led to different methods of organization and annotations. As the year progressed, I went from hardly annotating any text I read to at least putting down essential information. I know this change isn’t as dramatic as expected, but it still is a big gap. I used to read texts and tried to digest them without notes or assistance. This obviously would lead me to read the text multiple times, but as we were assigned more and more readings and learned new annotation methods, I only needed to read the text once; as my notes are there to assist in the event, I don’t fully understand. It is nice to annotate as I go and learn different methods of annotation, though is it enough? Have I changed?

Writing the essays assigned to me was easy, or so I thought. In contrast, while writing the essays, whether the S&R,  EE, or CRA, we were always asked to map/draft our thoughts first. I always found it somewhat redundant and repetitive; I never enjoyed them, but as I looked back at my final essays and their proceeding drafts, I saw the stark difference between them. We were bound to an arduous journey of mapping, drafting, researching, free writing, and peer review to get to our final destination, which was the last draft. Fortunately, the journey was always worth it in the end. The students and I were always asked to peer review each other’s work to ensure our writings never diverged, stayed on topic, and were academically sound. Due to this undeniable help, every bit of my writing succeeded the last; peer reviewing should always be done. Even though peer review is helpful, so is your self-assessment; if you don’t know your flaws, you’ll always be blind to them. At the start of each essay, we free-wrote our feelings on the last essay; this clarified our problems. And at the end of each essay, we were to write a self-reflection, stating what the purpose of writing was and how we felt. With this constant writing of self-analysis, we students were always conscious of our problem and ready to fight it in the following essay. Our final essay could be created after multiple drafts, peer review sessions, and revisions. Perhaps as a student, I have changed.

Conveniently, the whole drafting and mapping process does not only apply to writing essays for your English class. In my Foundations of Speech class, I was constantly assigned to speak a 5-minute speech on a specific topic, and the whole drafting process saved my behind on speech day. Whenever we got a niche topic, I instantly recalled my writing section, as mapping ideas always led to a clear direction. I’ll never forget how useful the skills learned in this class are and that they will be used in almost any subject I come across. To add on, visually seeing everything for me is the best way to get information across. That is why I loved the idea of a virtual portfolio rather than an academic essay. Seeing everything right in front of you, having a creative mind, and catering a website to your liking is leagues better than writing a couple of thousand-word essays that most would find uninteresting to read.

Writing without a purpose is not something you want to do, and our professors made sure we made ourselves clear when writing. Through multiple thesis workshops, we carefully crafted a thesis statement that would allow our argument to be clear and concise. Looking at my painting analysis and CRA thesis, even a blind man can tell which thesis is better. Due to the constant help that the professors provided, I, as a writer, grew in many ways, which I never foresaw. Thankfully, thesis workshops weren’t the only help that the professors provided. With the correct guidance, I could cite properly and use various library resources, online databases, and the Internet to locate prevalent sources in our writings. With the help of MLA citations, I could cite the sources gathered from research and incorporate them into my writing without it being plagiarism. On the topic of research, alot of research was done for the CRA paper. Sessions in the Cohen library allowed me to navigate the CCNY library database properly. This practice helped me strengthen the argument I presented in the CRA essay. With all this practice, I look like a different person.

MLA citations are essential to any academic writing; without them, your writing could be deemed plagiarized. And so we were taught how we should properly cite sources, in-text and with a detailed citation page. Another thing we learned was to use the proper outside sources to strengthen our arguments further. If you were to choose a weak source as evidence for your argument, your whole paper would fall flat or just not suffice. With the proper use of our recourses provided at the school, we could choose academically sound sources. Finding academically sound sources is excellent, but it would only be helpful if it supports your argument. That is why we learned how to ensure our sources support our arguments and strengthen our essays. Subsequently, we had to ensure we didnt just summarize what the quote already said. Analyzation was vital to make sure we don’t sound like some regurgitating robot by breaking down the quote and explaining them in relation to the argument.

Now that the semester is almost over, I have started to doubt myself. Have I changed? I most definitely did. With all the different writing, reading, and research methods, I have grown much as a writer and a peer. These two FIQWS classes are the changes I desperately needed to enhance the level of my writing. We’ve gone through the whole semester, all grown individually, and found our shortcomings. I can say with certainty that I, Suvow Kuri, have changed.