Early in the term, in the Midterm Learning Narrative, and in subsequent Learning Modules, you have been asked to think about what your goals are for the next assignment, for writing in future classes, and for writing in general (e.g., personal writing).
It is important to consider what you value about writing rather than cumulatively trying to do it all. In other words, think hard about what you want out of writing, what you prioritize most.
In that spirit, review the following:
- previous moments where you set or thought through goals (e.g., previous Learning Modules, Process Documents, Midterm Learning Narrative)
- the 5 course goals on syllabus
- the subgoals for each unit on the syllabus
In a comment below, choose at least 1 goal from each of the above bullet points and comment below with a note on each of these 3 goals and why you value that goal.
After commenting below, click the button to continue the module.
1. In the early part of the semester, I set a goal to become a more efficient writer and make the most out of my time, I have been able to work on this by the help of creating a writing schedule and this has allowed me to use my time more wisely.
2. The course goal that I enjoyed the most was Unit 2 in which we covered Rhetoric and this goal I believe, I was able to work on and the work we did in the Rhetorical Analysis was an example. I value this goal because In High School it was something I struggled with and this course has helped me.
3. In Unit 3 the subgoal that I value was writing with other voices, the main components that I value are using sources and making sure to credit the original author to strengthen our own papers.
1. cohesion
I remember that when I was revising my Rhetorical Analysis, I wanted to improve my ability to synthesize evidence and analysis to strengthen my thesis. Since then, I noticed that I have improved the cohesion in my essays significantly.
2. Use conventions appropriate to audience, genre, and purpose
Over the semester I have gained deeper understanding of what it is like to take into account audience, genre, and purpose in my writing. I believe that the act of writing is ultimately a method of influence, therefore targeting your audience with your genre and purpose is definitely integral to the writing process.
3. Write to learn
I feel that sometimes in everyday conversation, it is difficult to get my ideas across, because I normally do not have the evidence right off my head. In addition, it also takes time to phrase my ideas so that others can comprehend. Writing my research paper has helped me realize the learning aspect of writing.
I have set up writing goals many times over the course of the semester. Different writing assignments have required me to create various goals in order to improve my writing. The course goal I enjoyed the most was the Rhetorical Analysis bases work. I found I was able to complete this assignment the fastest and it was relatively enjoyable to do/ acquire feedback on. I improved my sentence structure overall and found that subgoal to be quite helpful as I am now able to dormant my wording more properly and get my ideas across more clearly.
1. Improve the way I deliver my main idea (thesis) to my audience. This one was one I purposed for my personal goals. It is important because throughout most of my writing classes I never had a real voice. I was told what to write about and in what aspects. And so, expressing my voice in my writing seemed like strange territory.
2. Identify and engage with credible sources and multiple
perspectives in your writing. One of the things that I’ve learned in this course that I appreciate very much is the use of resources that allow me to build credibility by incorporating adequate sources.
3. Recieve feedback and apply it. This was a very unusual one for me because usually I have a hard time connecting feedback to my writing and visualizing the change. However, this semester for the most part I was able to incorporate feedback into my consequent drafts to an extent I consider to be effective.
I set a goal to be a more effective writer and even though I feel that I have made some progress, I still feel that there is a lot more that I need to do to consider myself a better write than I was.
As for the course goals, I wanted to improve my skills of rhetorical analysis and I believe that I am much better off than I was at the beginning of the course since I can challenge author claims and techniques.
Thirdly, I intended to improve how I expressed myself through sentence clarity and word arrangement and I believe that I am becoming more adept at that as well.
1. I had a goal of being able to write better in a specific genre and I feel that this research essay has helped me do so. By writing in the problem solution format and about my topic, my skills have already improved.
2. From this class I definitely learned how to read and analyze texts much better. Whether they were my own, a classmates, or in the textbook I learned how to point out some critical mistakes as well as give good feedback.
3. I feel as though I have developed my writing process. Now before an essay I make sure everything is organized and I write out the breakdown of what I’m going to write. This has helped me be a much more efficient writer.
1) One goal I have had throughout the semester was being able to be more decisive when it comes to revising my own work. It is important to be able to revise your work as your best worst enemy.
2) Use conventions appropriate to audience, genre, and purpose
Whenever I write a paper, my goal is to always make the correct choices for the intended audience. A strong paper includes a structure that is appropriate to the purpose an author is trying to demonstrate.
3) Learn how to analyze vs. summarize
This was something I definitely struggled with during the rhetorical analysis unit. I tend to shift from analysis to summarizing without even realizing. The whole point of analyzing a text is to describe what choices the author made and if they did a good job in enlightening the audience.
1. My main personal goal for the semester has been to write for more than just the fact that I have an assignment that’s due. I wanted to give my assignments a reason besides being a requirement. I wanted there to be a real reason for writing them.
2. Reading and Analyzing Texts Critically. Beyond just reading and analyzing books or essays, I now find myself wanting to analyze other texts like advertisements or songs. This class has broadened what I consider to be rhetorical analysis, and I’m grateful to look at so many more things as something that c an be analyzed.
3. One of the subgoals in unit three: writing to learn, has definitely been true for me. With my research essay, there were many things that I didn’t know, and on top of that, there were many things I did’t realize I didn’t know. Writing about mt topic made me ask more questions, which led me to more answers.
1. One of my personal goals was to effectively implement feedback. I think I have accomplished this for the most part, because it’s much easier to do it when you’ve had a long time to think about what went wrong. I’ve also made some progress in restructuring.
2. Composing as a process has always been a challenge for me because I don’t find my working process as simple as creating an outline and expanding on it (though sometimes it’s almost required). Writing in a flow has produced my best and worst writing, so I found a way to manage when I stop and and start again to prevent bad sentence structure and paragraphing.
3. Giving feedback for writing is something that I haven’t had a chance to do much of before this course. I feel like I have a better understanding of how to place yourself in the author’s mindset and really tell them about readability issues but also tell them what they did well so it doesn’t get removed in the revision.
1. In the past I mentioned on Slack that I want my writing to be more cohesive and flow naturally. I value this because when I think of what makes someone a “great writer” their work always flows beautifully and it is something I want to adapt.
2. I value the goal “read and analyze texts critically” because the ability to pull something from the text that others don’t immediately think of is a huge part of making your own great piece of writing.
3. The subgoal I value most is “Organize and making an argument”. This is something I struggled with for a while when writing my research paper. Organization and argument must be clear in order for readers to know what you are trying to say.
1. A goal I had set was to be able to organize my papers in a thorough manner. I feel like I have been able to accomplish recognizing when I am not doing this and recognizing the problem is always the first step.
2. Use conventions appropriate to audience, genre, and purpose – This goal from the syllabus is something I worked on this semester. I think I have learned a lot about the conventions of writing in this class and am gradually learning to apply them to my own writing.
3. I value the sub-goal “Understand the role of reading in writing” because actively reading has helped me understand the importance stylistic choice as a writer myself.