The first time I walked into class, I would have said that I was a strong writer. English has never been my favorite subject in high school and I was worried if an English college course was going to be too difficult for me. When we got our first assignment, being the written language and literacy narrative, I was worried that my story was going to be too boring or not important enough to talk about. This assignment was the beginning of achieving the course’s learning outcomes. I would say all in all I have developed a great understanding of each outcome and will use that knowledge for the rest of my time in college.

In the beginning of the course, we had the Multimodal Language and Literacy Narrative. Personally, I would say this was the easiest assignment for me because I noticed that when I was writing about myself it was much easier to find a flow and know what to write about. While writing something personal can be challenging because you have to be vulnerable, it was also even more difficult when I realized I had to talk about it in front of the rest of the class. After I finished writing my narrative I thought of all the possible ways I could make my narrative into a slideshow for my presentation. I thought that since I incorporated the theme of having a “double life” into my narrative, I could do the same for my presentation. That’s when I realized that I could use spider-man as an analogy to make it both more intriguing and humorous. Throughout this process I learned more about myself and how far I’ve come in terms of dealing with my identity with culture and language through literacy.

This phase of the course helped me complete the course learning objective, “examine how attitudes towards linguistic standards empower and oppress language users.” When I was younger I was embarrassed that other people knew I knew Spanish because I felt I wasn’t “hispanic enough.” Now, of course, I know that there is no such thing because we don’t choose how we’re born and we don’t choose what our native language is. Another example is that in my narrative I mention, “During a summer job, I worked in a predominantly Spanish speaking neighborhood. I was the only person out of a 6-person shift that could communicate with the customers.” The reason so many Hispanic kids don’t know Spanish is because their parents are most likely first generation Americans who are bilingual but were ashamed of it growing up and chose to not teach their children their native language so that they could focus on their English. This makes me sad because the way certain languages or accents are treated very differently than others is truly heartbreaking when everyone should know their roots and where they come from.

The next phase of the course was pretty different from the first one. The summary and responses at first seemed pretty simple and straightforward but I actually struggled with it at first. I knew that I had to summarize and respond to the texts we were assigned to read but when the audience changed I had to stop. Switching up the audience was something I had never done before in any other English class in high school so it was a bit challenging at first. Then, I realized that I had been writing to the same audience since the first time I wrote an essay. I had never given it much thought until this course. I had to think about how the rhetorical devices, word choice, tone and language can completely change the audience of any piece of writing. When I wrote the summary and response to my friend, it was actually challenging to turn my everyday speaking with my friends into a two page summary on something I would most likely not bring up if I was talking to this friend in person. I wrote more casual and used more personal pronouns to make it seem a bit more personalized and to make it as clear as possible who the audience was. Even though these few assignments were much shorter than the other assignments it was almost more difficult to fit everything into just two pages. This process forced me to only focus on what was the most important details and exclude anything that wasn’t necessary.

This phase specifically helped me with the course learning outcome, “explore and analyze, in writing and reading, a variety of genres and rhetorical situations.” The texts in this phase were some of my favorite texts that I’ve read in any English class because they were so interesting, well-written and had varied styles of writing that I had never seen before. These assignments also helped me with the course learning outcome, “recognize and practice key rhetorical terms and strategies when engaged in writing situations.” They incorporated so many different rhetorical strategies such as first-person and humor which helped me understand how to use them within my own writing. Amy Tan’s “Mother Tongue” was one of the most inspirational ones I referenced when I was writing my narrative. 

Last but not least, phase three of the course was to write a research essay with a question that had to do with literacy in some way. This assignment took a lot of time but it was a pretty intense process that allowed me to inform the audience about something they might otherwise not know. I didn’t struggle picking out my research question because it genuinely interested me and then I saw that there was so much information on my topic. This phase has taught me how to “develop strategies for reading, drafting, collaborating, revising, and editing.” Working through this assignment in small sections and with peer review helped me slow down and learn to take my time instead of rushing through it. This phase also helped me “understand and use print and digital technologies to address a range of audiences,” by using different types of sources throughout the course to address a variety of audiences depending on the assignment. In the case of the research paper, I used scholarly sources to provide information rather than anecdotes.

Overall, I feel like I have grown and developed many skills throughout this course. A part of me believes that as I take what I learned this semester to other writing courses I have become a stronger writer and because of that more confident in my academic skills as a student. This experience taught me what to expect from college and how to reap the benefits. Coming into this class, I was a scared freshman who wasn’t sure what to expect from a college level English course but now as I wrap up this course I have a newfound confidence in not only writing but in my literacy abilities outside of the classroom.