Reflections

(Literacy Narrative)

To self reflect on the literacy narrative, I believe that it was an essay that really captivated who someone really is. To be able to write about a certain moment in your life that affected someone, or a turning point that gave someone a different perspective, really gives the reader a better understanding to the reader about the author. For me to talk about my experience with my high school team and how that journey had brought up my confidence and allowed me to become more socially active, allowed me to come almost full circle now that I am in college. Without joining a team in the first place and meeting new people and having to be vocal, I do not think that I would be the person that I am today. I owe a lot of who I am as a person to that sport of softball, it is not only the sport that I have grown up on (baseball), but I was also able to see my potential in the sport and hope to see where my skills and practices that I’ve done along the four years of high school will take me throughout college with a new team to make acquaintance with, or any other form of social interactions in the future.

(Exploratory Essay)

To self reflect on the exploratory essay, it was one that now incorporated the use of in text citations. To be able to find and research about a topic that one seems to be passionate about, to find those peer reviewed articles that were going to strengthen our article and our position/stance, it was a different approach from that of the literacy narrative. The literacy narrative was one that was on my life, no article or citations were needed because it was on my life. On the other hand, within this exploratory essay, talking about a topic can easily be done and can have a certain opinion about it, but having articles to back up someone’s claim was of the most importance. For me to talk about and explain the background and struggles to those to have Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), is one that is very broad, with many different aspects of the topic. But to come in with different articles on the topic that explain it can give the reader a better understanding on it. Especially since this essay was based on how assistive technology can help and/or helps those that do have this form of disability that is autism.

(Researched Critical Analysis)

To self reflect on the RCA, it was one that involved a bit work than in comparison to the exploratory essay. This essay was about taking a stance, supporting that stance and being able to back it up with evidence that was within articles that had to be researched upon. To take stance and prove your point, it should be one that is strong, strong enough for the reader to support your claim and understand why it could be that someone is taking that certain stance. However, with every claim that someone makes, there is always a counter claim that comes in. Including a counter claim within this essay felt to be of importance because the reader needs to hear the perspective of those who might disagree with your claim. Not everyone is going to be in agreement with your side, everyone has a voice and there will always be another side to someone’s claim. But including this other claim, it will give the reader a different outlook, but then it should be then countered back with a strong reason as to why that reason is wrong or how it be altered or challenged. This essay gave the chance to include of all this, and allowed me to build upon my in text citations also.

(About the class)

Now that the class has come to a finish, to reflect on the class in its entirety, this class has been one that has changed my writing style within essays. To go from an essay that was primarily based on facts that have happened within my life, to then diving into essays about certain topics and strengthening them with including articles, as been one that was a bit difficult. Talking about your life is not the hard part, because only yourself is the one to account to your life experiences and how they have affected you in any way. But to take a claim about any topic, connect to the bigger idea of assistive technology, and be able to support it with researched articles and peer reviewed articles, has been challenging. This is so because finding those articles can be difficult, especially if someone’s claim is hard to be supported, so looking for any article to back up a already hard claim can be difficult. But, it was achieved with the work of the exploratory essay and the researched critical analysis, and I can say that writing those essays has improved my in text citations. Also my ability in finding and gathering those articles to better enhance my claim, but also brighten up the knowledge on that topic and give new perspectives for the reader to capture.