This is my Self-Assessment, an assignment at the beginning of the quarter that was intended to introduce me as a writer going into Writing 39C. Going into this course, I wasn't confident in my own writing abilities to produce college-level papers and I think this shows within this assignment. More specifically, notice how in the first paragraph that I discuss my writing background in somewhat of a negative connotation.  Prior to taking 39C, I had taken one writing course in college and I felt that that course helped me as a writer tremendously so I was eager to see how I could improve in this class. And as I look back on this assignment while writing this ePortfolio, my writing may not be anywhere near perfect as I move on from 39C but I think my confidence in my ability to argue, which presumably is an important skill to writing, and write effective papers has significantly increased.

My writing strategy has stayed very consistent throughout my academic career. In high school, my essay structure usually resembled the standard five paragraphs format: the intro, three body paragraphs, and a conclusion. All of these components of the essay would also follow some sort of formula so each paragraph had a very rigid structure. On top of that, my English teachers would always guide us through the analysis process for rhetorical essays so I never really felt that I had much power over my own writing. Because of these two things, I always felt that my essays were never coherent; the body paragraphs would never seemed to effectively connect with each other which made the essay feel weaker as a whole. Since coming to college, I’ve been encouraged to stray away from essay “formulas” and to experiment with building my own essays whose structures revolve around making the paragraphs within the essay connect.

Throughout my first year at UCI, I’ve had multiple opportunities per quarter to help strengthen my writing. During the fall quarter, I took Writing 37 which was my first taste of a college-level writing course. In the winter, I took an Asian American studies class which emphasized the usage of blue books for timed exams and had a heavy focus on essay writing and analysis. And finally in spring, I had an anthropology course with a research focused course paper. All of these classes had writing projects or assignments that required me to diversify my writing experience whether that is including research into my paper or utilizing rhetoric to further my persuasiveness. Out of these courses, however, I feel that Writing 37 was the most influential for me because it helped me understand the mindset and the strategies I needed to succeed in college classes for writing assignments. I hope that this upcoming writing course will also help me to further my understanding of college-level writing.