Self-Assessment

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My name is Katherine Park. I am currently a second year student and though I am undeclared, I am interested in becoming a Business Admin or Business Econ major. I am a first generation Korean American which makes my first language English. Out of all the different subjects in school, I have always been the most comfortable and confident when it comes to writing because I believe I struggle the least at it. 

"Chunky Paragraphs"

Oddly enough, I think my non-English and writing classes contributed most to my sense of myself as a writer. In the past, a lot of my English teachers put strict restrictions when formatting essays that it left little room for creativity. I had one teacher who always made us write 5-paragraph essays and the three body paragraphs had to specifically be written in a format called “chunky paragraphs.” They even made us write different parts of the paragraph in different colored ink to prove we followed the template. I will say, this method did help with presenting the information in an organized manner, however, it did not allow me to dive deeper or contextualize the essays in a way that I would have wanted to. The classes that did further identify me as a writer would be a Film Lit course I took in high school and an Art History course I took last quarter. Instead of being presented with a typical writing prompt, both courses often focused on ideas or themes that felt much too broad or expected me to write an essay based on a question that I would normally be able to answer in one concise paragraph. It made me question everything I knew about writing an essay because when I sat down to write a lot of their essays, I could not figure out how to format the information. I was so used to being told exactly what to write, that when I was given the freedom to shape my own writing, I felt like I was doing it wrong. I realized that I still value writing composition, but it is the experience in other classes that shifted my writing to become more engaging and interesting, not just for the audience, but for myself as well. 

Prefer hand written notes

When it comes to writing essays, I am an intense planner. I never sit down and just start writing because I always feel like I need to hand write an outline of the essay I am about to write. I don’t mean like a draft, but more so a list of bullet points for each paragraph. The feeling of writing it down, weirdly enough, makes me feel more organized and productive, as compared to typing out any notes I make. If I do not know where I am headed and what the next paragraph is supposed to discuss, I can never seem to begin my essay. It has become a habit of mine to take extra steps when writing an essay because it helps get my brain working. When I know exactly what arguments I am going to make, how I am going to convey them, and how I plan to prove them, I notice that the actual writing process goes a lot more smoothly and quickly. It is definitely a practice and a habit that has greatly benefited me in the past, but there is still one area that I get tripped up on no matter how much planning I do, and that is the thesis. I would say that making a strong clear thesis is where I need the most improvement. I know what the thesis statement must entail, yet I always find myself spending the most time writing that one sentence. In hopes of becoming a better writer and researcher, I look forward to the challenges I will face in this particular course. I do not play video games and have shown very little interest in it, so I assume I will have to put in more effort to actually familiarize myself with concepts, terms, and issues to have an opinion and gain the motive to write about it. I have not actually heard anything about this course, so I can’t say I have any anxieties necessarily, but I feel as prepared as I will ever be. I want to believe that WR39B has somewhat prepared me for this course and will challenge me in a similar way. 

Anxiety when writing

I am hoping that I am not the only one who feels this when writing, but my biggest anxiety about the writing process is doubt in myself and the fear that my best work is not in fact my best work. I would go back and read what I wrote, just to feel like it doesn’t make sense anymore. I am also afraid that I will leave out something that needed to be addressed, especially if the prompt given is quite open ended. As much as I enjoy writing with a bit more freedom, I also feel reassured when I know exactly what I am supposed to address and discuss in my writing. I appreciate when professors give feedback because it lets me know exactly where I lost points and how I could improve in the future.

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