Throughout the course of this class this semester I felt like I was challenged with being creative and being unique in a way that I haven’t experienced before. Let’s start with the Language and Literacy narrative. During which, the most meaningful learning I experienced was being able to see and read about different forms of English. On that same note I was able to see how language can be diverse and be interactive in numerous settings. I felt like I did very well in achieving my instructors learning goals during this section with me being able to improve a good amount in essay writing. For me however, I wanted to become a better writer so that I can score higher on essays without falling short due to silly errors or misconceptions. During that time I became more fluent and felt like I did a better job in honing into my main points within the LLN essay. Of course there is still more I can improve on but I definitely feel like I have improved since high school. When it came to writing the essay it was pretty fine except when I was finding out what to talk about specifically during the brainstorming phase. In the past most essay prompts revolved around a specific question in a book so it felt more clear what I needed to write, but the scoring would be more strict. The fact that there was more freedom was kinda weird to me, so I wasn’t used to writing so freely in a sense. 

Now when it came to the Translation 1 assignment, I liked being able to translate my written essay into a spoken argument. It’s kinda like drafting a speech and relaying it to an audience so it’s condensed and more to the point. It felt more precise and practical to use in a professional setting. The work itself felt pretty self explanatory so I felt like there wasn’t much issue there and I was able to reach my instructor’s expectations. During this phase I wanted to speak more confidently in front of an audience without making many mistakes. I felt like I still needed to improve on my presentational speaking skills but I don’t think I made any mistakes in reciting my presentation, which signifies progress in my head. I will say that transferring my work from the essay to the presentation wasn’t all that challenging at all. The only hard part was delivering the presentation since I felt I wasn’t as confident as I wanted to be. 

For phase 2 we were instructed with the assignment of crafting a Synthesis Essay. The process of being able to synthesize sources more efficiently and researching them was really eye opening for me. In the past I felt like I did poorly on these types of essays since I would either explain too little or too much about my sources. With this I felt as if I had a better balance between the two. I was able to do fine with transitioning between sources and ideas since I felt like that was the only thing I was good at during high school. I was also fine synthesizing the sources I found, but I felt like I could have improved on introducing the sources to the audience since in the past my teachers would already know what the sources were so it never felt like a necessity. I wanted to become better at balancing my own words with quotes behind a source. There were some places where I needed to put my voice more or decrease the amount of direct quotes but overall I believe I did better at maintaining a balance. Synthesizing and writing the essay didn’t feel all that bad to me, it was straightforward enough so there wasn’t much issue. The only hard part was finding the sources while also having them fall under specific conditions or categories. It felt exhausting finding specific sources then having to find specific details from that specific source that matched my argument and what I wanted to say. 

Finally we have the translation 2 assignment to compliment the synthesis essay. The concept of having to transfer a whole idea into a poster is interesting since I felt like there was a lot to be said, but it was easy to understand within the poster. I was able to adjust my design and delivery clearly so the audience could understand my point. In terms of meeting my instructors goals I believe I did, but a part of me feels like I didn’t make it up to the tee. I wanted to address my argument into a single, easily understandable, piece of media which I did do well, most people understood what I wanted to say as it was received well. The hard part of it all was figuring out what to do to present my argument, what picture would I put for example. After I figured all that out, the assignment was easy and straight to the point.

All in all, this course taught me how to transition from a high school environment to a College level proficiency. I was able to be on top of deadlines and assignments consistently throughout the semester by submitting every assignment. I felt like I left this class a better reader and writer. I learned a lot about myself and others throughout this course and I have grown past the writer I was a year ago.