Self-Assessment Essay

The City College of New York

Self-Assessment Essay 

The Importance of Rhetorical Elements in Academic Writing

Mavel Hidalgo

Writing for the Sciences (English – 21003)

Professor Matias

13 December 2022

Throughout the semester we focused on rhetoric and the identification of rhetorical Situations in writing. We ventured into various rhetorical situations in order to better understand how these factors can influence the way an audience perceives a specific piece of writing. This was very helpful in identifying and utilizing rhetoric in our own writing, in order to further connect with our audiences. We worked on various projects which helped enhance the goals set for this semester. 

Strategies such as interpretation and critical analysis were ideal for me when it came to identifying rhetorical situations in the sources for my essays. Another outcome that reflects in my work would be that understanding and exploring various ranges of linguistic differences could ultimately help determine rhetorical sensibility in a piece of writing. I believe this was largely present in the Informative Review as well as in the Position Paper. A large part of these projects consisted in determining and understanding which was the best fitting genre for a specific audience. 

Recognizing and practicing key rhetorical terms and strategies in writing is visible in all the work done throughout the semester. This is because we used rhetoric as the main focus for our writing. The identification of rhetorical strategies ultimately helped improve aspects of my writing which helped in further connecting with my audience. I personally believe that the study of rhetoric and rhetorical situations improves the writing of students because we never really focus on certain aspects in writing that could ultimately better our experience of understanding. I was able to employ tactics which helped me identify and understand the importance of genre, tone, and language. 

Working in groups helped me learn how to work in social aspects when it comes to writing. The group workload was often divided among the members of the group then the members collectively aimed to understand and tie together the writing done. This created pathways in which genre analysis was discussed, both based on the material provided for the project and audience interpretation. This is specific towards the Flipped Classroom Presentations as well as the CRP Presentations. These projects were presented in class, and this allowed room for the audience to interpret and make their own opinions based on the work shown.  

Genre analysis was one of the first rhetorical aspects we learned. The class worked on advertisement analysis and here I was able to methodically analyze and interpret genre and how effective writing that employs rhetorical context can be. Especially when it is being viewed by a public audience. I was able to learn and witness the impact of genre and how writing mixed with various rhetorical resources can aid in understanding how the public views a piece. Stance and tone being two of these rhetorical tactics which can change based on the specific writing being done. Stance can be articulated based on a prior analysis of the content piece being used. 

I believe I learned how to employ a formal yet informative language throughout the work submitted this semester. An example of this could be the informative review paper, which had to be done by utilizing analysis tactics in order to inform the audience about a specific topic without an opinion being given. Stating facts and clear-cut information as this needs a formal tone in order to give the audience a sense of responsible and unbiased interpretation of information.

Reliable sources needed for academic writing is of vital importance. Scientific papers, reliable online databases, published articles are all good sources which can help locate information necessary for writing projects. I used various published papers from scientific journals which helped in keeping my sources and information used for writing reliable. Throughout this specific project quoting, paraphrasing, and analyzing the sources I used for the projects were very important, due to the fact I based my topics on scientific research. I employed critical thinking when it came to visualizing the strengths of the sources used based on the information relayed. Citing sources which are used in paraphrasing and quoting terms could be slightly difficult yet extremely necessary. This can aid in locating specific information which could have been used in writing as well as giving proper credit to the authors work.