Over the course of this semester in FIQWS me and my classmates wrote 3 major essays as a part of the curriculum which in the end benefited us greatly for what lies ahead in our lives. These essays included the language and literacy narrative, exploratory essay, and the researched critical analysis essay. These works allowed us to complete the main course learning outcomes with the help of extra assignments and a great deal of peer review as well as improve as writers in general from grammar to punctuation as well as comprehensive sentence structure.  

For the first essay being the language and literacy narrative, without a doubt, I was able to create reading, writing, revising, and editing methods. Additionally, growing and participating in the social and collaborative writing processes. However, this was just an introduction to this new style of peer review which was very beneficial for me and my writing. For each one of the essays which were completed I was able to learn more and more flaws in my writing that both Professor Buno and my peers were able to pick up, had we not had this peer review I would never be able to pick out flaws. A major example being explaining and expanding certain ideas properly so that the audience can benefit greatly from such writings. This class made me remember a very important saying from my middle school teacher she always exclaimed “it’s all about the stuff not the fluff”. Professor Buno along with my peer review partners allowed me to understand and make this saying more complex and align with college leveled work. Through all the peer review work I was able to understand that I was always writing to just get the job done as opposed to putting in the right effort so that my essays don’t just represent fluff; numerous amounts of ideas put together that back up the claim of the essay but are not explained properly, but rather also stuff; minimal amounts of claims that back up the main point of the essay however, they are explained thoroughly so that such points are much stronger. Moreover, during class, we were able to collaborate with our peers while completing a brainstorming worksheet which helped me develop ideas and morph them into the first major essay of this class the language and literacy narrative.  

In the next major essay of this class, Exploratory essay, the class was tasked to research an author of their choice and write about them for a certain audience. Through this essay, I was able to introduce many of the course’s learning objectives, such as “Practice systematic application of citation conventions” and “Write texts that integrate the student’s perspective and language with the relevant sources using strategies like summary, critical analysis, interpretation, synthesis, and argumentation.” At the end of the essay, we were tasked to cite the articles and or documents which we used to gather information about our author of choice. However, my citations instead of being on par with MLA rules were rather what is shown below.  

This was not what professor Buno had wanted us to complete so after my work had been revied by her I was tasked to fix it so it may be on par with college standards eventually it had turned into a very more sophisticated citation page filled with more meaningful and useful information.  

As I wrote the essay with these sources my first draft had revolved a lot around just summarizing and not enough implementation of rhetorical analysis, explanation, and argumentation. However, when the final draft came around, I wanted to make sure that I had implemented these throughout the essay. Professor Buno gave me tips here and there and I made sure I had increased my writing from just one draft to another. I was able to sound more professional and analytical when it came to my claims and supporting evidence.  

When the final important essay of the semester came around, being the Researched Critical Analysis essay we took were tasked to take the exploratory essay to the next level. I was confused as to how we were to do so for a while until I received an epiphany and understood that we just had to support an argument able claim with evidence from credible sources. This essay allowed me to learn how to use and locate research sources to obtain credible evidence. After going to the few library sessions, we had I was able to learn how to use the City College Library website properly. There I was able to find books reviews of such books along with articles and much more. The search engine was basic and implemented a lot of key factors which allowed you to specify a single word. These articles allowed my evidence and explanation portion of writing to go to the next level not only can I trust what’s being said, but it also helps me elaborate on my own ideas due to their own explanation being represented in their articles.  

Eventually all good things have to come to an end. Professor Buno’s teaching techniques allowed my writing to improve even if it was in the slightest manner. The semester has ended and this class was very beneficial for the rest of the time I will be spending in college.