Reflection

I would say that working on this assignment was a challenge because I had to rewrite another essay. The first time I wrote this essay the topic I was trying to argue was that the author puts us in the perspective of the barriers, hardships and challenges an immigrant boy faces in such a foreign and complex world. Ruth’s portrayal of these aspects helps us to understand the pathway of cultural assimilation in a new environment. I wrote evidence to support it, however when we did the first peer review the feedback I received from my peer reviewer and professor was that my thesis wasn’t arguable and that it was too broad and more of a personal opinion than an argument. The feedback that my professor gave me was that I should shift my topic to focus more about how language plays a role in Henry Roth’s “Call It Sleep” novel. That’s what I did when I rewrote my essay. My experience completing this assignment differed from completing the immigration/family narrative. For the narrative essay I was able to voice my story though how I wanted to express myself while for the argumentative essay I had to convey the information that I was writing about. For narrative essays, I am able to descriptively write what I’m saying in first person because its voice though your opinion. For argumentative essays you can’t do that. You have to convey your argument through backed up analysis and evidence. What I found the most challenging was finding new evidence for my revised essay because for my first I annotated most of the evidence that related to cultural assimilation and now that I shifted my topic to David’s struggle with language it was a challenge to find certain evidence that would go with my topic sentences. The only modification I would make to my paper would be to include a recap of some of the topics I discussed in my paper in my conclusion. What I found valuable was the importance of proofreading my essay because if I didn’t proofread my essay and not the feedback that I’ve received I would have turned in a garbage essay that I put hours of work into. What I learned about myself as a writer is that I should start by making a planning guide for each essay that I am assigned so that way my essay stays organized and I can process all of my thoughts down. I would also work on fixing my grammar and expanding my vocabulary.