Final Self-Assessment

A Look Back

On the first day of class, Ms. von Uhl, the professor of Writing for Social Sciences, gave us a list of promises on the syllabus in the form of the course learning outcomes. The class aimed to strengthen our writing ability, enhance our grammatical prowess, and help us gain experience in the collaborative aspects of writing – crucial skills in the various fields under the umbrella of the social sciences. I chose this class because I wanted to do just that. I’d always enjoyed writing in both fiction and non-fiction. One of the many possible career routes I dream of heading down is journalism. In that profession, one needs to familiarize him or herself with diverse settings and the ability to draw information out of people, especially if one is conducting an ethnography. Looking back at this past semester, I can say this class was successful in keeping its word.

One of the first assignments of the class was an exercise from the FieldWorking: Reading and Writing Research textbook. This exercise asked the student to reflect on his or her own privileges. These days, the word “privilege” has a negative connotation, but the exercise wants the student to think about it differently. Everyone has some sort of privilege, advantages and disadvantages which should be recognized, kept in check, and used to help others if and when necessary. This is useful when one is in a field site, because it allows the ethnographist or investigative journalist to make a more well-rounded assessment of his or her relationship to the environment and culture he or she is surrounded by.

Around the same time we did this exercise, Ms. von Uhl went over grammar with us, which proved helpful in not only refreshing our memory of basic grammar such as punctuation and spelling, but also in the more tricky aspects of grammar including syntax and complex sentence structure. We then took that knowledge and applied it to our first field site observation, where the sole intention was to observe a subculture. I was able to tell the difference in my writing when I compared my field site observation to past writing pieces, especially when it came to active and passive voice and misplaced modifiers. I’ll admit I still make errors here and there, but as Ms. von Uhl said, flawless grammar is an art that takes years to master. Moreover, observing culture at a field site, even a familiar one, made me feel like a journalist, even if I was only there for a college assignment.

Once we typed up our observations, the class engaged in peer review sessions. Peer review sessions are always helpful. You’re given the chance to have different people’s points of view comment on your writing, and they can oftentimes catch errors that went over your head. During the first peer review session, I was coincidentally paired up with someone who was also observing Hispanic life in Washington Heights. We exchanged ideas that ultimately made my paper stronger in the second draft. This collaborative experience is extremely helpful, and trains us for future peer review studies required of scholarly writers.

This process was repeated several times throughout the semester and proved effective every time. This is true even in the case of the interview assignment. In my first draft, I introduced the interview with a very brief description of what was going on. I was simply interviewing my mother while she cooked. When I brought this draft to peer review, a fellow classmate commented and said that I should engage the reader in a more captivating way in the introduction. I listened to her and added background information pertaining to the subject of my entire ethnography and the purpose for specifically interviewing my mother. I used words to stimulate the senses, like the smell of the house as rice, meat, and sweet plantains cooked on the stove. If I’d simply gone over the paper myself, I would’ve just corrected grammar. Allowing a second point of view means that someone else can bring in entirely new concepts you didn’t even think of.

Finally, the research proposal assignment was unlike any other kind of writing assignment I’d done before. I never had to combine so many elements of past assignments worked on in the class, and integrate it neatly into one large paper in which you address a problem and provide potential solutions, all defended by scholarly and trusted sources. It was a big assignment, but it taught me a lot about connecting ideas and creating a sound and logical conversation where opinions are defended by concrete facts. All these skills are necessary for the kind of career I wish to have. This Writing for Social Sciences course, along with the teachings of Ms. von Uhl, definitely saw my growth as a writer and delivered on its initial promises.