When looking back on the semester I become aware of all the things that I learned and yet I struggle to pick out anything significant. Nothing I learned really blew my mind but I understand its importance and that if anything, at least my knowledge was expanded. Maybe I feel this way because of the conditions in which I was raised. I was born to immigrant parents as the third and last child. There was a time where the only language spoken in my household was Spanish but by the time I came around, I had a dad and two brothers who could speak English well enough to be able to avoid speaking Spanish. I would say that I had the privilege of choosing to speak Spanish but I had to whenever I wanted to talk to my Mom. She struggled tremendously to speak English and my dad is a classic story of an immigrant worker in America. So, it must stem from feeling that I have already seen the stories I was reading about through my parents’ experiences.
1. Examine how attitudes towards linguistic standards empower and oppress language users.
Linguistic standards are a double edged sword. In cases of code switching, understanding how to speak according to the situation you’re in can help you blend in and makes it easier to connect with others. I’m even doing it right now except in writing. Looking at the majority of the sentences in this essay and other essays I’ve written, it is clear that I am writing in a manner that is distinct from the way that I speak on a day-to-day basis in an effort to get a better grade. For example, in my Final Research Essay I wrote “In a similar vein to that, I would also like to discuss speaking with an accent.” Yes it looks good on paper but actually saying it out loud sounds, to be crass, stupid. To talk like this in real life is exhausting and awkward so using simpler words that most people understand helps me communicate. I feel that for this reason the most authentic-to-me essay I’ve written this semester was the Language and Literacy Narrative. This isn’t to say that people get away with being unable to communicate. Expecting a standard can harm those who struggle to use their language effectively. The expectation in America is to hear clear and concise English so anyone that deviates from that is discriminated against. People with stutters, accents, and especially people who speak English as a second language face difficulties by failing to meet an expectation.
2. Explore and analyze, in writing and reading, a variety of genres and rhetorical situations.
Of all the texts we read in this class, my favorite one was Amy Tan’s “Mother Tongue.” To me, she made the best use of her rhetorical situation to deliver her message. She used stories of her immigrant mother and the broken English her mother used to communicate with her and others to drive the flow of her essay. Texts like James Baldwin’s “If Black English Isn’t a Language, Then Tell Me, What Is?” used the audience he addressed to his advantage to make a case for classifying Black English as its own language. He made comparisons to England and how despite how small it is, it comprises lots of regions with their own accents that are revealing of a person’s upbringing. He draws a connection to show how those who speak Black English typically come from a similar upbringing and thus can be used as evidence to Black English being its own language.
3. Develop strategies for reading, drafting, collaborating, revising, and editing.
Maybe what I said in the beginning was a lie and I did learn some things. I wasn’t the best student. As bad as it sounds, I often missed classes where we were supposed to peer review and whenever I made it to class, I was often unprepared. I spent most of those days working on the assignment that was supposed to be done by class time in class. Regardless of that, I believe that this bad habit ended up in something positive. I got a better understanding of what wasn’t working in my essays instead of depending on someone else to point out my mistakes. My ability to revise and edit using my own judgment improved drastically.
4. Recognize and practice key rhetorical terms and strategies when engaged in writing situations.
Reflecting on how other writers used rhetorical situations across different genres helped me when it was my turn to include them in my writing. To me, my best example of using this was early on in the semester when I had to write a Language and Literacy Narrative. I wrote about the language that was created between me and my friends and arrived at a conclusion of how language was vital in keeping a group of people together. The anecdote I told about post covid times and the scramble to make friends. I said “They began by shouting the original, then shortened, then sped up, then the rolled R variant, and then finally just a stream of air blown through their teeth.” when talking about how my friends took a sentence and converted it into something of our own. I began the conclusion of the essay by saying “To this day whenever we see each other in person not an hour can go by without someone saying one of the dumb words we created. It’s what connects us, it’s how we bond.” I’m proud of how I was able to connect my story to my belief of language being what allows people to bond.
5. Understand and use print and digital technologies to address a range of audiences.
I think I am misinterpreting this point, but I believe it either means using the internet as a resource or using it as a means to spread your work. To do most of the assignments in this class, we had to use a mix of texts that were printed out and handed to us and videos or texts on the internet. Especially with the last assignment, the research essay would have been impossible to complete without the help of the CUNY Library and its seemingly endless resources. Having the class meet up in the computer room to have a rundown on how to use it really helped when it was our time to do so. It is a tool that I will benefit from during my time at this college. I know that the Language and Literacy Narrative Essay did not require me to substantiate my claims of “Yes, people my age talk using slang, but this was different. This to me, however dumb it sounds, was witnessing the development of language firsthand.” but I still wonder if it would have been more believable to the person reading that essay that I truly believed what I was saying. In the future I won’t have to worry about feeling this way because now I have this resource at my disposal. If this point meant to talk about the WordPress site housed on CUNY Academic Commons, then I will say having some experience on using it was also helpful, especially since I will use it next semester also in my Writing for Engineering class. Overall, seeing these resources and learning how to use them make it easier for others to view my work in a way that shows I have respect for what I say.
