Having difficulties in writing, I took English 21001 that I embarked on a journey of self-discovery, working diligently to improve my writing. As the course came to an end, it was time for me to objectively assess my strengths and leave behind my weaknesses in writing. In this self-assessment essay, I will reflect on my progress, analyzing my growth, and outline my plans for future development.

Reflection on my progress, over duration of the English writing class, I have witnessed my loopholes, and lack of skills in writing, as techniques and strategies, critical analysis, argumentation, and I did not know how to create a portfolio. During the course, I accumulated knowledge on how to approach and improve my style, be more logical, literal, and precise in my writing. I started to avoid jargon, language, and colloquialism in sentences. Additionally, I have gained confidence in expressing my ideas and organizing them in a coherent manner. This progress can be attributed to the constructive feedback received from both my professor and peers.

One of the strengths I have gained as a writer is my ability to develop a clear understanding of how to outline a concise thesis statement. I have articulated my main ideas effectively, providing a strong foundation for my essays. Furthermore, my vocabulary has expanded, as well as my verbal stiffness, allowing me to incorporate more diverse and precise language into my writing. This enhancement has helped me convey my thoughts with clarity and sophistication.

Despite my progress, I have identified several areas that require further attention and improvement. Some weaknesses are my sentence structure, rhetorical structure, and argumentation. I often find myself using repetitive sentences, which can make my writing monotonous. Another weakness is in organizing my ideas in a smooth flow. Although I understand the importance of the organizational structure, I sometimes struggle to seamlessly connect my ideas, leading them to appear disjoint. Moreover, I encounter difficulties in maintaining a consistent tone throughout my writing.

To illustrate my strengths and weaknesses, I have created a portfolio with all essays from the course. In the first essay, I wrote about the usage of ChatGPT in the classroom environment and I effectively presented a theses statement of ChatGPT drawbacks and bonuses while using a range of appropriate vocabulary. However, the essay lacked sentence variety and contained abrupt transitions throughout, which I did notice. In contrast, in my second essay, “Nothing is sweet as Mulberry,” I successfully incorporated smooth transitions while my thesis statement felt vague and needed more clarity. My third paper which discussed the changes in the education environment relied on taking information from two articles to develop an analysis on the change from the past to the present. My final paper was about a Chinese film called The Goddess. In this paper, I discussed the plot of the film while analyzing the main character objectively. These papers illustrate my growth as a writer throughout this course, and I plan to only improve as time goes on.

Seeking feedback from my professor and peers has also been invaluable in my growth as a writer. Their suggestions and observations have provided me with new ideas and perspectives on my weaknesses while offering guidance for improvement. I appreciate the constructive criticism I received as it has fueled my motivation to enhance my writing skills.

Building my self-assessment, I have established several goals to continue advancing my writing skills. Firstly, I plan to practice diverse sentence structures and experiment with varying sentence length to add more dynamism to my writing. Secondly, I plan to focus on improving my writing by using certain phrases and ensuring a logical flow between paragraphs. Lastly, I intend to pay closer attention to maintaining a consistent tone throughout my essays, aligning it with the intended audience and purpose.

To achieve my goals, I will engage in regular writing exercises, utilizing online resources and writing guides to diversify my sentence structures. Additionally, I will study and practice different types of transitions, implementing them in my writing assignments, as well as analyzing and revising my essays, paying attention to the tone and making necessary changes to ensure consistency.

Through this self-assessment, I have acknowledged my growth as a writer and identified areas of my weaknesses to improve them. Reflecting on my progress, recognizing the skills I have gained, and being aware of my weaknesses will serve as a catalyst for further improvement. Armed with a clear action plan, I am excited to embark on to the next phase of my writing journey, where I will continue to refine my skills and become a more proficient and effective writer.