Self-assessment

Since the start of the semester until now, I have grown a lot as a student and a writer. While writing four papers in a semester may not seem much to some, all the drafts, research, and reflection took a long time. Though it may have been a bit stressful, all that work helped improve my approach to writing and my writing itself. The topic that my semester was centered around was Romance manga and its significance to its readers, who are mainly women. This class allowed me to go beyond just reading it and dig deeper into it as a medium.
Thanks to the first three essays, I checked off a lot of the learning objectives set for this course at the beginning of the semester. Writing an essay based on experience, a research-based essay, and a mix of the two made me develop different ways to approach essays. For my personal essay, I wanted to put the readers in my shoes, so I had to think of an effective way to do that. Also, I had to keep my target audience in mind, which I never had to do. With my research essay, I had to do thorough research and put my ideas together in a coherent way. Since my chosen topic had a lot of information, I had to be careful not to lose my main point and not to lose my reader in the midst either. The autoethnography essay was very different from the two prior because it was a mix of those two. I also had to interview someone, so my way of collaborating was different from a peer who just peer-reviews.

As mentioned before, all three of my essays were different, so I had to consider many different genres of writing and each different rhetorical situation. I wanted to make sure my style of writing fit the respective prompt appropriately to achieve my purpose for each essay. Mainly with my research paper where I had to intake so many different scholarly articles that were coming from different points of view and eras. These articles were easy to find thanks to the school’s database, which was a lifesaver. Thanks to its filters, I found peer-reviewed articles from scholarly journals with the information I needed. The learning objective that I think I had the most trouble with was course learning objective 7. However, in the end, I achieved it best with essay 2, my research essay. The thesis for the second essay was, “Historically, romance manga has affected the conversation on gender and sexuality in Japan, has become a safe space for readers, and has had a big economic and cultural impact on Japanese society like the establishment of Lolita and Kawaii culture.” Using sources found in the school’s databases, I provided evidence and analyzed it to support my stance so my readers could see the connection. Also, I used a counterargument to make my readers see the two sides of the argument. It was: “critics overestimate the influence of shojo manga on readers based on individual experiences. These interpretations may not be relatable to those who did not share the same reading experience and may be more like individual “case studies”. Another learning objective I had a problem with was learning outcome eight, which was about citations. For my research paper in specific, I had my in-text citations done wrong. I only had the name of the author but not the page number. I also did not cite a YouTube video correctly. My professor gave me tips on how to fix my mistakes, which is what I did for my final draft.
Thanks to this class I was able to see my strengths and weaknesses in writing and work on them with help from my professor and my peers. I also found a way to find reliable sources quickly and easily with the assistance of the school’s library and databases. The diversity of the assignments has helped me become a more rounded writer and a stronger one overall.

Header image source: Kamisama Kiss manga by Julietta Suzuki; Strobe Edge manga by Sakisaka Io; A Sign of Affection manga by Morishita Suu; The Fragrant Flower Blooms with Dignity manga by Mikami Saka

Background image source: A Sign of Affection manga by Morishita Suu

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