“Analysis is the critical starting point of strategic thinking”, says Kenichi Ohamae. This is the trajectory I have been traversing on while doing my Lab Report Analysis essay, and I wish to expand upon through this Self Analysis essay. Therefore, this essay reflects on the rhetorical situations the essay uses and the class learning outcomes I achieved through writing it.
The purpose of this essay was to analyze if the Writers Checklist on page 571 of the textbook can be used as a framework to determine the effectiveness and quality of reports that researched the same field of study. I initially started writing with the purpose of listing the structural differences and similarities in the reports, and through the class discussion on the 8th of October, I realized that I was creating a survey instead of an analysis. This helped me realize the first class learning outcome, I was able to use my classmates’ range of linguistic differences to draw the nuances of the purpose of the essay and what it should be driven by. I was also able to achieve the seventh learning outcome, as I practiced using the CCNY library resources and online databases like JSTOR to find reports that all analyzed the effects of climate change. I wanted to pick a singular topic that united the three reports, to compare the structural differences by placing the umbrella of the content as constants. I also achieved the eighth course learning outcome through evaluating, analyzing and citing my lab reports. Formulating the purpose of the essay, was the most challenging task in this assignment, and the class discussions and peer conversations helped me arrive at mine. Although I am satisfied that I got to this point, I wish my thesis was more specific and analytical than a cheat sheet for lab report writing. The exigence of the essay was to look at technical writing through a critical lens with defined parameters. The genre was an essay, a medium I was accustomed to working with, but I had to tackle it with the APA format. This was my first-time writing using the APA format, and initially I used headings and sub-headings to organize the paper and after the professors review of my draft, I grasped a better understanding of this format. I was able to engage in genre analysis and by switching from paragraphs to an essay format I was able to explore multimodal composing and thereby achieve the fifth class learning outcome. I also achieved the eighth course learning outcome through evaluating, analyzing and citing my lab reports.
The audience of the essay is the professor, and members with background knowledge on climate change or the area of study of the three reports. Therefore, I made the conscious choice of not defining technical terms as I used them or delve into explanations of processes or concepts as my audience already understand them as members of academia. Through this strategy I achieved the third Class Learning Outcome, I changed my writing to match the expectations of the audience. I think I could have done this more effectively, because at certain points I feel like the essay could be read by any layman as it lacks a certain level of rigor, and although this makes the essay more approachable, it might not reach up to the standard required in academia. This brings us to stance, although this essay is about a lab report, I tried to maintain the professional stance of a lab report with spaces to incorporate opinions which were born out of evidence and reason. I used word choice and the organization of my essay to convey stance and thereby achieved the sixth learning outcome. Through peer review, I acquired the fourth learning outcome, I developed and engaged with my peers to learn how analyses can be organized as an essay and how smooth transitions can be carried out. Through continuous correspondence, class discussions and constant review I acquired the second learning outcome, I acquired strategies for drafting, editing and self-assessment. My peers advised me to draft my essay in a manner that I only include information that supports my argument. As for editing, the class discussion and exercise on avoiding wordiness shaped my process. As for self-analysis, through reading works of my peers I had a better understanding of my work and its context.
To conclude, this assignment has been a rigorous exercise that incorporates all the rhetorical situation while helping me achieve several class learning outcomes. It has also left me with a newfound confidence to write and analyze lab reports.
