RCA SELF-REFLECTION
Sarelle Alcantara
FIQWS 10103
For my Research Critical Analysis essay, I wanted to address something that I feel needs more attention within society. Being that we had to expand our topics to a larger scale, my goal was to bring more attention to oppression through the hands of other authors, writers, students, etc. I personally enjoyed writing this essay, however, I had to change my thesis many different times, due to a slight lack of direction. I tried to keep the concept of oppression revolving around those of one race. Until I realized that my research was way more general, as there are so many different marginalized groups, from women to races that are non-white, to children, the elderly, etc. So overall what motivated me in the choice of my thesis was to simply address a factor that plays a significant role in the long-lasting divide in our society; language. In all my research, there was always a section or paragraph about liberation, and steps to improve the oppressive ideologies in society. So what I hoped to accomplish was to enlighten and make the audience think deeper into the following: the way they speak, who they’re speaking to, and the history of how they’re speaking.
I want readers to see that language is something we may think unifies people overall, but to realize that there is a significant amount of power in how we talk, and how we are spoken to, in all different types of situations. There is power in how we write as well, the terminology we use, our tone of voice and more. I wanted to provide a stern, unbiased, and informative essay, but still keep it warm enough that those reading can stay interested in my research, my analysis of such research, and learn from my research as well. Following my peer review comments, I wanted to make it clear that I was analyzing how the production of language can lead to oppressive ideologies that cause an unbalance of power and privilege in society. I wanted to provide enough background and enough arguments and keep an unbiased perspective as well.
I feel as though I achieved the course learning outcomes of engaging in the collaborative and social aspects of writing processes, and composing texts that integrate my stance with appropriate sources using strategies such as summary, critical analysis, etc. I say this because I found numerous peer-reviewed sources that were able to support my thesis with an unbiased stance (Which I had trouble doing in past papers). I realized if I had only stayed with my original thesis solely focusing on African-Americans, my entire paper would have had a bias that I didn’t take notice of. I also feel as though my peers and I did an excellent peer review process this time around as we really read and critiqued each other’s work in-depth, and with honesty. I personally feel more confident in my writing after this essay. I feel as though I got a great amount of feedback from peers, my professor, and family, as well. I also feel confident in tackling another paper like this in the future, now that I know what steps to take. Being that I am now able to recognize bias in research and in my theses, and taking steps to analyze and interpret such information with an unbiased perspective and understanding. I feel comfortable in saying that my writing has improved after this essay.
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