Final Reflection
Final Self-Assessment & DAPPS Goal
Adrian Benjamin · ENG C1000 · Prof. Griffiths · Summer 2026
Looking back, I would highlight situational awareness as the major competence I gained in the last quarter. In particular, I learned to think critically and recognize bias while utilizing the resources we discussed in Unit 2. After reading the Foothill Library’s Fake News Guide and exploring the cases of fake news covered by BBC and PBS, I understood that before accepting any information as truth I should determine who benefits from promoting this particular information. What is more, I managed to use the skill we got while working on Unit 3, where I had to assess whether the library research I used, including the study conducted by Neville et al. on family-strengthening projects, was relevant to my argument in truth rather than in a name. A good understanding of the difference between truly relevant and seemingly relevant sources helped me to become a better researcher.
The changes regarding my writing skills in this quarter were very significant. The first essay was about the comparison of the memoir Secret Harvests by David Mas Masumoto and the article written by Wendy Lu about disability and Asian Americans. The feedback from my instructor stated that I had to improve my PIE structure and writing of my thesis statement, so I followed this advice and made improvement in the third essay. The third essay shows my efforts to put clear topic sentence, relevant evidence, and explanation back to the topic in each paragraph as I wanted. I have also learned to achieve better communication of the ideas present in the article since my ability to connect different ideas has greatly increased.
My DAPPS Goal
By the end of the first week of my next English course, I will apply the PIE paragraph structure and source-synthesis skills I built in English C1000 to my first essay draft, without needing to look up my instructor's feedback first.
This goal is Dated because it is tied to the first week of the new course, Achievable because I already practiced this skill repeatedly this quarter, Personal because it is based on my own growth areas from the feedback I received on Essay 1, Positive because it focuses on what I want to do well rather than what I want to avoid, and Specific because I can measure it by checking whether my first draft already reflects strong PIE structure and synthesis without a revision cycle first.
I am genuinely excited to keep building on what I learned here. I already registered for my next English course for Fall quarter, and I feel like I am walking in with real tools instead of starting from scratch. This class pushed me to think of writing as something you build skill in over time, not something you either are or are not good at, and I want to keep proving that to myself in the next class.