As we wrap up the end of the semester, I feel like I’ve tremendously grown as a writer. I never really saw myself as a strong researcher, nor did I like it. However, doing all these projects for English has made me grow to enjoy researching. Not only did I research, but I researched my future profession. It made me more aware and sure of what I want my position in the hospitality industry to be. 

I thought this was going to be a class about reading and writing summaries. When we were able to choose our topics and research on our own, I thought that was really cool. It motivated me, because it was something I genuinely wanted to learn about. The small reading the professor picked out was cool to read. My favorite reason was hands down the one from Jose Oliveras, because I related to him so much with the poetry. My prior work project number 1 was subpar compared to the work that I’ve recently done which was project number 2 and number 3. The reason I feel this way is because I think my last two projects were way more detailed and cohesive in terms of what I was explaining or trying to explain.

I think the technique that helped me the most was determining what tone I was planning to use. Once I’ve determined the tone, I could plan out how I’m going to write and how it’s supposed to sound. When I revised my project 1 assignment, I noticed it was better to remove any unnecessary or non-relevant information. That taught me that sometimes writing less is better than saying too much. I genuinely appreciated getting professor Rosen’s input on my assignments, because it showed me areas on where I could improve. When getting advice sometimes I tend to ignore it, but I always found my professor’s advice valuable.

When I got assigned project 1, I had become overwhelmed. It just seemed like a lot of work, and it was my first big assignment as a college student. When I started typing up my essay, the thoughts just started flowing. That’s when I realized it wasn’t hard, it just seemed hard. I may have written a little too much, and then I revised it to make it sound better and overall more cohesive.

Project 2 was way more researched based than it was for project 1, and that’s when I then became worried. I’m not big on research if it’s not something I want to research, nor have I ever been good at writing a research paper. However, I was worried over nothing, because we were able to pick our topic. I wasn’t as nervous about how much we had to type this time, because of my prior experience with project 1. I feel as if this project was a good mix between easy and hard, only because it was stressful looking for sources.

I would say project number 3 was the easiest, because it was basically an extension of project 2. All I had to do was think back on my information and put it into a different format. With writing the artist’s statement, I had a pretty good idea from the start of why I chose the topic. The only challenging part about writing the statement is trying to get the word count right. All-in-all project 3 was a great way to end my semester, and help sharpen my skills as a writer.

During this semester, I would say the most challenging thing for me would be just keeping up with the assignments. Sometimes your outside life can interfere with your school life, however, that shouldn’t always be an excuse. Although I had stuff interfering with my work, it was always on me to make it up. Even if it was a challenge, I still made up the work and caught myself up, and here I am writing my reflection. Given that one of my favorite hobbies is poetry, I have a poem wrapping up my semester in English. Enjoy !

As we end the year,

We end the stress,

We end the lost hours,

We end the unfinished assignments,

And we will soon start anew

Project after project, we persevere,

If it came down to it, we always made a guess

We activated our research powers

We were always focused on the alignment,

Watching our minds sulk and brew

However, all is clear

And we did it with finesse 

With our words, we knocked down towers

And although we may have needed some refinement, 

We always achieved our point-of-view.

Portfolio

Project #1: https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/hmgt-eng-fylc-f2021/2021/10/21/education-narrative-final-version/

Project #2: https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/hmgt-eng-fylc-f2021/2021/12/03/long-hours-in-the-hospitality-industry-bibliography/

Project #3 Part 1: https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/hmgt-eng-fylc-f2021/2021/12/17/twitter-thread-from-hospitality-group-about-working-long-hours/

Project #3 Part 2: https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/hmgt-eng-fylc-f2021/2021/12/19/artist-statement/