The purpose of this reflection  is to review the final stage of my essay writing identifying my strengths and how I feel my writing has changed throughout the course as a whole

To start with one of the primary difficulties writing this essay is  something my fiance has pointed out – it has been very difficult at times to be objective with regards to practitioners whose work involves chronic illnesses or conditions due to having a history of a rare cancer and this makes my reading more likely to be subjective rather than objective – combine the cancer with my Asperger’s and it becomes a double battle to take myself outside of myself and look at a subject objectively and academically and this is something I am only learning to do through experience and through the considerable research involved at this level of my degree studies.

I am very much aware that I need to drastically increase my reading in order to research broader contexts – as I write this review I realise I have missed including the materiality of textile art within my essay which was noted as part of  a general point in Assignment 3 feedback but I will await my tutors feedback first before doing further alterations.  The reading of books, journal articles and such like will improve weaker aspects of my essay writing and also improve my overall academic vocabulary which again is another weak area and something I am aware I struggle with – the first book on my list is The Textile Reader which arrived only a matter of days ago and hence has only been used in a minor capacity to help revise this essay.  I am awaiting delivery of Vitamin T which has been recommended by my tutor and as with The Textile Reader will be crucial in reworking if required post tutor feedback for this assignment.

I feel throughout this course my writing has developed into a gradually more academic style but again further reading of both texts and essay writing books is needed in order to improve this further and to understand the stylistic idiosyncrasies.

I do finally feel that I am learning to consider all aspects of practitioners work including the aesthetic qualities and either direct or indirect analogies and metaphors by not just considering the visual aspects but looking more closely at the fabrics used, methodologies, stitches and overall context.  What I personally find is also understanding the overarching themes of the practitioner and how they have developed their work over time including any artistic influences.

Writing has always been one of my stronger areas but this essay has left me feeling that I need to submit this assignment, grab a pile of books and just sit, read and absorb whether it is just the aforementioned book on essay skills or journal articles on feminist art through to metaphors and quilting history and anything and everything in between!

ASSESSMENT CRITERIA:

Demonstration of technical and visual skills:   Not relevant

Quality of outcome:  By revising the content of my essay I feel I have been able to apply my knowledge gained throughout this course and feel the communication of my ideas has improved but my vocabulary and discernment with regards to the composition of my essay still needs to improve.

Demonstration of creativity:  Not relevant

Context:  The reflection and critical thinking areas of both this assignment and assignment 3 I feel have been strong areas but my research needs to be broadened drastically including inspiration beyond textile practitioners in order to create greater depth of analysis  – I am aware I have almost paraphrased my feedback from assignment 3 but feel that although I have strengthened and been more confident in my research since that feedback there is definitive room for further improvement.