Sinicki 1 Keaston Sinicki Professor Ingram English 1101 July 17, 2013 Midterm Paper 1.

Critical thinking is so important because without it the world wouldnt be even close to where we are today. Critical thinking is crucial to a paper as well because it gives the paper an element of in depth observation that is otherwise not present. It also shows the reader a different way of thinking about things, or a different viewpoint. Critical thinking skills are also very important in creating a new genre. This is true because in creating a new genre people are often thinking about the best way to present a certain type of information. Critical thinking is also very important in literacy. In being literate one must respond to certain situations and questions correctly, the only way to do this is through critically thinking out actions before you act on raw emotions. Critical thinking is involved in all aspects of ones life, it can turn writing that would otherwise only be okay into an amazing art form. Critical thinking really challenges us to go deeper into thought than normal, and what you usually come out with is way more in depth and thought out than normal. Critical thinking is so important in anything we do from writing our English midterm paper to whether or not to pick a fight with a friend over something he said. 2. There are many differences between high school competency and college success. In high school to be successful all you really needed to do was show up and maybe do twenty minutes of homework a night. While in college you must force yourself to be engaged in class and do your homework/study even though you know most of the time it probably

Sinicki 2 wont even be checked. In high school the teachers wanted to see you pass, they wanted you to succeed even if you never really did anything in class. They also didnt mind if you missed a class a week or even more, it was their job to get you caught back up. In college the teachers get paid and keep their jobs whether you pass or not. They will also work with you to catch up with your work missed while absent, but they couldnt care less if you dont take the initiative to catch yourself back up. In high school a lot of my friends parents would regulate how much they would study per night, and in college you control everything you do, its your choice to study, play video games, or go to a party with your free time. The biggest difference between passing in high school and passing in college is that in high school you have to go out of your way to fail, while in college you must try hard just to pass. 3. The biggest thing that really resonates with me is the fact that there is no dress code in college. I have been in catholic school from pre kindergarten all the way to my senior year of high school. My 14 years of experience wearing a uniform was beyond enough for me. Since middle school I have had to wear the most uncomfortable khaki shorts that felt like cardboard on my legs, and these ugly polo shirts with my schools logo on it. People ask me quite often if I think that everyone being dressed alike stopped bullying or was actually good for us, but it truly limited originality and freedom of expression. My high school had dress down days where you could pay a couple dollars and dress down during the last Friday of every month. It helped us raise money for charities but that was also the only way to be able to show who you really are, and what you normally wear. Finally now that Im in college I get to wear what I want and feel great about it daily. If Im feeling lazy in the morning before classes I will wear gym shorts and a tee shirt (that

Sinicki 3 is my normal choice of attire), if I feel like it I can throw on my Ralph Lauren Polo shorts and collared shirts and keep it classy. 4. I would change the statement that you are on your own for meals in college. There are plenty of restaurants around campus that make food, and I went out to dinner with friends quite a bit when I was living at home in high school. I would definitely take the question mark off less sleep because I usually get less than six hours of sleep per night in college. When I was in high school I would normally get at least eight hours of sleep a night. My high school food plan was a lot more expensive than my college food is. I used to spend over twelve dollars for a lunch in high school and didnt even get full off of my meals. While here in college I have eaten larger meals for as little as six dollars. I would also take off more extra curricular options because Im playing football I barely have enough time to eat every day much less be involved in extra curricular activities. I would also take off grades for everything in high school. Because in my high school everything was not graded, most of it was but there were still many exceptions. I would add that there are more police officers on UNCCs campus than my high schools. 5. Im definitely engaging with responsibility for ones own learning by completing all my homework nightly and studying on top of that. I have been working very hard in all three of my classes, and its already paying off. I am trying to reach out to my teachers more and more by the day. Even with my lack of free time I always try to study as much as I can, and I take full advantage of our study hall from seven to nine o clock. I am also keeping an agenda of all the days I have a test and papers due by. This helps me stay organized and take full advantage of the two-hour study hall. I even met with a tutor last week to go over last years chemistry test, and ended up getting a ninety-nine out of one

Sinicki 4 hundred on the exam. I have been taking full advantage of being around my classmates non-stop by having them peer review my papers to catch mistakes I didnt, and tell me what I can do better. I have also been taking notes every time I read something for a class with the goal that I write down at least one bullet point per page. 6. I am struggling with intellectual growth and maturity because I have never been a good writer but Im starting to find my way into good writing. If I keep working hard there is no doubt in my mind that I will grow intellectually and in maturity through my writing. This is the first year I have actually tried in English, and in writing. It has helped keep me excited about writing that we get to choose our own prompt most of the time, and dont have to write five paragraph essays. To really improve in my intellectual growth and maturity I will simply need to continue writing and working on my revising process in order to create the best paper I can possibly create. Intellectual growth and maturity will come with time through a lot of critical thinking, and making sure I truly put everything I can into the papers remaining. I will also have to allow time for reflection of my progress as a writer and how I can become an even more intellectual and mature writer. I need to work on making my words jump off the page and being much more descriptive because that is how I will reach the next level with my writing skills. 7. The issues I have talked about in the earlier questions are all about my English 1101 experience and how I can take full advantage of this class and become a better writer by the end of the semester. These questions also show that I was paying attention in class and not sleeping. These questions challenged me as a writer to go in depth of very small topics and expand on them so much so I could become a better writer. This reflection also shows the differences between college and high school, showing what things I need to do

Sinicki 5 differently to be successful through this transition. All of these questions are about things we have addressed in English 1101 and will continue to work with throughout the rest of the UTOP program. During class we have subtly gone over all of these subjects and now we get our chance to expand on all of our different views. If we havent gone through these in class the questions were about how we could make good use of our time in class and what we can do to improve our writing. These questions have the common theme that everything we have done so far is toward a common goal to improve our writing. 8. In this course I would still like to inquire about who came up with the different genres of writing, and what their reasoning was for doing so. I would like to get more feedback on how well of a job we do when peer editing someone elses paper. A question I have been wondering about but keep forgetting to ask is if we will be reading our writing in front of the class. I really hope we are reading our essays in front of the class because I would like to hear other peoples voices through their papers. I also have questions about the boundaries of plagiarism for other classes. Such as if I draw a paragraph from a source and can barely re word the text without making it sound weird, would that be considered plagiarism? My biggest question is probably: what will my writing level be on when I leave this class compared to when I came into the class? I am a little worried that coming out of this class I might be at a level lower than expected in the next English class I have to take. I am also wondering how our essays will be graded accurately considering stories can be told differently so easily.