Andrin Simeon

Dr. Anderson
English 1010
04/29/2014
Self Reflection

Generally, looking back at the research I did this semester, I can see how much I
have learned about the process of reading and writing. I learned to organize and
present my ideas by using different forms of writing. This will be helpful to me in the
future as I continue on with my studies. I am certain that I will require the reading and
writing skills I acquired in this course later in my school career. One of the most
important skills Ive developed is that of reflection - becoming aware of the changes in
my thinking from the time I began research for the IEP until now, which I discussed in
the conclusion of the research paper. Also, this skill is apparent in the Reflective Essay I
completed at the beginning of the course. The peer reviews we conducted also helped
me to learn to communicate effectively, interact with students from different cultures and
understand why they might think differently than I do.
This course has helped me to read and write more effectively, using my
knowledge of rhetorical strategies and analysis. For example, Im more aware of the
writers purpose and credibility and I can use skills like summarizing to learn more
effectively. This has helped me in other General Education courses. Also, because of
the knowledge I gained through writing the research paper, I am now more aware that
there are reasons that people sometimes have extreme opinions. For example, on the
subject of manmade global warming, many people arent willing to even discuss the
issue, but this is partly due to the difficulty of communicating and understanding the
subject matter, not just because of peoples intolerance.
By doing these various assignments, step by step in a specific order, I learned
exactly how to set up and structure my different papers. This exact process we learned
has helped me become a better writer. I now have a better understand of how to gather
and organize information. By carefully analyzing articles I learned how to determine the
author's purpose, intended audience, authors credibility and so on. I also gained a lot of
experience in considering for which audience I was writing. I can now successfully
analyze and determine the different rhetorical strategies an author used in his or her
writing. I learned about ethos, logos and pathos. By doing this work, I learned to assess
if the author is credible and if the article was suitable for my research.
While working on my writing projects I also learned about the different processes
in composing an article. I did several drafts. My work was peer reviewed and I then
revised and edited my work. The feedback I received from my peers helped me improve
on my writing skills, it gave me a different perspective and new ideas that I could include
in my papers. I also gained much experience in using proper sentence structure, citing
sources properly and incorporating the sources into my own work. The things I learned
in this course will be very useful as I am reading and evaluating texts and writing papers
in the future.