When entering a ten week summer English 102 Composition and Critical Thinking

course, I knew I was in for a good beating. This class required a lot of reading and writing every
day that needed to be cared for with tender love and thinking. Because I chose to skip out on an
international family reunion to pursue an Associates Degree in Science, by the end of Fall 2014
semester, I had decided to add on another class challenging me to manage my time between
two classes. Coming out of English 101 the previous semester, I was confident in my writing
abilities, yet I knew I was missing a key component in my writing that would complete my
satisfaction in my English career. My previous instructor had prepared me and my fellow
colleagues the basics on how to think critically and apply it into our writings. It was hard at times
to pull away from bias opinions because it was easier to apply it into certain topics I had written.
But, I was challenged to think critically on how to write my arguments and also write against
opposing arguments to make my claim valid.
By taking two classes during a ten week course, I was required to put in an intensive time
per class. My second class was a medical terminology class, and that had required me to put in a
lot of critical thinking - I was also assigned multiple research papers. Because each class met
every day and had assignments every single day of the week. I was forced to learn how to
manage my time. I had to teach myself how to split up my day between two classes. Since my
English class was the first class of the day, I would do my assigned assignments the night before
its due date. As for my medical terminology class, it was the last class of the day, so I decided to
do my work the morning of the assignments due date. By following my agenda, I was able to
complete the assigned assignments, but I did face a lot of pressure. There were times where I had
found myself up late at night trying to find more research about my topics in my English class.
The topics I had chosen to write about in English were either very broad or were being over
argued against me. Yet, I chose to stick with my claims because they were my beliefs and I had
found enough credible research to back my own opinion. The pressures I had faced those last ten
weeks of school will help me down the road in my future life as a student and a future radiologic
and MRI technologist.
On writing my first annotated bibliography, Asian American Relationships: An
Annotated Bibliography, was to help guide me through my value claim paper. It was not too
long ago since I have done an annotated bibliography, but I was told that I had needed to be more
concrete in places on my summary. I also had a tad bit of grammatical and editing errors that
were found within my annotated bibliography. I had ran into some trouble with citing my sources
due to that some sources I had found were lacking authors, dates, publishers, or sources that were
anthropologies. Because my paper was a topic about Asian Americans, I was able to find a lot of
academic sources about Asian Americans on their success to the American economy, and less
information about how Asian American relationships through stereotyping. I had to rely on
internet sources to help me find more information to back up my value claim. With that said, I
was satisfied with the sources I was able to collect for my essay, even if some sources were
missing a few important citation information.
With my first assigned paper, Psychological Effects on Asian Americans: That Choice is
yours to make, was a paper about how stereotyping effects Asian Americans relationships with
their families and friends. I was able to connect a lot of personal experiences into my paper,
which affected my grade. Upon writing this paper, I knew that if I did not contain my emotions,
my paper would turn out to be a biased paper. Well, it did turn to be a bit too biased than an
objective paper. Every argument I backed up, was backed up with a personal experience. Many
of the sources I had found did not give and quotes about personal experiences, but had given
statistical information that would be important in my paper. Because my topic was about the
psychological effects on Asian American relationships, I was able to relate to majority of the
facts that were found within my sources. Writing this paper, I had realized how far I have had
come from through the experiences I had to endure - the pressures of being someone everyone
expected me to be.
On writing my second annotated bibliography, Illegal Immigrant Benefits: An
Annotated Bibliography, was to help guide me through my policy claim and final paper of the
summer semester. Comparing this annotated bibliography from my previous one, I did a better
job at assessing my sources. I personally felt more comfortable with this annotated than the last
one. Even when majority of my sources were against my arguments, I felt that it had enough
evidence to why my argument was a consideration to look at. Again, I ran into citing problems,
but I was able to find publishers and dates by doing deeper research on the academic journals
found within Google. I had found a few credible internet sources that would back up my
arguments on illegal aliens receiving health and job benefits. Unlike having personal experiences
from value claim essay, I was able to connect with my topic stronger than any other options I had
before proceeding my annotated bibliography.
My second and final assigned paper, No Tengo Dinero: Chasing the American Dream,
was a paper about how corporations and the American society discriminate illegal aliens who
work the unwanted jobs Americans refuse to work in. Although I do not have any first hand
experiences of any situation to use as a illustration in my paper, I was able to take in a look at
how society view illegal workers by researching through forums, article comments, or by how
people treat them in the real world. Upon writing this paper, I knew that I would have a lot of
opposing arguments about how undocumented workers should be brought back to their origin
countries, and since my previous essay was a biased paper, I knew this would be an opportunity
to redeem myself. By adding opposing arguments and adding counter arguments to those
arguments in my paper, I would be able to make my paper an objective paper. Although I lacked
quotes in my paper, I was able to balance my paper by adding credible information on the
positives and the negatives of both arguments if the Unites States decided to legalize all
undocumented workers. As much as I disliked writing this paper because of all of the opposing
arguments were bringing my interest down, I am glad I was able to finish this paper. It had given
me the greatest satisfaction to find a way to finish my paper in a way where I was able to have
the reader really consider legalizing undocumented workers. This paper had tested my full
mental ability to overcome any obstacle I will face in my career field as a radiologic technologist.
I learned that even though the opposing views are greater than your argument, if you stand by
your opinion, there will be a way to end on a good note.
The following writing assignments are known as reading responses. Reading responses
are to be used to have the reader think critically on various situations such as double-speak,
media, and advertising. The following reading responses were reading responses that were my
last set to finish for the semester. The questions regarding to these reading response were about
how language is used through each product to persuade buyers to buy out there products, and the
other response is about food scarcity, and how it affects low-income neighborhoods. Those two
reading responses taught me about how to purchase my foods by looking deep into its facts, and
that low-income families are facing health problems for the future of America.
Over the course of my English 102 semester, I have learned how to think critically
beyond my expectations. Allowing myself to be more open minded than quickly judge an issue.
Although it has been a beating in this summer course, I am glad I was able to come out of this
class with a positive note. I came in struggling to manage time to coming out of this class
learning how to manage time with a lot of leisure time. For now, I am stratified with what I
learned in this class, but I know there is always room for improvement and I know there will
always be instructors out there who are willing to help guide me through those situations.

Sincerely,




William Vitin