Reflection Essay

It is still so surreal to reflect back on my first semester as an incoming college student in the ENC1101 course, analyzing at my progression as a reader and writer in literacy. Since the first day of class I set in stone my goals for this class: receive a 4.0 GPA, develop my connecting theories skills in writing, and become more aware of objectives for each Unit throughout the course. All of these goals became achievements that not only make others proud but most importantly give me self pride. In order to earn the grades and achieve these goals, I went after every opportunity that I was given as an incoming college student, such as office hours and extra credit. By taking this course I have gained confidence with the utilization of literacy, and made an addition to my group of impactful literacy sponsors. Once students are finished with high school they assume that there is nothing else to learn beyond the stereotypical five paragraph essay, but they are so wrong. I was able to obtain so much knowledge about numerous course concepts from Writing about Writing, articles, and my professor. These concepts will carry on with me throughout a bright future of writing courses, job interviews, and any other skills that require literacy. The four outcomes listed below will help illuminate how I improved as a writer, by being a driven college student and going out of the way to earn my achievements in this course. In the first outcome I improved comprehending scholar texts,

In this essay, I will cover some common errors in reasoning that can cause your argument to be undermined, also known as fallacies, in different types of media, such as commercials, videos, articles, and political speeches. I will also go over the different modes of persuasion that can be used to elicit a specific response out of an audience. These are known as ethos, pathos, and logos.

When I write, I believe one of my strengths is that I am able to generate logical perspectives and strong conclusions. I am able to analyze the literature and relate to it in many different ways. In the compare and contrast essay I wrote, "Oliver conveys a tone of remembrance by juxtaposing 'the old burn-dump this waste place' and 'this secret garden'". I am able to apply literary terms and analyze how the author uses them to enhance their writing. In the same essay, I stated, "By using short, concise sentences, Oliver is more direct in her delivery and showing her lamentations for what has happened to the earth around her". I am able to analyze what the author is doing and the effect that it has on the reader.

The most advantageous learning I had through the process of research and in the time of this class, was when I was presented with the opportunity to teach literacy and foster diversity by becoming a mentor in a local program called Reading Buddies. As a mentor, I assisted elementary students who have fallen behind in mastering literacy, to help improve their skills in English writing and reading comprehension. Many of these students are those of immigrant families, who are currently facing hardships adjusting to schooling because English has been learned as their second language. I have always been passionate about education, so naturally, I took interest in providing help where the structural violence of our non-accommodating American

Is the glass half full or half empty is a question that many people ask themselves to determine whether they are more optimistic or pessimistic. It is easy to see every glass as half empty, but with a change in your mindset, you can see every glass as being half full. At every football game, cheerleading competition, and band competition, having an optimistic mindset has helped me have a lot more fun than I would have had with a pessimistic mindset.

The book describes students overcoming obstacles as, “overcoming obstacles and challenges, in solving problems, and in adapting to organizational change” (Whetten & Cameron p82). I learned the English language abstractly, which I overcame and I managed and organized my time for work, home, and school. When I come to U.S, I could not speak decent English. Also, I had a young child and I was a single mother. I could not take my child to a hospital without having a language translator. I was actually disappointed in myself for the way I needed support from the interpreter every time. I finished high school in my country of Somalia, and during that time I had learned limited English, but it was not sufficient enough for me to talk with others. After six months when I came to Boston and I started working. I used to try to learn excellent English all the time so I can communicate with others, but it was not easy to me. Learning English is tough when you have children and you are an adult. It was not easy going to school when you do not have money to pay for school. For that reason, I used to search for schools that taught adults English for free. It took me couple of years until I could sign up and study at a community college. I received support from my teachers and tutors so I can learn and understand the language. Today I overcome that obstacle and I’m pleased with my hard work and honesty in my life and in university.

Throughout the course of my high school career I have primarily been intellectually interested in the evolution of the law and the role of legal institutions in modern society. I was first drawn to the law when I realized that it often goes beyond punishing or compensating individuals and considers, more broadly, the interests and goals of society at large and the community in which we live.

Upon my enrollment in high school, I joined multiple student organizations. I have been a member of my High School’s marching band, the Sound of Pride (SOP), since the eighth grade and have continued to participate every season. I marched both trombone and euphonium before becoming the Assistant Drum Major as a sophomore in the 2016 season. This past season, I was named the band’s Drum Major, becoming the school’s first junior to ever hold the title. After the conclusion of the marching band season, I perform with the TCHS Symphonic Wind Ensemble for both a winter and spring concert. During the spring, I also perform with the TCHS High Tide Steel Pan Band. I have been a member of both bands since freshman year. At the start of my junior year, I became the pianist for the TCHS Chorus. This year, I also joined the TCHS Drama Club and participated in the club-sponsored One-Act Play titled, “The Great American Talent Show.” Finally, the my sophomore year, I was chosen to be one of the six members of the Georgia Secretary of State Student Ambassadors to represent my high school and Tattnall County. Through this program, my team and I educate our community about how our government works and volunteer at local voting polls and municipalities. I was chosen to be a part of this team again at the start of this semester.

I have always been a person interested with anatomy. Although, when I was younger, I was more concerned about animals (polar bears specifically) to ever take the time to learn more about ourselves. School science classes were the first time that I was actually exposed to human anatomy. From the very beginning I was fascinated. There was one organ in particular that I never wanted to stop learning about; the brain. Whenever teachers in class would stop talking about it I would immediately become slightly less interested in what they were teaching.

At the start of interviewing my father, Henry, about maturing into adulthood while in college, he sat down wearing his usual thick glasses, blue starched polo shirt, fresh boot-cut jeans, and bright facial expression; he wanted to share his past with his son in hopes of teaching me lessons from his experiences. When I asked questions, he, as always, answered with much confidence. I soon came to realize that this trait was caused by his college days where he obtained self-reliance. To understand his journey, we must observe the phases that took him to his current state.

Throughout high school, I took my grades seriously as I maintained an overall grade point average of 93. My grades have always meant a great deal to me, however, I never knew how to correctly study. I had remained aware well before I came to college that my hands-off studying techniques would need to be forgotten and left in high school. However, until Allison Peer visited our class I was still unsure of how to get the most from my college experience and was not aware of how to successfully study. From what I have learned in this class and from Allison Peer I have decided to change a few of my study habits. For example, I would like to stop procrastinating my work and set up a schedule for studying and homework between classes, visit my professors during office hours when I miss class or when I do not understand what we discussed during class, and I have already begun connecting different ideas from different courses together to help me learn the material on a deeper level.

When the school year first started, I thought English class in junior year would be easy based on my performance in sophomore Honors English. However, AP English Language and Analysis has proven to be a difficult and rigorous course. I had struggled both as a student and as a writer in the beginning of the year, but I had learned to recognize several chronic problems I had made in my writing. Through the past school year, my writing skills had matured as I strived to fix issues in my writing. The improvements in my writing skills can best be seen through the growing conciseness, fluency, and analytical thinking in my essays.

I have learned a great deal of materials in Dr. Wise AAPS. class, we readied the county and wrote reflections about topics pertaining to literature, technology, and literacies. This allowed me to become a better critical thinker because her course requires us to analyze and reflect on yourself as individuals more than just giving a brief summary on our paper .After taking this course for about 6 months, I have realized that it had made a significant change in my life that i need as a african american man. When I am attending in classes such as political science or nutrition, not only am I understanding the readings better than before but I am also analyzing the information, forming my own thoughts (at times I even present my ideas to the members in class), and incorporating ideas from the past to increase the literacy towards the topic that I would’ve given up in the past. I value the qualities the AAPS course gifts to the students because it has improved me as a student, learner, and as an active member in the society we live in today.

Why do we need to label people as special needs? Today in our society we can be very condescending towards people. We might think it is okay or some might not even realize that they are doing it. The problem with not realizing it, is that our society has shaped people into thinking it is okay to label one another. Society has labeled people with exceptionalities with the words as special needs, the problem child, God’s angel, special, but that is not right. It is time to make a change, we are all the same but we have something unique about all of us.

As Yogi Berra would say, “just kidding I learned my lesson.” I made a lot of mistakes in my first OHSC0 writing assignment, the main one being to keep my essay focused even if it means leaving out what I had seen as comic relief. I believe just this change would have made room for me to correct most of my other mistakes as one of my biggest problems in this essay was editing it down to two pages. One of the main comments about my essay was that I should be, “including clear definition of terms in the scientific process,” and I actually previously had a much better definition for many of the terms, but I chose to cut and shorten them to make room for more comedic quotes. This was clearly a huge mistake and only hurt my essays fluidity and