Reflection Paper

A primary strength in my writing is my ability to present a strong argument with clarity and support. Another strength I have in writing is a considerable knowledge of appealing to audiences and I take full advantage of my persuasive nature to create solid arguments. Additionally, I find that my writing is enhanced with an extensive vocabulary and a firm grasp on the English langue. I believe these things, the ability to make a sound argument, a strong capacity to appeal to an audience and firm control of vocabulary and language conventions make me a good

Throughout the course of this semester, I have continuously grown as a writer. Prior to taking this course, I had little experience or knowledge when it came to writing. I used to struggle with forming my thoughts into writing, let alone a paper. I was never confident with what I wrote. My writing had no greater purpose other than the assignment. My writing process included: writing my paper, proofreading it, and turning it in. Once the paper left my hands, it also left my mind. Throughout this course we worked with others, visited the writing lab, wrote critiques, and we were able to revise our papers. I believe that all of this is has caused me to grow greatly as a writer.

I believe that writing is one of my strengths in language arts. I practice with writing at home and have more experience with it. In my free time, I write stories to post online so that I can get feedback from people. Accordingly, I

Today, writing is a very important concept we all need to have the hang of. Through the years I have realized how much writing really does affect our lives. In the beginning, I will admit that my writing skills needed some work and actually, they still do. Writing has shaped my life to have better communications skills when they are needed and shows what I am capable of. I have worked retail for the past four years and being a front-end store supervisor I have learned to communicate quite well with my district manager. Learning to communicate on a professional level with the district manager allows me to show my ability on how I can handle work related situations. I have gained a lot of knowledge by being able to take in consideration

I want to improve my writing. I know the only way to get better is to practice, a lot. Furthermore, I need to utilize resources like the CRC to excel at practicing. I have never had any sort of tutoring before, so it will be a new experience for me. I plan to get better each time I write a paper. My papers may still have flaws; nonetheless, as long as I am outdoing the last paper before the last, then I am definitely developing my writing skills. I will keep on grinding out the work to become a pristine writer. To summarize, my writing has flaws and weaknesses, my strengths are becoming more resonant; however I WILL improve my writing. I am a powerhouse, I can produce whatever I set my mind to

By the time the world considered me to be an adult, I had an unshakable competitive spirit traceable back to as early as my junior high school days, if not before.

In today’s society, the main idea that is presented by many people is that there is nothing that can be labeled as an absolute truth. This means that everything that we believe today is based solely on one’s opinion of a certain matter. This philosophy was first brought to my attention during my junior year of high school. I was taking an AP language class, and my professor insisted on starting these arguments about absolute truths and opinions. As one of the only Christians in the class, these topics angered me. The professor was practically attacking the very beliefs that I stand firm on, and I was not okay with it. There would be times where I would raise my hand and present my argument against his belief, but that would always end in a class argument debating one side or the other. Once the class was over, I always found myself revisiting my Word. I could always find my comfort in the Word of God. As Christians, we have to understand the importance of the Canon, or truths given to us by God.

During this course, we have discussed the various ethnicities that make up the American culture and the effects that happen to each. I found the class to be refreshing considering how people view ethnicity and its interaction in the history of our country. My intent of this final essay is to cover what my views of the ethnic makeup and diversity that exists in America today. Next, I will cover how historical conditions that were covered in the class have influenced the current ethnic relations in the United States, and how my experiences guided me to these points in history. Finally, I will compare my own experiences with an individual with different experiences than myself.

The known is safe, the unknown is scary. Diving head first into something you don’t know is terrifying, why on earth would you do that. Sometimes doing something that scares you is needed, you never know the possibilities unless you try. In life you are presented with choices all the time, sometimes you have the choice of taking a risk or playing safe. I have personally been presented with that choice before. It was scary, I didn’t know if I was making the right or wrong choice since in a situation like that as there is no clear right or wrong. I chose to take a risk, I still don’t know if I made the right decision two years later. Before my freshman year of high school, I was presented with the choice of sticking to gymnastics which I had done forever or taking a leap of faith and trying out for cheer. I choose to tryout for cheer.

The PowerPoint for last class really summarized what I have been learning for my interviewing and counseling skills class. There are so many aspects to focus on as a counselor. One has to learn active listening skills, pay attention to body language, ask the right questions, not give too much advice, become a good observer, etc. I have focused so much on using theses skills for the first time that I have not realized that these can be used in different ways. In a classroom, one does not get to have the opportunity to talk to everyone because of multiple reasons, on the other hand, when on is working in a small group allows us to get to know each other and have easier access to each other. When my group and I worked on the group project we had our difficulties. One of the group members was confused on their part and did not ask for help until the last minute. I was able to help this person but it’s difficult for me to have an assignment due soon, and still not have all the information together. However, we got our work done and we all did a good job presenting our part. Every one emphasized on their part and I was proud to be their group member. There were three topics that we all felt were necessary to talk about so we combined two of them and we were excited for it. Were grateful because we had class time to work on the project because our schedules collide with each other. Unless we could reserve a day, than it would have been harder for us to link our ideas together.

Do you remember what your priorities were when you were eight years old? When I was that age (1965), I was in third grade. One of my jobs was to make breakfast on weekday mornings for some of my younger brothers and sisters. At that age, my primary goal was to figure out ways to get out of work around the house, so I could go outside and play with my cousins who lived in the neighborhood.

I learned some pretty strange things in my middle school sex education class. However, I’d consider myself lucky! My class was the only one to have a speaker come in to talk to us. He taught about one thing, and one thing only:

Within my time in Child Protective Services, I had experienced a consistent amount of lying, which to me was a new experience. I was forced to adapt by listening to, two almost completely different stories, then pick out the similarities, and fill in the blanks. There were several times when a couple would lie for one another but have stories so far off that it was obvious neither were being truthful. We also had a family rehearse a story so that all of their stories did match one another’s but the injuries and marks were not consistent with the story at all. I do not tend to lie often because I found early on that honesty really is the best policy and I have always been my friend and families safe haven so no one has ever felt the need to lie to me as much as I experienced with CPS. I had to break my trusting habits and listen to everything as something that I will be investigating later to ensure it was the truth. In the training I was encouraged to read people or at least give it my best attempt. Investigator Samuel Nunez was extremely talented in this aspect and consistently quizzed me to ensure I was gaining the skill. There would be numerous actions one could do, or even different tones in their speech, or even switching their speaking patterns that he would be able to notice and predict why the change occurred. I found that when one is too trusting when investigating they would often look incompetent at the end of the case. Often times this is before a judge when one

Over the course of the semester I felt challenged in several aspects of my writing during each paper that was assigned. Having the freedom of choosing my own topic and being able to focus and gain and thorough understanding of it throughout the course of the semester made writing truly enjoyable. Given all of these difficult assignments I believe that I have grown as a writer as a whole. Going through the process of writing a rough draft, editing that rough draft several times until the final product, although it seemed extraneous, in the end all the work payed off. The essay that seemed to pose the most challenging for me was the inquiry essay. It was not easy to find that balance between being informative, supporting my main arguments with personal knowledge and scholarly sources all while focusing on answering my main question “how is one’s psychological state affected when living with a chronic illness?”. As a result I decided to focus on my inquiry essay for the revision assignment, along with the feedback and suggestions I have receive from you along with Jina not only on the inquiry essay, but other essays that I wrote on the topic of chronic illness, that I believed pertained to this assignment.

On September 12, 14, and 19, 2017 I had the pleasure of tutoring Haven. Haven is a nine-year-old, who is in fourth grade at Mark Twain Elementary School in Hannibal, MO. In each session, we would work together for 60 minutes. I was able to learn a lot of things while tutoring. First off, going in to tutor Haven and not knowing really anything about her and her learning preferences. It was hard not knowing what strategies helped her the most when reading or which ones made it more difficult for her. But that is going to be with any student(s), you just have to go with the flow. You will learn those things as you get to know the student. That is what happened with Haven and I, within the first tutoring session she let me know her learning preferences and what she liked. Then within the sessions we were together, I knew which strategy helped her while reading and what she struggled with.