Semester Reflection

As the semester started, I had set my mind that I was destined to achieve a lot. During the start of the semester, I had several difficulties writing English assignments especially in terms of grammar. During the first week of the semester, I sat down, organized my thoughts and comprehended that throughout the semester, I had to achieve all that I had planned for. As a student of English, I had planned that throughout the semester, I had to improve my skills as a scholar, writer and critical thinker. Now that the semester has ended, I can reflect all the semester activities to depict how my writing skills and critical thinking skills have drastically improved. This paper presents a reflection paper of how this semester’s assignments have shaped me as a writer, critical thinker and scholar. Since the start of this semester, I have encountered many aspects of English that I can now understand. There are several ways through which I have shaped my writing skills over the course of the semester but one major activity of the semester that has helped me a lot especially in my writing and critical thinking skills is the semester writing assignments. During this semester, I got the opportunity to write several assignments. The two major writing assignments that helped me a lot in comprehending about the several aspects of writing were writing on â€Å"Obama’s acceptance speech† and â€Å"Downloading from torrent. † During these semester writings, it was quite interesting to learn the use of English writing skills under different circumstances. First, writing a paper on â€Å"Obama’s acceptance speech† instilled me with knowledge on how to analyze a speech and present the ideas and themes of the speaker. This assignment was also critical in shaping my critical thinking skills since I was able to critically analyze Obama’s speech in relation to its purpose and context. Writing this speech also enabled me acquire the skills of writing papers from first person context. I acquired the skills to use strong introductory phrases that hold the capability of capturing the reader. Flateby (p 190) argues that critical and creative writers must use descriptive words. I am now able to utilize descriptive words in my writings that are capable of creating a scenic imagination to the reader. I am also able to write a reported speech. These are writing skills that I gained after writing the paper on Obama’s acceptance speech. I believe that these are very critical skills that will help me throughout my entire course and even after my studies. Throughout the semester, I have gained skills necessary for understanding and utilizing logic while writing. I am now aware that for any writing to be scholarly, it must possess an introductory section, a body and a conclusion section. Further, I am now able to understand as well as utilize most of the basic techniques useful in pre-writing, revision and editing. Through writing the â€Å"downloading from torrents† paper, I acquired skills in word processing, sentence elements, and punctuation. Further, I developed some special skills in writing a website analysis which is a critical aspect in contemporary learning as argued by Flateby (p 182). As the semester folds, I believe that I have gained the prerequisite skills in writing and critical thinking. However, I need to improve much on some of the common problems in writing that seems to disturb me especially grammar. In regard to the development of my critical thinking aspects which cannot be depicted from my writings, I have gained several critical thinking skills from my writing assignments throughout the semester. Through writing assignments such as â€Å"downloading from torrents† and â€Å"Obama’s acceptance speech† I gained the skills necessary in summarizing a given reading using my original thoughts. When I was writing â€Å"Obama’s acceptance speech†, it was a required that one had to read and understand the speech then analyze it using own thoughts and perceptions. This helped in shaping my critical thinking aspects. As denoted by Flateby (p 190), critical thinkers must have the ability to form opinions. This is a skill that I have also gained through the semester’s writing assignments. This was acquired through writing the â€Å"downloading from torrents† assignment that required the students to form personal opinions about the website. I can now form opinions with ease as well as express it with precision and clarity through writing. Further, I am also able to deduce the premise of most writers after reading a number of scholarly writings. In deed, this semester’s assignments have shaped my writing and critical thinking skills. I am now able to understand the meaning of several written works, conduct a rhetoric examination, write opinion papers, and analyze speeches, write critical analysis papers as well as effectively reference my assignments. Though I found it challenging throughout the semester, I am now able to use several examples while writing my assignments. The semester’s activities have really paid me out. As the semester started, I had a mediocre performance but I can now ascertain that as the semester ends, I am now among the best students in the whole class. To improve my grammar in the coming semester, I aim at visiting the university English writing center where I will get help on grammar. I am also planning to enroll in a part time grammar class. Though the semester’s assignments helped me in improving my performance, I still owe it the efforts of my instructor and my fellow students who tirelessly helped me in my path to becoming a great writer, a better critical thinker and a scholar.