Reflective Essay

To be honest, when I enrolled in English 201 I felt as though it would be the same English class that I always had to take. I did not feel that I would learn anything that I already did not know. Boy was I wrong. This class has developed me into a much greater writer, as well as a reader and a researcher. Throughout this portfolio you will see examples of my works, the before and the after. You will also see how much I have learned about analyzing readings and researching different topics. With the help of this course, I believe that the most improvement I have made was with researching. I have become a better researcher by improving my research skills, citation skills and learning how to find valid and appropriate sources.
In the beginning of this portfolio I have three pictures and a quote. They all mean so much to me. The Detroit Redwings Picture is of my favorite hockey team’s logo. They have always been my favorite hockey team ever since I can remember. I started watching hockey with my dad and he always loved the Redwings so naturally I fell in love with them too. The other pictures are flags. The flags represent me and my family. The first flag is the flag of the Former Soviet Union. The reason why I have this up here is because that is where I was born technically. I was born in 1989 in Kiev, Ukraine, which is why I have the Ukrainian flag up there. At that time it was still part of the Soviet Union. My father was a part of the military and as a result my family could not leave the Soviet Union. Another reason I have the Soviet Union flag up there is because in 1992 when it collapsed my family and I moved to the United States. It was the best move that my parents could have made.
If you cannot already tell my family means a lot to me. They are always there for me and are my inspiration for everything I do. That is why the epigraph that I chose is: You don't choose your family. They are God's gift to you, as you are to them. This motto is absolutely correct. I didn’t choose who my family was going to be but instead God gifted me an absolutely amazing family that has helped me out and inspired me to do everything that I want to. I have always been there for them and helped them out so I hope I am also a gift to them.
As I had said before, I believe that the most improvement I have made thus far in my writing career, thanks to my English 201 class, is with researching. My research skills have drastically got better. One way to show this is by looking at my research paper. The sources that I used all came from reliable websites that are not biased in any way. The reason I learned so much about researching was because we had one class solely devoted to teaching us all of the tools that the library offers. The man who came in was a representative from the library and he showed us personally how to use all of their resources. He gave us handouts with the best databases and how to get there. He also showed us on the big screen and had us follow along. After the class I started to research my topic about accounting. I went through some of the online databases and found an astonishing number of results. It was hard to pick only a few from the many that I had found. On top of getting all of those sources online I found two books that were located at different libraries. Robert Half’s Success Guide for Accountants, and The Future of the Accounting Profession: a Global Perspective were the two books that I needed for my research paper. I had to request them through the inter library loan system which took about 4 days to get here. One of the other things I learned that was really important had to do with Google. I had learned that information that you find through Google is not always reliable or valid. In my past I have always found information through Google because I thought it was all correct. While doing some research I found that items on Google actually give false facts. I found that on one Google website said that the CPA exam is a one time sitting just like the SAT’s. However on the government website that actually issues the exam it stated that it is done through multiple sittings. And that you do not have to register for all of them at once but can take them all throughout the time of 2 years. Dr. Poe informed me of Google Scholar which is just like Google but has all scholarly journals that were all published so you know that it has reliable and valid information. In the future if I ever need information I will use all of the resources that I have learned in this class.
Another main thing about researching that I have learned is about citations. Before this class I had no idea on how to properly cite anything in the actual papers. I knew how to make a works cited and an annotated bibliography but when it came to quotes and information from websites or books I had no idea how to properly cite it with the parenthesis. Thanks to this class I now have the knowledge and skill to properly do an inline citation. Here is an example of one inline citation that was taken out of my research paper. In the article “Recruiting the Best Accounting Students in a Tight Market: Some Guidance” by Sharon L. Kimmell, Pamela K. Keltyka and Emeka Ofobike the authors state that “…the demand for top accounting graduates currently exceeds the supply” (Kimmell, Keltyka, and Ofobike 68). This is the proper inline citation for a Journal.
With the help of Dr. Poe, and the information I learned from English 201, I am now able to say I am a good researcher and I know how to properly cite, properly look for sources that are reliable and valid, and conduct proper research.
Even though this course has made me a better writer, reader, and researcher I still feel as though I need improvement. I need improvement when it comes to writing. I can tell by looking back at my previous works that I have improved. Mainly I think it is because I learned how to ask for help and how to get help. Throughout this course I have went to the writing center to get my papers revised as well as asked my friends that are really good in writing papers to help. The part of my writing that I need help on is the claims and getting the evidence needed to support my claims. I have a lot of ideas when I write and I tend to just write them out plain and simple. I put all of my ideas together without any supporting details or evidence. Thanks to the resources of the library, the writing center, and my friends they have helped me in expanding my ideas and helping me come up with the claims and evidence needed to back it up. I plan to continue to go to the writing center and hopefully will begin to expand on my ideas as I come up with the ideas in the future.
My participation in the class is unique. In the first few classes I will be honest; I did not participate to the best of my ability. I believe that it had a lot to do with being stressed as well as being constantly sick in the beginning of the year. I feel as though I have changed half way through the semester into a much better student. I participated greatly and was not a distraction. I also did all of my work in class and for homework. I only missed one class and that was because I had to go to my cousins wedding in Las Vegas. I hope that we can look beyond the first half of the semester and focus on the second half. I truly believe I changed and will continue to change into a better person and much great participant.