Reflective Essay

I began the semester with a tiny essay about how I rarely write, even though when I do write, I actually enjoy it. With horrible grammar, I explained how I enjoy articulating thoughts in ways that, until written, only exist as an intuition. I explained the good emotions that come from writing. Over the semester, albeit often last-minute, I wrote a lot. This writing reminded me that my claims in that first essay were all true.

This class enhanced my analytical and writing skills greatly. It taught me how to properly develop ideas, how to revise and review. I think that between every revision of every essay, I notice myself finding better ways to write and articulate efficiently. A good example would be this very essay. I looked it over and realised I had no example for revisions, and then came up with this meta idea for an example. This skill also allowed me to better understand and develop philosophical topics, which directly affected how I write my papers for my philosophy class.

Being able to understand different rhetorical situations allowed me to better grasp other perspectives, especially controversial perspectives. Controversial opinions don’t come about randomly; differing rhetorical situations develop different ideas. It helped me gain respect for other opinions. In class, we’ve discussed many topics, some of which I thought some people were saying nonsensical opinions about things, but I have come to realise that, from the perspective and situation of the other people, these are not such bizarre opinions.

Trying to not only understand but also develop ideas across rhetorical situations while remaining academic and coherent has been quite the fun challenge. Having to understand a new, unusual perspective and apply logic to it, like in the Rogerian essay, is quite the exercise, and is a skill I’ll likely take advantage of in many ways throughout my life.

Having discussions in class, whether it is reading discussions or peer reviews, is another modality that allowed me to understand and develop things in a way I would not be able to do otherwise. There were always details I’d miss from the reading and in my own essays that dialogue would help with.

I believe I’ve participated as an academic citizen as I now have a website containing my own work and achievements, ready for people to view and judge, hopefully university level, work. I’ve also taken responsibility for my own work. As late as some assignments were, I had nobody constantly pressuring me to complete them as I did back in high school. The only thing is my procrastination, something I’ve still got to work on.

The exploratory essay was the first time I had ever used a real database and had to find proper sources for writing. I ended up so captivated by all the material that I basically became a master researcher (at least compared to before this year) and now utilise and incorporate authoritative sources, like the YU Libraries, in my day-to-day life.

This, in turn, also greatly improved my capability to succinctly express ideas in academic discourse.

Writing this reflective essay has actively demonstrated to me the importance of these skills and how they are useful in navigating most situations in life.