ENG 2150 Spring 2017 Assignment 1: Critical Reflection
ENG 2150
Spring 2017
Assignment 1: Critical Reflection
Reflection is a process that promotes self-awareness and encourages self-assessment. Reflection allows one to
think critically about one’s ability to effectively get across content knowledge of the writer with its intended
audience. Generally, a reflective piece of writing includes 3 components: describe, examine, and articulate
learning. For this assignment, think back to an assignment you had and write a 5-7 page reflective paper on it.
You may keep the following questions in mind to guide your writing.
Describe
• Where was the assignment? Who was your audience?
• Did you have a choice for the topic or only 1 was given? Why did you choose that one if you had a
choice?
• Did you work alone?
• What was the process like? Describe the steps you followed.
• How did you do research if some were involved? How did you feel doing research?
• Describe how you felt as each point of that process. Why do you think you felt that way?
Examine
• What was your goal?
• What skills did you use most while you were gathering your material/research?
• Did you form any new assumptions that required you to change your approach? How so?
• Did you acquire any new skills by having to work to achieve this goal? What were they?
• What was the hardest part?
• Did you receive feedback on a draft? From whom? Was it useful? How? What did you change, if
anything, after you received feedback? How helpful was it?
Articulate Learning
• What did you learn from the topic? Why does this learning matter?
• What did you learn about the process of writing the paper? How will this benefit you in other
endeavors?
• What was the reaction of the intended audience? Do you believe it achieved its target?
• What would you do differently next time in a similar situation?
• What would need to happen next time to get your intended audience to understand more or behave
differently?
• Can you use any of the skills involved in other situations?
Reflective Essay
Name:
Institution:
Course:
Date:
Describe
The assignment was in Flushing, Queens New York; a place that reminds me of home relative to the basic setup and even the cultural relevance of the area. In this case the paper was written with the class in mind, however, there was also the scholarly community in America along with the Chinese immigrants in the country. The focus on this group of audience is that these are people that can easily relate with the content (Nicolls, 2013). The Chinese immigrants for example, are persons that have been away from their country for some time. As such, they the most likely audience to understand the challenges of being in a foreign country. As for the scholars in America, this is a baseline paper that gives the experiences of a Chinese immigrants who is studying in the united states. it is these kinds of experiences that shape scholarly papers along with policy development among others. The last group in the case are the students in the class who I interact with on almost daily basis. By delving on the experiences, I have as a foreign student, this furthest increases the level of understanding among the students both immigrant and native. Each is able to understand the level of struggle involved in class and even in the general community. As such, fostering stronger social connections that are based on understanding.
The instructor did not give a topic which meant the students had to choose topic relative to the assignment guidelines. According to the instructor, the students were requited to write about a place they knew about but were not largely familiar with. This is to mean that they have an idea about the place and may have visited, and they have some information about it. However, they do not have the full details about the place. The information they have on the place only helps them make the first impression about the basic features of the same. The choice in Flushing is related to the fact that, this is the closest I have to the experience back home (Nicolls, 2013) . Flushing has strong Asian influence and specifically Chinese culture that resonates with the immigrants from china. There are a number of establishments and general values that the people in the area have are those that one would find in China.
I worked on the paper alone; this helped with giving the content a personal experience and appeal. Working along also helped with ensuring that I did not spend a lot of time making the decision on what to include in the paper as much of the content were personal experiences and did not need to consult another party other than general research to have to paper completed.
The writing process in the paper was rather straight forward. The first part involved deciding on the topic to write about. The second part involved writing up the outline of the paper. This would act as a guide to the organization of thoughts to be included in the paper. The third step involved carrying out some research on the topic. This lead to some adjustment on the outline. the fourth process involved writing the paper and lastly proofreading and making the necessary corrections.
Much of the research on the paper included the basic information about Flushing. This is with reference to the development of the area and how it has grown to become one of the best examples of cultural diversity and at the same time a preservation of the Chinese culture in America. Doing the research, this made me appreciate the cultural integration of the different culture and purity of the cultures in Flushing. The research process was quite humbling as I started off thinking I have enough information on the cultural integration and found a lot of information I did not know existed.
Examine
The goal of the paper was to express the cultural significance ...