Reflective writing: practice and application

¶ … learning outcome has had a positive effect on me, on the way that I think, and on the way that I write. I personally believe that a person who is interested in putting across intellectual thinking needs to be acquainted with the believing and doubting game. Whenever I try to consider new ideas I employ critical thinking and I attempt to doubt concepts that I believe to be true simply in order for me to be able to get a more general understanding of the respective ideas. Through taking more time to think about an idea I am more likely to improve it or to discard it, depending on whether or not I learn more about it. There is no room for comfort when considering intellectual thinking and any individual who wants to put across such judgment needs to accept that he or she needs to go through a series of phases during which he or she will become more or less able to evaluate the concepts that he or she considers.

The fact that I am both for and against a particular idea makes it possible for me to gain more experience in working with the respective idea and provides me with the opportunity to come up with a series of concepts that are either against or in favor (or even both) of it. It is not necessarily that one needs to complicate an idea in order to understand more regarding it, as one has to learn that things can actually be more complex than people might think they are.

3. Craft a clear, engaging thesis statement and support it with well-organized arguments and appropriately documented evidence.

An idea does not necessarily need to emerge before a person gathers information to support it. Through writing in regard to particular concepts that I considered interesting I learnt that you need to provide extensive information alongside of an essay in order for readers to express interest in its content. As long as the thesis puts across a particular position concerning a certain concept, the writer needs to support his or her writing with scholarly data that demonstrates that information in the essay can actually be verified.

By having access to an annotated bibliography, the individual reading a paper is more likely to comprehend confusing elements present in the respective paper and he or she is probable to learn in regard to the exact role that each source has played in shaping the essay.

Sometimes it can be difficult for a writer to understand whether he or she is plagiarizing and by performing a plagiarism quiz the respective individual can understand more about his or her original ideas. People are not born with knowledge and it is perfectly normal for someone to make mistakes during his or her initial attempts to work in a particular field. Through performing a plagiarism quiz consequent to writing an essay I discovered that some of the information I used needed to be acknowledged. People are often inclined to consider that particular concepts are common knowledge because they are acquainted with them. However, one needs to carefully analyze his or her work in order to be able to differentiate between common knowledge and information that needs to be cited or acknowledged before turning it in.

6. Respond orally and in writing to the works of others, both by summarizing and speaking back

In order to be able to provide an effective solution to a particular problem you first need to thoroughly understand the issue, its background, and more than one way through which you can fix it. Evolution made it possible for us to understand that everything can be improved and as long as one uses the right tools with the purpose of doing so he or she is likely to experience success in his or her endeavor. I found that I often thought that I was able to address particular issues raised by my friends and make them better, but I did not know that I needed to be thoroughly familiarized with the topic under discussion in order for me to do so.