Hamad Hadeed

P. Thomas
UWRT 1101-103
12/5/2014
Final reflection

My experience with this class has been very pleasant, I have learned many
new things and I have been able to grow in a process of becoming a better writer.
Given that English is not my first language, I found this course at times a bit
challenging. When I ask myself what would I improve about this class, I first think
about my struggle with citations. Giving credit to other authors and researchers is
very important and so should the emphasis on learning the correct way of citing
them be.
I really enjoyed the practice of having to interview a group; it was a new and very
interesting experience. It brought me out of my comfort zone to gather some data
and have some social interactions with people I did not know and gave me more
tools to write in a better way.
I remember at the beginning of the semester when I first read about Malcolm
X in his experience. I learned that literacy is not something that is only taught in
schools, it is a life style that can be gained from an individuals motivation and
willingness to learn. Malcolm X opened my eyes to see the importance to have a
passion for reading, not only will it make me grow as a person but also will broaden
my knowledge and my writing skills. In one of his stories, he talked about how he

did not feel qualified enough to read advanced books, so he decided to read and
memorize the dictionary; that is the kind of passion that I want to have one day.
Writing is a thought process that has a specific series of steps. For example,
when a person wants to construct a building, he or she cannot start building out of
nothing, there needs to be analysis, drawings and calculations, to make sure that the
final product is going to be the absolute best possible. Before writing an essay, one
needs to make an outline, do research, and study the topic before adventuring to
write about it. When writing, one needs to have a clear purpose behind the essay.
This purpose will help in delivering a message in a clear and educated way, this
purpose can be informational, persuasive, to give thanks or to argue about a topic. In
he same way, when writing, we need to consider who the audience is, I cannot write
about quantum mechanics in a childrens book. In a similar way I cannot write a
book for adults using words for children, at least if I want to keep my audience
interested. Words should be acceptable and adapted to the audience, making the
words interesting and captivating is important to keep the reader wanting to read
more.
When I was asked how I would persuade a group of peers in a class to join
me in a study group I first thought positive reasoning to why they should join me.
This approach will help them to see the positive side and the advantages on joining
a study group. In the same way, giving counter arguments of the negative
consequences of not joining the study group. After having them joined the study
group they are several behavioral suggestions that I will make to them. Accepting
constructive criticism is very important because that will help you learn from your

mistakes and correct them for future essays. Giving feedback on somebodys work
can be a delicate situation; you want to help them without hurting their feelings or
discouraging them this could lead to them doubting their writing abilities. Always
encourage writers to double check and triple check their work this will help them
encounter their own mistakes and learn form them.
I wan to share some of the process that I went through in writing my
discourse community essay. Developing this essay was not easy because I was not
sure it was the best topic for me to write about, however, once I chose a group I felt
a little better since I had some background information about that it. After choosing
the group, I developed questions for an interview which went well, I learned many
new things about charlotte like cultural places, historical places, places for
entertainment and also shops and places that will help me when I am feeling
homesick. After that, I made an outline after analyzing answers, thoughts, and
all the information I gathered during the interview. I proceeded then to write my
first draft describing all the things that happened during the interview, I wrote
about what I saw and what I experienced. Since the situation was a nice one it was
interesting to write about it. After getting my first draft back, I got a huge amount of
feedback from my instructor and my peers. One of the first advices I received was to
make an annotated bibliography to get a better idea of what to say from each source.
Another feedback I received was to be more specific and to elaborate some of the
ideas by giving examples. It was no surprise I had some grammar mistakes hat I
needed to work on and I have learned from those mistakes.

I chose to accept all the feedback specially because I am learning a new

language and a good learner always considers all constructive criticism. In general, I
was satisfied with my final draft, it can always be improved, however, taking into
consideration my level of English I believe it was a good paper.