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Matthew Elyas

Professor Kelby Accardi-Harrison

Philosophy 25

13 June 2019

Final Reflection
I achieved a great deal this semester, and I progressed as a better person both in and

outside of the online classroom. The three chief goals that I proposed at the beginning of the

semester include improving my critical thinking and writing skills, not falling behind on assigned

readings, and finishing all assignments in a timely manner; I feel that I accomplished my primary

goals to a great extent.

To begin with, the main academic skills that I tremendously improved on this semester

are my critical thinking skills and my writing skills. The things I practiced that contributed to my

critical thinking skills include asking myself countless questions regarding the topic and

ultimately attaining the answers when reading a certain passage, viewing particular aspects in

different perspectives and putting myself in other peoples’ shoes, and persistently pondering

several steps ahead. In addition, when analyzing reading passages, I practiced at instantly

identifying the main and supporting ideas, and also thinking how various topics compare and

contrast to one another - this strengthened my ability to connect ideas from different aspects, and

to extensively understand the organization of a reading. On the other hand, my writing skills also

superbly improved throughout the semester. When working on my writing assignments, I

consistently wrote the chief point of the paper in the concluding sentence of the introductory

paragraph and I then followed it with detailed evidence - this made me more skilled in writing an
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effective thesis followed by supporting details in the body paragraphs, and writing an overall

strong paper. Also, I became more proficient in managing phrases and clauses in a sentence, and

writing lengthy essays without any grammatical errors. In essence, I evidently achieved my goal

in becoming stronger at my critical thinking and writing skills; these valuable tools that I

developed contributed to my success in this class, and they will likely assist me in becoming

successful in the near future.

Furthermore, another goal that I accomplished this semester includes staying on track

with reading the assigned chapters every week. The things that I ensured to do in order to not

fall behind on readings include limiting procrastination by reminding myself about the sense of

accomplishment I will obtain when doing well on an exam that covers particular readings,

reading a few pages of a chapter every night to prevent having a load of reading to do on the day

of an exam, and reading ahead when I am not busy. My current "A" grade represents the fact that

I covered and analyzed all of the assigned reading passages in a timely manner because I

comprehended the content from the textbook and was able to write in-depth papers accordingly.

Also, since achieving this particular goal, I do not remember the last time I experienced the

terrible habit of procrastination in any aspect of my life; as a result, I have been living a stress-

free and productive life.