Reflection #1:

My name is Masubah Nadeem and I am currently a freshman at City College. My major is Psychology, but I am also doing pre-med. I chose Psychology because in all honesty I wasn’t sure what to choose and wanted to keep it simple. I took the intro course during the fall semester and really enjoyed it and performed well in the class. I always knew I wanted to work in the medical field. However, I am not sure which type of doctor I want to be yet. My major and doing pre-med can go hand in hand because I can end up being a psychiatrist. It correlates well together but I want to look at other options before I decide. But if one day I become a psychiatrist I will use my major to treat patients who are mentally ill based on what I’ve learned about disorders and how the mind works. As a student I am trying to grow as a person academically and personally based on the challenges that I face. When it comes to writing specifically, I am becoming a better writer. I am always constantly trying to find new words to add to my vocabulary and use a variety of words in my papers rather than simple words. My diction has always been a weakness in my writing. Also, I am trying to improve the flow of my ideas and how well I connect them back to a main idea. My theory of writing is everyone has their talent when it comes to it. Everyone can write no matter what it is. It only depends if that person is willing to practice writing and improving it to grow as a writer. I also believe free writing is the best writing because you get to write about anything without any limitations. That is when people find the true beauty behind it and continue to do it. 

Reflection #2:

This first essay I wrote which was a rhetorical analysis was not that hard. I had written pieces similar to this before in high school last year. This is why I had an idea already of what to do and knew terms such as logos, ethos, and pathos. One aspect of this process that I found hard was finding a rhetorical piece to analyze. My topic is about fast food nutritional labels and their false advertisement. I began looking up fast food campaigns because I wanted to analyze campaigns. However, I had found a few but was not sure how these will be analyzed or if they even fell under my topic. But then once I chose a campaign it became a little easier because I did a little more research on this specific idea and knew what I had to say. Again, since I did this in high school, I knew what to specifically look at and what I should say. For the next essay, I want to focus more on organization of the essay. I usually am fine with organization but I feel like for this past one my ideas were all over the place and did not follow a flow. The rubric and questions on the prompt helped but I still don’t feel like that was enough. In the next essay, I want to try to create an outline and write down what I will put in each paragraph and make sure everything fits smoothly. Also, I have been trying to improve my word choice so I will try to put more time into looking up different synonyms or try new phrases especially since we are writing for science. Overall, I believe I did okay but now I know for next time what I should improve on so I can do even better. 

Reflection #3:

This is the second essay I wrote for this class which was a Literature Review. It was not like the first essay where I had an idea of what I was doing. This was the first time I heard about this type of writing. I have never written a literature review before which made it harder to write. The first thing we had to do was decide on more of a specific topic I would research with my group which was about fast food impacting the obesity rate. Then I researched a few articles regarding this topic and which ones would help me write a literature review about it. I looked up on the JSTOR library database and found some articles I liked right away. This library database was perfect for science related topics. I did struggle a little writing it because I am honestly not too sure if what I did was right. I just went into writing it and putting down stuff that made sense and tried to use evidence and analyze it to connect it back to my topic. I believe I could’ve organized my ideas a little better and follow a proper outline to it. From the last essay, I did pay more attention to my word choice and slowly feel like I am getting better. I take the time out to look up synonyms for words that seem basic. Overall, I do think I could have done better on this, but I am still learning and assignments like this one has made it easier for me to read scientific papers. I hope the next assignment is a little easier and I take the time out to properly organize what I must write.  

Reflection #4:

The project, “Public Awareness Campaign” was our final project for this semester. This project really had to do with the dedication of each group member. It challenged all of us with our teamwork skills. It was a little hectic trying to get everything together and making sure we had all our parts done. But this project also taught me more about the topic we were researching. Our topic was about nutritional labeling and we had to inform our audience on how to read them effectively and how to keep an eye out for false advertising. I was teaching myself when I was researching about this topic. For example, when I wrote my blog posts I found out ways that I can avoid eating unhealthy food just by looking at the nutrition label. One tip was if the lines of the ingredients listed are two or three lines longer then it most likely processed food. Also, if there are different types of sugars in the food item, they are just hiding the real amount of sugar that is contained in it. These are just a couple of tips, but this website gives much more information making sure everyone stays healthy and safe. This project not only benefitted myself but everyone else that is interested, and I am happy to inform others about what they can do to watch what they eat. Overall, this semester helped bring this project together because it was a step by step process. I do believe there are certain things I can improve on, but I am grateful for taking an English class particularly based on science because it wasn’t like anything I’ve taken before.