Personal Reflection
Discussions
The discussions based on the writing devices were quite impactful for me. This improved my reading and my understanding of the text. I was able to identify some traditional and signal devices. I did so by reading different texts, and I was, therefore, able to understand how the author uses them to guide the reader. I was able to identify the transitional words in the easy I choose. Understanding writing devices helped to understand the essay that I read and more so establishing cause and effect in the essays that I read. In the beginning, I found google scholar to be quite challenging to maneuver but spending a few minutes there I was able to find an article that I could use. I like that is generating the citations on its own, though it is important to confirm that they are right. I was able to effectively use google scholar in my assignments and especially the one on annotated bibliography.
Assignments
This week I triumphed in developing thesis statements. Creating a thesis statement has been challenging for me, especially in making it specific and limiting it to one idea. However, throughout the week, I was able to effectively and with ease, develop great thesis statements for different papers. Using the cause and effect strategy made it easy for me to come up with a thesis statement. I was able to understand the goal of the author in the essays that I read. One of the essays that I read was that of Jeffrey Pfeffer in his essay “Lay off the Layoffs,” by being able to identify the cause and effect I could easily identify the thesis statement. This helped me in developing mine (Pfeffer, 139). The annotated bibliography was also a learning experience for me, and I got to actualize what I had learnt in the course. I did struggle to pick out the sources that I was to use, but I finally managed to settle on some that I went with.
Readings
My greatest challenge for the week was generating ideas from reading. However, I managed to mitigate this by reading critically and engaging with the writer to achieve comprehension. I completed my assignments and discussions with ease through reading critically to the point of making comprehension. I followed the tip given by Kennedy et al. pg 146, how one should read while noting down some points. This really helped me.