Muhammad 1

Zakiya Muhammad

Professor Atkins

ENGW 104-039

December 9, 2015

Almost Done

In my experience with this course and the development that I undertook in my writing

and thought process, the only aspect that really needs to be focused on are my essays and the

readings in class and how they both contributed to my development as a critical writer and

thinker throughout this semester. Coming into this English class I was already very nervous

about what was to happen but as I gradually became more comfortable in the class I progressed

as a critical writer and thinker. Before this class I never actually focused my attention on critical

writing and thinking, I obviously in some way or another was a critical writer and thinker before

this class but it was not something that stood out about me as a writer. The essays were the main

assignments that mostly captured my progression as a critical writer but not as much as a critical

thinker, with the first essay I began to develop and as the course continued different skills were

obtained and new perspectives were learned. What I gathered from the course throughout the

semester all contributed to the type of critical writer and thinker I was becoming. In the

beginning of this semester we were assigned our first essay, my first essay was absolutely awful

and almost everything was completely wrong with it. When I first began writing it I thought it

was really good, trying to be artsy with the words and making everything sound nice. I was also

very nervous I put so much pressure on myself because it was my first college essay and I felt

like I had to do it on my own. I had the thought in my head that I could not ask for help because I

Muhammad 2

was in college, I was an adult and adults do not ask for help. In my head there were just certain

things that I could not do because I was in college now and one of them was to ask someone for

assistance. There were so many issues with my first essay, the formatting was wrong, there were

spelling errors, along with other problems. I think the main reason for my essay being so awful

besides me not wanting to ask for help was the fact that I wrote the essay the same day it was

due. I thought if I had everything written down then I could just type it all the same day and that

was an awful idea, I had no time to review it and find flaws or reword sentences that I did not

like. While this was a devastating experience it also really helped me as a writer and a student. I

met with my professor and she gave me advice on what I should do in the next essay and

reminded that I was still a student and it was okay to ask for guidance, this was the beginning of

the steps toward becoming a better critical writer, I would not say I developed as a critical

thinker with this but there was some growth. The aspect of this class that helped me as a critical

thinker had to be the readings and the class discussions that would follow. The text in this class

were nothing like the novels or short stories I was required to read in high school, I was more in

tune with the writers in this course and felt connected to them in a way that led to a deeper

thought process within myself. Our discussions as a class would show me new perspectives and

shed light into my classmates thought processes and this was a key point in my development as a

critical thinker, I began thinking more deeply into topics and trying to understand how point A

relates to point B while using the readings as a string to tie them together. I started out this class

with an ambiguous understanding of what critical writing and thinking actually meant,

throughout this semester I have gained an understanding of what these actually entail and have

been able to apply it to my own work and become a better writer and thinker.

Muhammad 3

Works Cited

"Muhammad Ali – Shortest Poem Ever Written." Genius. Genius.com, n.d. Web. 10 Dec. 2015.

<http://genius.com/Muhammad-ali-shortest-poem-ever-written-

annotated?referent_id=1296328>.