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Cornerstone Reflection Paper
- 1. Michael Fischels 8:00 Cornerstone 4/27/2015 ! Reflection Paper ! During my freshman year of college, cornerstone was a great learning experience. In the class we did many things that had to do with both writing and speaking. I feel like many of the things we did in cornerstone have contributed to an improvement in my writing and speaking skills. In this paper, I will discuss my attitude towards writing and speaking, some writing and speaking strategies that I use, and how I view myself as a writer and speaker. To me, writing has always been something that I have found hard to start. I enjoy writing freely but when it comes to an assignment, it is the starting process that I dont look forward to. Writing plays a pretty big role in my life now since I am a college student and I can only hope it will slow down after graduation. When I am given a writing assignment, I begin to write as soon as I can find the motivation. My motivation either comes right away, or at the last minute, but never in between. The first thing I do is try to think of s thesis and the main points of my paper. Once the introduction is typed, it goes very smoothly. I feel like I am done when I can read though my paper without any major confusion and clearly understand what I read. When I can do that, I have a peer review it before reading through myself one more time. I set aside as much time as I think I will need to write. I usually write at night because it is the best time for me to put down all of the thoughts I had on the topic during the day. Sometimes I will think of my entire paper throughout the course of a day, and then I am able to go home and write it from start to finish. I feel my strategies work very well because that is what seems to be the easiest for me, and I am able to get all of my complete thoughts recorded.
- 2. Over the course of the year, I dont feel as if I have changed my strategy, but I have improved my writing. Over the year it has become easier to start a paper as soon as it was assigned, since the pressure is lifted when it is finished. As a writer, I feel like my weaknesses are leaving out complete thoughts, or lacking good vocabulary to use. My vocabulary has been expanded over the course of this year and it has shown in my work. I still have trouble explaining my thoughts completely or elaborating on details. My strengths as a writer are being able to think off the top of my head with the ability to organize my main points. When I sit down to write a paper it is usually a quick process. This is the way my writing has developed or changed over the course of this year My best piece of writing this year was definitely my rhetorical analysis paper. I was very happy with my work and was sure i was going to get a good grade even before I turned it in. This was because I spent a long time making sure I used complete thoughts with an example to back each one of them up. It is one of the longest papers I have ever written, and definitely the one that required the most effort. It was fun to write because the TED Talk that I wrote about was something that really interested me, sports. I still have the paper and will probably keep it for some time to come. Writing in this class helped me improve greatly and I am glad I was able to take it with the classmates and professor that I did. Not only was the learning atmosphere great, we generated good ideas together and speech days were very interesting. Speaking to me has never been something that I liked to do. I always dread speech day but I always find myself giving successful speeches. Presentations have never been my thing, but
- 3. I have grown used to them over time. Speaking has never been a big role in my life until now, but I see it as a big part of my future. When I am given a speaking assignment, I usually wait to write my speech until the night before I present. I generate ideas using an outline but only when an outline is required. If an outline is not required I think of main points to cover the same way I brainstorm when I write. I feel the speech I have come up with is finished when I am able to read through all of my notecards within the required time limit. If I do not fulfill the requirement at first, I add or take away cards until I do. I set aside as much time as it will need for me to write all of my notecards and practice. It is usually around ninety minutes total by time I write the speech and practice it multiple times. I like to write the speech the night before my presentation, run through it, and then go to sleep. This way I can wake up and give a good speech first thing in the morning. I like to speak in the morning or at night, the times my brain functions best in terms of academic thoughts. I would rather speak in the morning so I do not have to think about it all day on the day that I present. I feel like my speaking strategies work very well as I have been a very successful speech giver. My strategies have not changed in terms of preparation but I have gotten better at writing outlines over the course of the year. I think the process of preparing a speech for me has simply gotten quicker. I have learned what I am capable of through the time I have been in cornerstone and now speaking isn't such a big deal to me. Still my biggest weakness as a speaker is maintaining eye contact with the audience. Sometimes I am not even reading my notecards when I am reading them, but seeing them in my hand helps my thoughts flow smoother knowing if I get stuck they are there to help. I have improved on this weakness this year by not writing so much on my cards. My biggest strength as a speaker is being able to add information that I had
- 4. not initially planned on saying. I am also good at keeping the audience engaged and relaxed. I put myself in the listeners shoes as I write the speech to make sure I am writing things that as a listener would keep my attention. These are the things I have done to further improve my speaking abilities this year. I think my best oral presentation this year was my last presentation about animal shelters. The reason I think it was my best is because I came to know so much about the topic. Another reason it was good is because of the long outline we were required to have. The outline was a big help in writing the speech and made the process very easy. On presentation day I was more comfortable with my audience as I ever have been, since I have known them for almost a year now. Everything flowed together in my speech and I did not mess up at all. I had very good peer comments on the note cards which also made me feel better about how persuasive it was. I cant believe I am looking forward to making more presentations in the future. Overall, cornerstone has impacted my knowledge in every positive way. I learned a lot about writing and speaking as well as how to get more out of reading. The best part about learning in this class is that I could have fun doing it. I haver learned in my first year of college that when you make your assignments a high priority and work hard on them, your grade reflects it. Some classes are definitely harder than others but they are all good opportunities to learn something new that will help you later in life. I spent a lot of time researching and thinking so I wouldn't have to sit and revise as long. Organization was a huge priority to me and definitely helped me keep on top of my studies. Cornerstone was a great first year class because you had to be organized in terms of both writing and speaking. It helped me learn to manage my time very quickly. If I had to grade myself the second semester it would be much like the first. I think I
- 5. deserve an A in the class because I put maximum effort into every assignment and truly did the best I could do. Through all of the writing and speaking my first year of college I have already learned more than I did in all of high school. I have improved my skills in areas that I will need to put to use the rest of my life. I really enjoyed this class along with my professor and classmates. I couldn't have asked for a better first year cornerstone.