Travis Shields

May 4 2015
Engligh 111
Critical Reflection
What Ive learned in English 111 is how to write an objective summary,
evaluative summary, critical analysis, synthesis paper, research paper, and MLA
Format. The first three assignments of the year contributed to the synthesis paper
which was an assignment written late in the semester. From the objective summary,
I learned to write objectively and not write with my opinion, this helped when I
had to write papers later on to remember to state facts, and summarize what the
authors is saying without my input or opinion, or else it would be considered a bias
paper. An example is Foubert believes that it is time for a wake-up call, to
acknowledge the research and data collected on rape, assault and harassment found
upon university campuses. Objective summary simply help me state the facts and
define what an article may be about in my own words. The evaluative summary is
defining what the writer is saying and what he or she may mean about the topic of
his or her discussion. The critical analysis was where I learned to find the
techniques used in writings and addressing what an author is saying and why is he
saying it. Critical analysis consisted of a lot strategies used to get a readers
attention and how the author may win the reader over with what they have to say

by the way they said it in their piece of writing. An example is The authors point
of view in this article was a mixture of third person as well as first person because
the research was first explained with no reference of self until the last paragraph of
the abstract section. The critical analysis breaks down the article by structure and
to define meaning of paper, its purpose. These assignments were used to help
construct the synthesis paper where I took a common topic of discussion and
created an argument that was complimented with two other opinions from two
different articles. The synthesis assignment consisted of two arguments applied for
or against mine, stating objective statements and reasoning behind those statements
stated within the paper. The research paper, which was hardest of them all, and I
didnt fully complete was a paper that would consist of the things learned and
demonstrated in all of the assignments stated above. One thing new from the
research paper was the use of studies from other research papers and applying that
to evidence within a paper. Lastly, MLA Format which was developed throughout
the year and was starting to be demonstrated progressively on each paper as the
assignments came along. MLA Format was used for the first time for me ever, so
there was a big transition, but I learned the format quite well.