Michael Iuliano

Reflective Statement

April 29, 2019

Core Values

Writing is a core value that involves a multi-stage, recursive and social process. For me,

this is what I need to practice the most. Throughout this semester I learned how to communicate

with others through peer review, trial and error and reflecting my work with my teachers and

roommates who were all very helpful in giving me feedback. Through the revising process, I

learned new techniques like going to the library. Being in college has taught me a lot about self-

reliant and independence, I have every little in high school. Between never having to do chores

and always procrastinating until the last minute to get my homework done, I was always a day

late and a dollar short. The responsibility of college has taught me how to keep my workload on

pace so as never to fall behind. This has been especially true in College Composition 11 and the

help and guidance of Mrs. Stubee. Here I have crawled the rocky path of self-improvement and

gained a small grasp of the need for articulate communication in the social process. Without

these crucial steps, I would have never learned how to revise, review and share my work. Since I

was a procrastinator, I never had the time, so I never rewrote my essays. The process was

always one and done. Which I know now is a horrible way to work. Looking back over this

semester, I can see the progression through each successive draft of my papers and how each

improved considerably over the previous one. In other words, the first core value teaches you

how to write in a more compact, expressive and meticulous way. Between the effort of revising
each essay and discovering how others see my work when reviewing a draft has opened me up to

a much broader way of writing.

Starting out I never really used other authors or incorporated other people’s work into my

papers. The second core value, “Close and critical reading/analysis is necessary for listening to

and questioning texts, arriving at a thoughtful understanding of those texts, and joining the

academic and/or public conversations represented by those texts,” is talking about how to join

ideas and conversation in the text. I never knew the impact of other people’s work that can be put

in your paper. This semester we wrote many different types of essays for example the argument

essay I learn how to look through my own stubborn opinion to take a look at the other side of the

argument. people opinion that disagrees with your position and how important it is to relate that

disagreement to your work. Surprisingly, this approach shows how you understand both sides of

an argument without appearing to be totally and completely bias. Citing people who are

published authors in your work will help to convince the readers that your essay is balanced yet

convincingly supportive of your position... As the semester went on, I was able to apply many

different sources to my work creating a foundation to move my essays along. Close scrutiny and

critical reading of my work have always been an issue for me. Never moving forward and

without structure has always been a problem of my writing. Now that we are coming up on the

end of the semester, I have figured out through the multiple papers written including argument,

proposal, research proposal and a couple projects I have been able to apply text of others into my

work to enhance my papers.

My understanding of writing with a purpose is the main thing that I have learned so far.

In any paper I have ever written I always write for the person grading my work so that was

usually the teacher. Throughout the last couple of papers, I have been taught how to write to a
specific audience and with a specific purpose. My biggest flaw was I never knew my audience

and that carried throughout the entire paper. My goal was to impress my teacher not to share

useful information or sway an opinion. This also brings up the point that I never wrote what I

thought was right but rather what I thought my teacher wanted to hear. Being able to expand

what I can write about and in my own way has brought me to a new and wonderfully different

writing style. It's a kind of freedom. Pretty Cool. I'm glad I learned it. This has taught me how

to become more specific with my audience, topic, and purpose because I am not just writing to

one person. Now that I understand how to consider my audience it makes my writing flow easier

and I feel more comfortable writing my topics. Another problem was I never got to pick the topic

I wrote colorless topics that never interested me. Writing a 10 page paper on the life of

Shakespeare never seems to catch my attention but being able to choose a topic like global

warming and state me realistic opinion on the issues at hand and what can be done to stop it is

easy to write about and interesting to me

Core value IV is all about going beyond your personal knowledge and opinions and

researching sources and information from different works. “information literacy is essential to

the practice of writing” is what the core value is. Between books or articles online there are many

sources to find information. The key thing that I learned is how to find an appropriate source to

use rather than what I call "fake news". There is so much information that can be misleading

even if it seems convincing. Throughout this semester, I have gained an understanding of how

to find reliable sources to use them to draw my own conclusion. Besides having to find a credible

source I have learned how to correctly cite the source of the information used in my essays.

Using APA format was a new transition for me because I never used it before college. It's

actually quite helpful. Now am able to include external sources critical for my papers I don't
have to be concerned of inadvertently committing plagiarism. With the help of Rowan website

and RefWorks, it helped me find all the sources I needed to write my papers. Before this class, I

was clueless about how many major websites don't have reliable information. I now know how

to look for background information before using any websites to make sure the website and the

author are trustworthy. The lesson I learned from finding valid information is one of the most

important things I have learned because it not only gives your paper meaning but it also lends the

paper a certain creditability.

Lastly, there is an ethical responsibility when writing a paper that has to carry with you

from words to paper. The main ethical dilemma that happens when writing a paper is

plagiarism. I have never had a problem with plagiarism, but I have gotten more careful ever

since I got to college because it is more of a responsibility to not cheat and you have more of a

consequence. I now make sure I quote and cite all the right people when writing a paper, so I

don't steal anyone's work. The biggest part about introducing another author into your paper is

making sure you give them accurate representation. I also learned, without being bias or rude it

is important to show all sides of the story, so you don't discredit anyone. In College

Composition 1 I have learned I have a moral and ethical duty to give my audience an accurate

representation of the whole story.

I know I'm not the best writer but since the beginning of this course, I have learned

more than I have I could have dreamed. These 5 core values have taught me the basics I need

to continue my writing career and better prepare me for the future. I owe a lot to College

Composition 1 but more importantly my professor for guiding me along and teaching the values

of communications through writing.