Ross Major
UNIV 111
Reflective Essay
The first semester of Focused Inquiry has helped refine my critical thinking skills
exponentially. Almost every day of class involves some form of critical thinking, whether
it is through class discussion or research into essay assignments. We started right off the
bat by digging deep into our Wonder Woman book, which was a bit difficult to grasp at
first. I had never before analyzed a book as in depth as we did in class. It was a big
change at first, but now I am glad to have obtained the critical thinking skills I possess
now. Researching for all the different essay assignments we were assigned required the
heaviest use of critical thinking skills in my point of view. We had to find reliable
sources to use and be able to pull the most useful information out of them. I found it
difficult at first to analyze sources and be able to use them together but I have learned
how to achieve this due to all the different essays we were required to write. The
assignment that stands out most to me is the essay I wrote on political advertising. It was
difficult to analyze all the information found and fact check each commercial.
First semester held many writing and oral communication assignments that varied
from presentations to essays. I gained a lot of knowledge about different types of essays,
not because we only touched on each one and because we talked about how to write each
one, but we also went through the entire process of planning and writing a rough and
final draft. This process, although lengthy, is definitely the best way for me to learn how
to write each essay because of how it is broken into many different steps. Starting with
the story about my great grandfather Donat was a good place to begin because it was a
type of essay that I was familiar with writing. The last essay the class completed on
advertising was by far the most difficult in my eyes. I found it very difficult to find an
advertisement I could dig deep into in the first place but when I finally settled on political
advertising, it became increasingly confusing. However, after the long process of
planning, it all began to come together. The oral group presentations helped me with
communication skills and calming my nerves before I present in front of an audience.
This never was a big problem for me in high school but I now feel more comfortable than
I ever have before.
Ethical reasoning might be my favorite area of focus that we covered throughout
the semester. I really enjoyed listening to all the different opinions people have on
different subjects and relating them to my own. My political advertisement project had so
many ethical violations that it was hard to talk about one without getting into another. We
also discussed the ethical problems in the Wonder Woman book as a group, which was
beneficial, as it presented the ethical issues in a way we could discuss and dispute in
class.
My favorite area we touched in was ethical reasoning, so I look forward to
discussing it more next semester. I also look forward to learning how to write more types
of essays properly. I assume that we will be having more group discussions on the book
“Radioactive” that we have to read over winter break, which will better my critical
thinking and oral discussion skills even more. I expect next semester to cover new
material, as well as go more in depth in to material covered during the first semester.