Reflection Essay By Malcolm Gladwell

The duration of this week, I contemplated what to include in my portfolio for this course. Furthermore, I felt compelled to exhibit my achievements and accomplishments in eight weeks. Although there have been numerous times when I felt overwhelmed by this course, I pushed myself and did not permit myself to withdraw when assignments became difficult, thus achieving academic success. For this reason, I have decided to include in my portfolio one of my earliest essays “The Trouble with Geniuses,” based on two chapters from Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers: The Story of Success. Despite that, this is not one of my strongest pieces it is an excellent example of my accomplishments these past few weeks. Additionally, I have included my research report, “The Sexualization of Girls.” Likewise, as much as I enjoy researching various topics, writing a research report intimidates me. Furthermore, The Craft of Research, by Wayne C. Booth,

Gregory G. Colomb, and Joseph M. Williams coupled with aid from tutors, and college websites on English writing helped me become a successful writer. Similarly, using citations in the discussion forum, along with guidance from Professor Meyer, helped me avoid plagiarism in my future assignments. Lastly, I have included my discussion posts from weeks 6.1, 6.2, and week seven to enumerate how I advanced as each week passed. Henceforth, people who compare my previous compositions to my newer compositions will recognize the progression I made in writing. Suffice to say I learned a tremendous amount in this course about critical thinking, writing a research report, and digital composition.
Throughout this course, I utilized critical thinking to determine whether sources and/or authors were being truthful.

For example, in my included discussion posts and essays regarding the book Outliers, I identified biased and/or skewed evidence that Gladwell employed to make his arguments appear to be stronger than they were. Nevertheless, I still enjoyed Outliers despite Gladwell’s lack of strong evidence to support his claims. Additionally, I used critical thinking when I collected information from sources to compose my research report. For instance, in the “Research Limitations” section of my research report, I discussed biased and insufficient evidence from my sources. Withal it is important to think critically when conducting research because authors can attempt to manipulate readers’ thinking to persuade readers to take their side on a topic. In addition to thinking critically, citing legitimate sources, and unearthing biases I used Anthony Weston’s A Rulebook for Arguments to formulate correlations as I created my research

report.
Researching is a hobby of mine because I am ambitious. Additionally, I yearn for insightful knowledge of everything. Furthermore, I am dissatisfied with an argument or claim, unless there is sufficient evidence to support it. For the same reason, this explains why the research report was my favorite assignment. In spite of, how much I loathed writing the research report, I absorbed knowledge of academic and professional composition. Additionally, I learned how to use citations to give credit to the authors who I paraphrased, quoted, or summarized to avoid plagiarism. In conclusion, my digital writing has improved immensely due to this course.
Ergo students who attend college online rely on digital writing to communicate with their peers, thus one must practice politeness. Although digital communication has its advantages, it also has disadvantages. One disadvantage notably is the inability to communicate with others in person. Furthermore, when communicating online, one must be mindful with their tone. Additionally, if authors and/or students are presumptuous with their tone in their compositions, the author and/or student can easily offend their reader(s).