Quinones 1

John Quinones

Dr. Rowley

Honors 1000

16 November 2017

Essay #1: Who are We? Reflection

In the first writing assignment, Who are We?, I was asked to evaluate critically the

decisions people made about immigrating to the city in the years 1880-1924, and the results of

those decisions. I was able to accomplish the first assignment by writing a short narrative of a

German immigrant, who with his family, immigrates from Germany to the United States and

eventually finds Detroit as the best place to prosper socially, economically, and live the unique

American Dream that he has for himself.

There were many things that I learned while doing this first assignment. Being one of the

first papers essays that I wrote in college, I wasnt sure what to expect. The key difference

though between high school essays and college essays is that almost everything written in

college is revolved around the research you performed prior to writing the actual essay. One

thing I learned that Wayne State Libraries is a powerful resource for doing research. The

interlibrary loan and the access to databases for scholarly articles for free is a huge asset to have

and should be taken advantage of for all my papers that I will write in the future while attending

Wayne State. Another thing that I learned is that Dead Herrons weekly lectures have a big

influence on how I wrote my paper for assignment one. Some of the readings, most notably

Democratic Social Space, Tocqueville in America, and The Ford Manual, helped me create ideas

for who should my character should be and that it is not easy at all when immigrating to America
 Quinones 2

during this given period. Also, what is expected is not always what the reality will be. The last

major thing I learned through this first assignment was from the Redford Theatre passport event

where we watched a movie of Charlie Chaplin, being a designer person who makes most of what

he has, finds his own place of happiness, and ultimately capitalizing individually, is reflected

greatly to my fictional character that immigrates to the United States from Germany. The

readings, lectures, assignments, and passport events, in general, helps me see many more

different perspectives as a learner. This ultimately enriches and applies to how I think and how I

will react to different circumstances that will come as I continue my college education. This

course will shape my future career and goals by applying all three major questions discussed in

this class to my own life. It is a building block class, which provides different perspectives, that

can help me figure out who I am, where am I going, and what should I do.