Course Reflection Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Course Reflection - Essay Example To begin with, my first inquiry assignment talked about the causes of failure of El Hadji, the ruler of the Senegalese after the French rulers left. In this assignment, I put the superfluous reading into practice to enable me to come up with the storyline of the book-Xala. I also learnt that, through forming a proper question of inquiry, one is able to diagnose the whole story by answering the question of inquiry. For instance, by letting my question of inquiry to be, ‘’what led to the failure of El Hadji?’’, I was able to make a critical reading through the novel as I quench to find the answers to my question. In a way, I was able to develop greater meanings of the story rather than just reading the novel to know what it is talking about. From the story of this ruler, my question of inquiry enabled me to know that greed, corruption and inability to perform can make us as leaders to fail in discharging our duties to the people we lead. These are themes from the story that one can only make a good argument about when they form a question of inquiry and answer the question by making a thorough scrutiny of the text to develop some meaning from it that can be a lesson to the whole society. In my endeavors to create much meaning in my learning this semester, I realized that one would just have a superfluous reading at first to enable them to form an inquiry question. The inquiry question I formed had to be holistic in such a way that it had to allow me to be able to diagnose the whole novel as I got to the next assignment which required close reading to give a critical analysis. My first inquiry assignment therefore was only to give me an outline of what I need to do in order to answer my inquiry question. This then led to my second inquiry assignment where I was required to make a closer reading of the novel that would enable me to answer my inquiry question thoroughly. This brings a connection of the two assignments in a very interesting manner. It made me learn that one needs to make the first reading of a text or a novel to find its storyline. I then used the first reading to know what the novel talks about in a nutshell. From there, I was able to form a proper question that could help me scrutinize the whole novel. I was able to answer the formulated question by making a closer and critical reading of the novel as required by the second inquiry assignment. In the second assignment, I only went through certain sections of the novel, reading to find specific points that would give answers to my question. This helped me particularly to know what the author was trying to pass across to his readers. My major aim was to find the authors hidden meaning of the texts through his story and make them become lessons that everyone can use or learn from. Hence, the second part of this assignment really was to identify the author’s messages from the story to his readers and to the whole African society who find themselv es in similar contexts of leadership. I then wrote my writer’s letter which was included the steps that I followed to be able to make a close and critical reading of the novel. It also reflected on the deeper meanings from the author’s point of view, that anyone reading my notes would get from them. When one reads