Masen Thompson

Reflection on Critical Thinking and Expression

The paper that I chose to showcase my writing abilities for an argumentative paper

perfectly fits the criteria of this portion of my portfolio, and is a great example of showing how I

am able to write a Spanish essay with a point of view that is not commonly held by many people.

This essay tackles the topic of the salaries of professional athletes and how, contrary to what

most people believe, they are not overpaid. I take time in the paper to analyze both points of

view, why people think they way that they do, and clearly state why I believe what I do, using

clear and concrete evidence to prove my point; that with the amount of revenue that professional

athletes bring to the organizations that they play for and the level of importance that we put in

sports as a society, they should be paid exactly how much they currently are paid. I point out

ways that both sides can come to an agreement, that morally the athletes shouldn’t be paid as

much as they currently are, and the ways that we as a society can fix this moral dilemma. I

believe that writing this specific paper helped me to really delve deep in finding credible sources

to base my paper on, and how reading several different sources beforehand can really help me

better develop my thoughts going into writing the paper. In the past I used to just decide my

thesis or idea and find specific parts from sources that fit in with my idea, but my preparation for

this paper really changed that. It is very likely that I will continue having to write or present

ideas that fit into this argumentative category as I continue in my professional life, be them in

English or Spanish, and the Spanish major, as well as this specific paper, has made me more

prepared for those future instances.

The research paper that I chose to include in this section of my portfolio also fits all of

the necessary criteria. This paper that I wrote for my linguistics class was one of the longest
papers that I had to write in the Spanish major, and it involved several hours of investigation to

find academic sources that fit within the context of my paper. Each source that I chose to include

in the paper was used in a way that gave credit to the source and explained how it applied to my

topic. This paper grew my ability to find a large number of sources for one single paper, all of

which were applicable and worthwhile to include, and to organize them in a way that made my

paper flow smoothly from one part to the next. This paper also taught to me to look to a wide

variety of areas to find good sources to use, rather than relying solely on one or two, like Google

Scholar. I will certainly use the skills that I learned and develop from this project of writing this

paper in other aspects of my life going forward and hope to help others as well.