Taylor Sandstrom5/1/14COM 110Synthesis Paper“Every day, and in every way, I am becoming better and better.” Emile Coue spoke this quote and I couldn’t agree with her more. Throughout this semester I’m becoming better each and every day. I feel that I have made multiple improvements throughout this semester or, better yet throughout this entire year. I’ve developed a much stronger sense of communication after completing COM 110. Throughout this semester, I’ve shown a few great improvements including researching skills, preparation, and organizing skills. These were not the improvements I was planning on making this semester. In my CIP paper, I was hoping to improve more on my overall public speaking and listening, which I did improve on but not by much. However, I am satisfied with the improvements I made and I think these improvements will definitely help me in the future. Coming into freshman year of college, I knew I was lacking the important researching skills needed to complete college level assignments. However, within the firstcouple weeks of English 101 first semester, I started gaining more knowledge on this issue as we learned about what make a source reliable and credible. Aside form English; COM has also taught me much of what I need to know and what I should be looking for when researching my speech topics. Throughout high school and even part of this year, I would constantly be searching on Wikipedia or yahoo answers thinking that these deceptive and misleading websites could tell me everything I needed to know. Looking back now, I would never think twice to do that. However, at the beginning of the semesterwhen I began researching for my informative speech, I still thought it was okay to useWikipedia or other sites to browse around. Though this can be a sufficient way to gather brief background knowledge on a topic, I found myself actually using some of the material provided in my speech. In my informational speech on phobias I used an unreliable source when compiling information on the three main types of phobias. After focusing more on the credible sources chapter, I realized it was a mistake to use this unreliable source as I could have provided false information to my audience. Because of this, when researching for both my group speech and persuasive speech, I made sure to only use trustworthy sites which is shown in my references page and in-text citations. Thechapter and the corresponding p2p on credible sources helped me decide which sources could be used and which should be ditched. An easy way to decide whether or not a source was credible for me was to look to see if the website ended with “.org”. I also made sure to see if there was a publisher and/or author and I always checked the date making sure the cite was still relevant and didn’t contain outdated information. Thinking of all I have learned and obtained this year on credible sources, I never plan to use a flakysite again while researching. On top of improving my research skills, I feel that I have become much more responsible by coming to class well prepared everyday especially on speech days. I have always been a forgetful person, which has proved it to be a problem over the years. It always seems that I either grab the wrong notebook or replace my calculator on test days. There have been multiple incidents at the beginning of the semester that I’m on my way to COM and realized I left my p2p in my other folder so I have turn back and run to get them before class begins. However, throughout the semester I have gotten better at making sure to double check that I have all my p2p’s before I leave my room. I alsorarely brought my spiral to class at the beginning of the semester but after realizing that itcould be very useful to look at rubrics or assignments, I always make sure to bring it withme. On top of being prepared for class, I also have made improvements on coming well prepared on speech day. For my group speech, my group only met up once to practice on the same day we had to give our speech and we didn’t spend much time collaborating together as a group. Due to the lack of delivery during the speech, I made sure to spend extra time practicing for my persuasive speech. Although I still was a bit nervous, I felt much more comfortable presenting my persuasive speech over my group speech due to the practice and effort I put forth. The last major thing I improved on over the course of the semester is my organizing skills. Throughout most of my high school career, I was a pretty organized person who was always on top of due dates. Coming to college, I thought I would carry this with me. However, I found myself losing papers, not finding out about assignments until last minute and swapping around folders and notebooks. At the beginning of the semester, I would often forget to bring my folder to class leaving me to stuff my p2ps in my backpack or other classes’ folders. All of this disorganization led me to making multiple trips to the printer lab just to reprint the same thing over and over again. I also rarely used my planner at the beginning of the year causing me to forget about upcoming assignments and speech dates. After rushing multiple times to get things done last minute,I began to be more careful about the placement of my papers and I began using my assignment notebook to mark upcoming dates. Nearing the end of the semester, I’m able to easily complete the final study guide by looking at all my p2p’s by chapter. I also became much more aware of upcoming assignments coming around the corner, forexample, this synthesis paper. It was also important for me to become organized to compile research for my speeches. When doing research, I would make sure to pair the right information with the right sources and keep organized notes for the potential information I could use. I also made sure my outlines were laid out in an organized and systematized matter. Although I’ve improved in many ways, there are still a few goals that I never met.Overall, I don’t think I improved drastically in my delivery. I came into COM very nervous and apprehensive because of the upcoming speeches I would have to give in front of an audience. I have always had a huge fear of public speaking and my informational speech showed it. Although I got more comfortable with my classmates over the semester, I was still anxious about giving my group and persuasive speeches. I think that each time I