Date of Completion

5-31-2005

Document Type

Open Access Capstone

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

First Advisor

Nina Greenwald

Abstract

This paper chronicles my development as a multicultural picture book writer, with a manuscript as an illustration of this process. I see myself emerging from within since joining the Critical and Creative Thinking Program. My journey actually started a few years before enrolling in the program. As an adult, I wanted to explore my life-long fascination with books, and to discover if I could write a book of my own. Using the various CCT coursework, I was able to peel off the many layers of obstacles that prevented me from realizing my dream. Using the power of reflective thinking, I learned which skills I already had and which skills I needed to cultivate. The next obvious step was to self-evaluate my skills as a writer using a second language. Since I already had a background of high school English when I moved to the United States, I decided to focus the writing process on writing for children in English. Many CCT tools became very useful to me, yet one of the most important tools I gained was the knowledge and skill to reflect on my writing and to think metacognitively. This introspective thinking and the acceptance of taking risks allowed me to examine the obstacles to my writing process, and more specifically, why I frequently was not writing. In every instance that I evaluated my writing, the only question that came up was the question of how I could improve my fundamental writing skills in English. Once I felt that I addressed the ‘how’, I thought the road to success was around the corner. Yet I still found myself very far away from ‘success.’ I had predefined ‘success’ to mean having my written work published. Throughout my journey this predefined criteria had become an invisible internal barrier. The question of why I was not ‘making it’ I left unanswered because I feared the answer. I was also afraid of discovering the cause of my insecurities because I thought it could mean the end of my dream. At the end of my CCT journey, I wrote a multicultural picture book. This paper is a metacognitive chronicle juxtaposed with excerpts from my manuscript.

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