Continuing Academic Success
Alejandro Herrera
GEN/200
Kerry Moquett
November 19, 2014

Academic success will be imperative as I begin a new chapter in my life as an adult student at the University of Phoenix. I am well of the many challenges that my new undertaking will present. Obtaining my Bachelor degree in Criminal Justice by 2017 will depend directly on how I manage to handle the following series of potential academic hurdles that all adult learners come to face. This obstacles include: reaching educational goals, proper schedule management, implementing new learning styles, using the resources inside and outside of the University of Phoenix, adapting to a successful writing process through the use of WritePoint and the Center for Writing Excellence and avoiding plagiarism in order to maintain academic integrity. I have come to a point in my adult life in which I have identified the need for higher education. I have also Identified that as an adult, my educational needs are different to those of my younger counterparts. In the year 1970, a pioneer educator Knowles et al. suggested that the younger population of learners was significantly different than their adult’s counterparts. In his studies, Knowles defined adulthood as the point at which an individual becomes self-directed. In addition, Knowles suggests that adults recent and resist situations in which they feel others are imposing their will on them (Wadsworth, 1994). Just Like Knowles, I have identified that as a learning adult, I must make several adjustments in my goals as well as my learning style in order to successfully achieve academic success. According to Seibert (2008) ”Understanding the history of education is important to understanding adult learning principles” (pp. 155-156). Completing at least 24 semester units per year is a major key element of my Continuing Academic Success and receiving my Bachelor degree in Criminal Justice. It is in my best interest to stay within the preset semester unit in order to graduate by 2017. Once I have set my educational goals, I must consider my personal learning style. I have been Identified as a Visual and Kinesthetic learner, I must adapt to the implementation and use of a verbal and auditory learning style to improve my Continuing Academy Success and to become successful in the Phoenix program as well as my future career. Using the Center for Writing Excellence will enhance my personal learning style as well as improve on my writing process. The resources provided by the University of Phoenix will help me improve the writing process as well as enhance my personal learning style by improving my writing skills and learning from my mistakes. As a college student, most of my work will be presented in the form or essays or papers. In the Center for Writing Excellence, I will find the tools to an effective Writing Process. Understanding and following the phases of the Writing Process will make me a better writer. This process is simple: I must first know what I want to write about and just write and write. Then I must set up an outline and organize my ideas and start arranging some of those writing blocks I had worked on already. After the outline is done, and things start falling in place, I then start drafting, this will include more writing to get the paper ready for the final step, revision. During the revision, I want to check that my paper has a substantial thesis statement and that it follows a clear and concise structure from one paragraph to the next. I must also verify that my paper has an organized paragraph structure, and I must check for grammar and spelling errors as I proofread my work. My final paper should have an introduction, a developing body, and a conclusion (Ellis, D. 2015). The Center for Writing Excellence (CFWE) and its tools (WritePoint, Step-by-step grammar review, live assistance, thesis generator, Riverpoint Writer®, WritePoint®, tutorial and guides will help me along the way