David Aldridge

Jamie McBeth-Smith
English 1010-053
12/5/2014

Reflections
Writing an essay of this magnitude was very difficult for me. I am usually the type of
writing who can write freely what I believe or think. Because of the open literary interpretations,
it proved difficult for me to apply the previous taught principals. The ability to take the concepts
that were taught throughout the semester and then incorporate them into an essay was harder
than I thought it would be. Even though we wrote individual papers using summary, rhetorical
analysis and response papers the annotated bibliography and position synthesis project was
difficult to bring together.
The overall experience and learning objectives during the annotated bibliography will be
valuable in my future. It is an important skill to possess to be able to research a topic or opinion
and then be able to take those sources and culminate it into a paper. We tend to use these
techniques; summary, analysis and response; in our everyday communication.
The single most valuable portion of the project and class is the peer reviews. The peer
reviews allow you to speak with your fellow class mates and have them give suggestions or
opinions of how to enhance the overall concept of the paper. While sometimes even pointing out
that the point you though was clear in your paper was convoluted and/or grey.
While writing is not the easiest for me, I do appreciate the knowledge and skills that
working on the annotated bibliography and synthesis paper gave to me. An easy way for me to

write in my future will be learning the style of writing and then looking at it as a verbal
conversation and not so much as a paper. If you remember to make your writings as colorful as
your speech then writing should be fun.