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Jenny Vo
Professor Jacklyn Hymes
English 114B
7 May 2015
Reflection Essay
Experiencing writing at a college level is an experience no one should ever forget. I say
this because I am honored to have learned and progress drastically in my writing and
comprehension skills. Throughout this semester I have learned to enjoy reading more than I ever
have before. Not only do I find the text interesting, I find myself wanting to move on with the
reading rather than just reading what has been assigned for the day that is coming up. Also, I feel
like I have improved on my tone of writing and on my research. I believe that this class has
shaped me to become a more professional writer which will help me in my future.
Reading is something I have never enjoyed much when I was in grade school because of
the specific types of books that the teacher were supposed to teach because of the curriculum.
When Professor Jackie emailed us over winter break before our spring semester started, she
asked us what kind of books we like reading so that she can try her best to find a book that
everyone will enjoy reading. When I got that email I was ecstatic to start this course because the
professor was actually interested in what the students would like to read rather than being forced
to read it. Being in this course has really change my view on reading and makes me want to read
more on my leisure time rather than just reading for school or reading something for a grade.
Not only did taking this course improved my mentality on reading, it also helped me
become a better writer. I have always had trouble writing in grade school and I still have some
what trouble now, but not as much as I did before. I feel more confident in my writing skills
because of the different types of projects we have had in this class. The three main projects we

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had in this class were Project Watchmen, Project Text, and Project Space. In my personal opinion
I think I did best on the first project because I was very interested in that graphic novel so my
preference helped me do well on that project. Project Space I feel like I did not do as well as I
thought I could because I did get uncomfortable with all the foul language in that text which
made it a little harder for me to write in a professional tone than I did in Project Watchmen. In
Project Space, we had a big group so I cannot really tell if I have improved on my writing from
that since I only had one section to write, but I do know that I wrote in a very professional tone
and helped my group on working with their professional tone as well.
Even though Project Watchmen was the very first project we had in this course, I believe
it was my best work out of all three. I wrote in a very professional tone and was also very
organized in my paragraph structures. I believe my thesis in Project Watchmen is what really
made this project stand out from the other two because it really stated what I was going to argue
in my essay, Each character has their own reason as to why they are a masked hero, but the
characters actions and beliefs really establish whether they are a good hero or a bad hero. Dr.
Manhattan and Ozymandias are bad heroes because they do more harm than good by not taking
advantage of his super powers and trying to take over the world respectively, Rorschach and
The Comedian are not considered a bad or good hero because they are mischievous yet still get
their job done, and Laurie and Daniel are good heroes because they want everyone to be in a safe
environment (Vo, Identity and Truth). I am very proud of how my thesis came out in Project
Watchmen because it thoroughly explained what I was about to argue in my essay and a little
reason why I believe each character was a good or bad hero. I also really enjoyed writing this
essay because I felt like I can go on and on about the characters since they were all so interesting.
I feel like this project really reflects on my knowledge on writing and also helped me become a

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better writer by first enjoying the graphic novel, then getting to write about it. Not only did I
enjoy writing this project, but I also did an extra credit assignment on it too because I was that
interested in the book. Usually I would complain a little about extra credit assignments because
they are so tedious at times, but the extra credit assignment for Project Watchmen was fun
because I got to compare the graphic novel to the movie. Project Watchmen has opened my eyes
to see that writing can be enjoyable.
In Project Text, which we read the novel Angry Black White Boy by Adam Mansbach, I
felt like I did not do as well as I did on Project Watchmen. The reason being because I was a little
disturbed by the language and was not use to it. The novel itself was fun and interesting to read
but I personally did not know how to write in a professional tone with a novel that had so many
curse words. I had trouble citing the work by Mansbach because I was not confident in which
quotes to use in order to prove my point without using foul language, for example in this
projects essay I said, Since Macon believes that he is one of them he has a tattoo of the date 422-92 on his biceps (Mansbach 48). Nique, a fellow friend of Macon says, Mufucker got a
Rodney King tattoo? Shit, I thought I was black (Mansbach 48) (Vo, Lost in Identity). In my
opinion I feel like this is not written in a professional tone because the language is not
appropriate and may make people uncomfortable reading it. If the novel did not have as much
foul language, I feel like I would have done a better job on it.
Overall I think I have improved on my writing skills and in my comprehension skills. I
have progressed a lot in researching and in citing sources which makes me a better writer. If it
was not for this course I would not have been able to properly cite sources, read for fun, and
enjoy writing.

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Works Cited
Vo, Jenny. Identity and Truth. Project Watchmen. 17 February 2015.
Vo, Jenny. Lost in Identity. Project Text. 26 March 2015.