Najera Perez 1

Diana Najera Perez

Dr. Colombo

UWRT 1104

03/13/2017

Midterm Reflection

Starting at UNC Charlotte this year was a bit intimating because I got accepted for the

spring semester, not for the fall. This course was my first encounter on becoming a college

student and I set goals on completing my first semester with satisfying results. In the beginning

of the semester we had a class discussion on how we recognize our free will. It was an

interesting argument because I started to recognize how my classmates approach this topic

differently. Some believe that no one can interfere with the decisions we make, others agree that

it is out control to decide what could happen to us. From this discussion, I did not talk at all and I

notice that cooperating in a smaller group is easier for myself to share my ideas rather than a

larger group. Throughout this first half of the semester, I have learned to outgrow my timid

personality by asking for help when needed. In UWRT, my two main goals were to improve my

understanding on displaying my claim and how to give credit to the sources I have found for my

essay.

Approaching my goals has been a complicated journey so far because I can understand

the working criteria but struggle on explaining my ideas. Meaning my grammar is not

completely at a college standard but I am truly forcing myself to become a better writer. Also,

this can benefit my reader to have a better understanding of the claim I am making in my essay.

An advice that was given during class was to act as if my audience were dumb. From my

understanding, I took this as giving as much details as possible in my essay so that my audience
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does not have to question any information given. Putting extra information can help add space

into my essay and can show my audience that I have a good comprehension of my topic.

Another helpful tip I took from class was making sure that my claim correlates with my

subtopic ideas. For example, my argumentative essay is on considering graffiti as art and my

thesis statement did not support my main argument. I learned this mistake from the peer editing

review we had during class because one of my fellow classmate pointed out my mistake. I was

lending more towards pointing out the negative effect graffiti had on society rather than the

positive attribute graffiti can bring into an artistic perspective. I understood that my claim was

not correct so I completely changed my thesis statement to where I would not be contradicting

myself. I focus on explaining the idea of art and how graffiti is seen as an artistic value to

society. Without the peer editing review session, I would not have notice the mistake I have made

in my thesis statement. Having this workshop in class was a useful resource because I could see

if the claim being introduce to my audience could be understood by them.

A concept that has been repeated through all my writing course would be citing my

sources but I never realized how much of a big deal it was. Even rewording another author work

can be a sign of vandalism so I decided to take this information given in class under

consideration. Citing my sources, I used in my essay was important because it gives

acknowledgement to the previous owner. Instead of summarizing the information, I would need

to paraphrase my sources so it would not be the same as the original content. I am still struggling

on correctly citing my sources because I am relying on websites such as easybib to do my

citation for me. I have been referring to the MLA 8 formatting on citations but hopefully by the

end of this semester my citations for my argumentative essay will be formatted correctly. My
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goal is to formally address the author works in my essay without restating it from the original

article.

As a writer, I have grown on my understanding on how to make a productive essay and

the studio assignments has been used as a start to our next unit. Each studio has a purpose on

preparing us for our next step on working towards my essay. I still believe that I need to work

harder on my essay regarding grammar and choosing the correct source materials to be display in

my essay. I will consider going for help in the writing center and search for more reliable

sources. Hopefully by this end of my first semester at UNC Charlotte, I can display my two main

goals in my argumentative essay.