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Preston Steinberg

Professor Beadle

ENGL 115

7 May 2019

Reflection Essay

Over the course of this semester, I have learned a lot about writing and how to become a

better writer. In class, we learned about the different writing styles and the different writing

techniques we used for the different essays we had to compose. We had to compose three essays

this semester. The first one was called Project Space. For this essay, we read three different

articles about different topics about changing. The second essay we wrote was called Project

Text. In Project Text, we read ​The Metamorphosis, a​ nd with this we had to analyze the book and

try and find any hidden meanings that may have appeared while reading and explain why they

were significant. The third essay we had to write was called Project Media. In Project Media, we

watched the classic film ​Gojira, ​a movie about Godzilla and how it was treated by the people and

how it treated the people. We had a specific prompt for this one which was to explain how

Godzilla brought out the specific fears and desires that the people had within.

In the first essay, we reviewed the 3 articles by Hill, Brooks, and Lyubomirsky. While

going over these articles, we were taught how to take a different approach at these. We looked at

them very differently than the way I used to look at articles in the past. Here, we went over them

individually and got the chance to collaborate with out classmates and talk about what we

thought of each of the articles and what they meant and share their ideas we had. For the essay

we had to analyze all of them and identify a specific space we saw. I was extremely happy with
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this essay because it was something that could be read by anyone and can help anyone. For this

one, I had trouble with my thesis. I went to the LRC and got some help and they actually helped

me alot with my thesis. Since I had a strong thesis, I was able to form a good paper from it and I

figured out that a strong thesis makes writing the paper a whole lot easier. After doing my

revisions, I was happy with my final result and was glad to learn new techniques and working

with others to analyze work.

For the second essay, we had to read ​The Metamorphosis​. This was a quite interesting

book. It started off a little weird, but as we got into it, it became more and more interesting. The

idea of this essay was to read and analyze the book and to become more apparent with analyzing

text. Analyzing text is extremely important in the real world and especially when looking for any

hidden meanings. This prompt was quite specific. In this prompt, we were assigned to read over

and analyze the book while looking for any allegorical symbols. It was extremely hard to

actually find real hidden meaning in this book as it was very tough to read. I saw a couple but

they really weren't that apparent. It was pretty helpful to be able to work with my classmates and

get some of the ideas they had, but the thing that was even more helpful was the fact that we

went over the possible allegories in class and were able to learn from our professor the different

viewpoints he had on them. It was extremely helpful to be able to go over this with the professor

as he knows more about the book than most of us. For the essay, I had some issues trying to

explain how the symbols were allegorical and how they are significant to the idea of the book.

After revising, it I am happy that I fixed it and made it more clear for my readers to read.

For the third essay, it was Project Media. For this one we had to watch the classic movie

Gojira.​ This was a classic move and was very interesting. For this one we watched the movie
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and then after we had to write an essay about it. The essay had two prompts we could have chose

from. The first one was to show and represent how Godzilla brought out people’s fears and

desires and how Godzilla became more and more popular. The second prompt we could have

chose from was the way the Godzilla reflected humanity. The one I chose was the first prompt

idea and this one was nice. I chose this one because I knew I could write a lot about it. After

doing the essay and receiving the grade I did, I had second thoughts on which prompt I should

have chosen. After doing the peer review it was nice to see the different sides and opinions that

people had. I really feel like if I chose the other second prompt, I could have done a lot better

especially after seeing everybody’s presentations as well.

All in all I really did enjoy taking this course. I met a lot of great people and was able to

learn a whole bunch of new strategies I got to learn as well. I enjoyed reading and analyzing all

of the work people had to bring and watching people present and have different ideas on

everything was amazing as well. It was very interesting to go over ethos, pathos, and logos again.

I think the last time I learned about that or even went over it, I was probably a freshman in high

school. That was 4 years ago. It was nice to get a refresher and be able to learn more and use

techniques to write good papers. I should have visited the LRC more because the first essay they

really helped me and for the others, I thought that I knew what I was doing but for next semester

and for the remainder of my college career I will definitely be taking advantage of on campus

resources because they are really helpful and I am upset that I didn’t go for the other essays, but I

was stuck at work. I had a great time taking this class and I recommend taking it for incoming

students so they can not only learn new ideas but also to use on campus resources!