Shateanu’ Bryant

English 101-45 College Writing

Professor Bailey Maple

November 26, 2019

Marijuana Should be Legalized Reflection

The persuasive project was very interesting to me. I like how we had the choice to either

write a paper or create a website. I decided to do a paper so I could write more and actually

construct a whole paper to try and improve my writing skills. I also wanted to challenge myself

and see if I could meet the page limit, 4 to 6 pages. In high school I did not write papers. The

most I have probably ever written was 500 words.

For my persuasive project I chose to argue that marijuana should be legalized for medical

purposes. It was not hard to actually find sources and information to help argue my claim, but it

was a struggle for me to use the information effectively, in my own words. I wanted to make sure

that my paper sounded like my voice and my own words and not my sources. To overcome this

struggle, I wrote out my paragraphs first just with my general knowledge and I then went back

and added 1 source quote in each paragraph. I also tried to make sure that I limited myself to no

more than two in-text citations (source quotes) within my paragraphs.

Within my writing process I found that my peer reviews feedback was the most useful.

They were very detailed and made me look at the construction of my draft differently and

notified me on some important requirements missing. My research was the most successful part

of my paper. I feel that I argued good, accurate points that many people can relate too. I enjoyed

researching and reading about my topic. I chose to talk about marijuana because I know a lot of

people who smoke it and have debates with many of my friends about whether it is good or not
for the human body. With marijuana being so popular for recreational use as well as the

upcoming for its medical uses in the past years, I wanted to argue for myself to see if I would

second guess my decision or even discover some hidden answers for the legalization of

marijuana.

Overall, I have accomplished so many things that I didn’t even know I could do with

writing in this class. My biggest fear for the final portfolio is that I will not match my excerpts

correctly with the SLO’s. I know that I have completed them all, it is just a matter of time for me

to match them up. I am very proud of my paper. I feel that I, as a writer, have grown for the

better. I only want to go up from here. I fully intend to go be great and flourish!