Vance 1

Emma Vance

Professor Nathan Cole

English 2010

04 December 2019

Reflection Essay

I enjoyed being apart of English 2010 with Professor Nathan Cole. I learned a lot and

explored things I never thought I would have explored in the first place. I think I have come a

long way as a writer, and here’s why. When I first started this class I was just focusing on getting

the assignments done and turned in on time. I didn’t really think I needed to go into depth on

every topic I researched, but as I was doing the assignments that’s exactly what I ended up

doing. I got intrigued and involved with the topics I was writing about. I liked how a lot of the

topics we wrote about in this class could be personal if we chose them too. Take the personal

letter, for example, I wrote mine about divorce. Never have I ever written about something that

really screwed with me for a while. It was nice to face those inner demons and take it out on

paper.

For my first revision, I decided to revise my Open Letter: Opioid Abuse. I loved this

topic. Not a whole lot of people really address it, and it was so interesting to learn about all the

different ways opioids are being prescribed and how people are dealing with the crisis. My

original copy was just an MLA document, but my revision was a powerpoint and I loved the

powerpoint way more. I was able to set a mood with the powerpoint. I made it look dark and

scary-like because opioids are a scary topic! I liked how I was able to add pictures as well so

while the audience is reading, they could catch a glimpse at the pictures and really let the words

I’m saying sink in. My opinion on this topic didn’t change over the semester, in fact, I don’t
 Vance 1

think it will ever change. Opioids are a hard-core addictive drug. Doctors prescribe them to

patients when there are better ways to treat them! The crisis needs to stop. It leads to horrible

things such as heroin- which then leads to addiction. There was a personal story I read about

opioid addiction that really helped shape how I wrote my essay. I was heartbreaking to read

about how someone kept their addiction a secret for so long but finally was able to treat it and fix

it. I took that as how this essay could be approached. Yes, maybe my essay won’t do anything,

but I can at least hope it can help be a solution somehow. I’m not sure if I achieved kairos with

my revisions, although I do hope so. Using the sources of images and facts I think helped support

it a little, but I’m not sure if it was delivered “perfectly.” The transition from essay to powerpoint

was actually quite easy. I kind of just found topics in my essay that I could make one slide on my

revision. I made sure to add pictures that connotated with the meaning of the topics and wallah! I

think it turned out beautifully.

For my second revision, I chose to revise my Information Effect into a powerpoint as

well. This topic was interesting to address. In a way, it was kind of hard. I know a lot of people

are passionate about climate change, and I didn’t want to seem like I didn’t have enough

information to support the tragedy our world is facing. Luckily, it was just informative so I could

give and take as much as I pleased. With winter approaching we have a lot of smog and pollution

in the valley. That’s what sparked my interest in this topic. I found plenty of other resources to

help inform the reader such as wildfires, when climate change even began, and also the

organizations helping to contribute to solving this issue. This topic was fun to make into a

powerpoint as well. I just love adding images to help draw the reader in and make them bring out

the emotion they’re currently feeling while reading. In my climate change original essay, I had a

video some guy created on youtube. It was kind of an awkward placement in the essay, but when
 Vance 1

I revised it onto the powerpoint I was able to display it quite nicely. Both of my revisions were

better than my previous essays in my opinion. Since I already had everything done basically, I

could just work on the details and make it all pretty.