My English 111A Reflection

By: Tyler deBeauclair

I believe I have progressed through the year as I took this English 111 class. I was able to

grow as a writer and develop new techniques. I wrote four different papers which all taught me

different skills. I learned more in-depth about writing styles and different types of essay formats

such as APA and MLA. During my time in this class I wrote a memoir, a bibliography, an

argumentative paper, and a proposal. In each of these papers I learned important brain storming

strategies, new opening and closing ideas for papers, and skills that I will take with me as I

further my education.

I made the most progress this year in my knowledge of APA format. In high school,

I was only taught MLA format and nothing else. I had never been required to use APA or even

knew that it was relevant to my future as a nurse and college student. My instructor, Dr.

Lacey, made it easy for our class and myself particularly to get acquainted with the writing style

in an easy to understand manner. Throughout the whole semester, many of our writings required

APA citations as well as formatting. Doing this allowed me to do the research on what made

APA different from MLA and have a basic concept of what APA was. This skill will prove to be

very valuable to me throughout my education. I know that many professors require it and I will

have to call on this skill often in the nursing program.

Another technique I learned in this class was to go over my citations all at once and very

carefully. I go over them all at once, so I am in the correct mindset while writing them and this

helps me because there are multiple small distinctions that make a world of difference.

Unfortunately, I learned this lesson after points were docked off my papers, but at least I have
this skill mastered for future papers. An idea I gained while taking this course is to introduce a

source by saying the title or author. Along with this, I can see how including the title of a piece is

crucial information to a reader. These ideas, techniques, and skills that I learned this semester

will help me move forward in my writing and submit higher quality papers.

Paper 1

For the first paper in this class, we were assigned a memoir. We were prompted to use

lot of descriptive words and go into great detail. I really focused on that when writing it and my

memoir turned out very well because of it. I tried to paint a picture of the setting for my memoir

to interest the audience. I talked about my past and wrote an emotion filled memoir about a

Christmas Eve dinner. This was my favorite of the four papers we wrote because I was free to

incorporate emotion and encouraged to have a strong theme. This assignment taught me a lot

about the use of passive voice and why it is discouraged even when recalling past events. This

originally didn’t make sense to me, but I now understand through questions asked in class and

detailed explanations from Professor Lacey.

With all of that said, writing a memoir was new to me, so I learned a great deal. I really

tried to grasp the idea of writing a flowing story and creating a piece that someone would read

for enjoyment. I learned that these are qualities that readers of a memoir expect, and I did a good

job at meeting those expectations. Although my paper had some technical issues, the grade I

earned showed me that while there could be some improvements, I was on the right track. For

my revision, I focused mainly on those technical issues. I also expanded on issues that my

professor prompted me to expand on.

Paper 2
 For the second paper, we wrote an annotated bibliography. This paper was incredibly

challenging for me because it required a very clear structure. It also taught me that I need to

work on writing my papers over a period of time as this was too big to write in one or even two

sittings. I learned how to get my ideas down, but also stop at the point where my quality started

dropping as this annotated bibliography required great attention to detail with citations and

paraphrasing. I did struggle with the differences between quoting and paraphrasing. Through

research and revision, I learned where the lines are drawn and how to write without plagiarism.

The strategies we used for this paper focused on correct citations and summaries. We needed ten

sources, and our summaries needed to contain information from our source.

For annotated bibliographies, readers typically expect several different articles about one

topic, and I think I met this expectation relatively well. The ten different sources I used

contained a variety of different bits of knowledge about my topic. I wrote about currywurst and

found that the topic for a paper can be a challenge regarding this type of paper. My revision for

this paper consisted of lots of spellchecking, an issue of paraphrasing vs plagiarism, and a more

in depth look at the characterization of the articles. I did a poor overall job of meeting the

expectations for this assignment.

Paper 3

Our third paper was an argumentative paper. Personally, this was my least favorite paper

and my grade definitely reflected that. The strategies I used to write this paper were pretty

straightforward. I used the template from our textbook and I wrote out specific points I wanted to

discuss and found supporting evidence for the points. I found that making a detailed plan about

how I wanted to layout my argument was incredibly helpful. I had never really used this skill

before, but I now know the advantages of it and will apply it to future papers.
 Unfortunately, this paper taught me a lesson the hard way. I did not finish my paper

within the time deadline and turned it in two hours late. Due to this, I was not graded on my final

copy but on my partial incomplete copy. This was a hard lesson for me to learn, but I have

become a better student because of it. Although it did not feel like I succeeded with this paper, I

think I did meet the reader’s expectations of what an argumentative paper should be with my

revised draft. In my revision I had a firm stance, well thought out points, and correct citations.

Paper 4

For the fourth paper, we wrote a proposal. As far as writing strategies, I sought to write a

proposal with a clear and precise style. I wanted my cause and effects section as well as my plan

of action to appear thought out and motivational. The paper I turned in left very little room for

confusion about my stance on childhood obesity. My peers had positive things to say about my

paper and encouraged me to expand my thoughts on the role in schools in our national fight

against obesity. I had never written a proposal in high school or in other classes before, and I

found that it taught me valuable lessons. For this genre, readers typically expect to read about a

new idea that could result in the betterment of their environment. I believe I met this expectation,

and I presented it in a way that was convincing and easy to follow. My plans for revision are to

correct the grammar and other small mistakes Professor Lacey finds. I would also like to expand

my opening argument to be a little more moving. I would also like to get to the point faster in my

plan for action.

Closing

After writing four papers for this class, I can confidently say I have learned more about writing. I

had many previous English classes that taught me how to make a paper better without actually

giving me the background knowledge. This class taught me the “How and Why” of writing. I
also learned more about writing on different subject matters and incorporating different writing

styles like APA and MLA. I will certainly be using what I learned in this class as I proceed to

higher levels of learning. Overall, knowing genres like proposals, the different platforms to

write, and styles like APA or MLA will allow me to move forward confidently.