Vahradyan 1

Vahradyan, Jacob

December 12th, 2019

English 102

Professor Batty

Reflective Essay

Before taking this course, I dreaded the thought of taking an English class. All of my

previous English teacher’s seemed so disinterested in their presentations and with the feedback I

got on my papers it seemed like they hadn’t even bothered to read them. Plus, English had never

been my strong suit, so I feared getting into another class where I’m told that my paper isn’t

good, but not told what I can do to improve it. Needless to say, I was ecstatic to be in a class

where the professor seemed to enjoy the lectures that they were going over.

I started coming to Valley right after 9th grade which meant I was never given the

opportunity to learn about basic literary concepts gone through during the highschool curriculum

like analyzing themes, symbolism, and imagery. So, while going through these concepts in class

was review for nearly everyone, a lot of it was completely new to me. Using a “lens” to better

understand certain perspectives and analyze literary pieces was especially interesting to me.

Although we only went over two in class, psychoanalysis and queer thoery, these concepts have

stuck with me most throughout the course and served as integral parts of writing our essays. This

is most likely the last English class I’m taking here at Valley, but I will more than likely be

looking other lenses (​socio-cultural, new criticism, and post-structuralist criticism)​ as this

semester comes to an end.

 Vahradyan 2

The most important thing that I’ve learned about myself as a writer is that none of my

work is perfect. Even when I spend days working on a paper and think the final product is great,

it’s important to know that it can always be improved upon. I sincerely appreciated having a

comprehensive rubric that showed exactly what you’re being docked on. After seeing this rubric

for the first paper, it allowed for me to understand in which criterias I was lacking and work

towards bettering those. As for my strengths, I think I am exceptionally good at listening to and

understanding new ideas, but my weaknesses would definitely include putting any of these ideas

to use. I, of course, want to continue improving upon my writing. This is hopefully something

that I’ll get to work on overtime and only keep improving at. Chances are that I’ll look back on

this paper with complete disdain a few years from now, but I imagine that means I’ve only

improved since taking this course. In regards to how I’ll apply what I’ve learned in this course to

the future, I think the most useful tool I’ll have taken from this class will have been the ability to

look at things from other perspectives and considering different positions before taking my own.

This is incredibly important and although I don’t think I necessarily lacked it before, I am much

more aware of it now and it can undoubtedly be applied in both school and work life. Working in

groups even allowed for us to apply this concept in our current lives, where we were able to

understand, respect each other’s ideas, and better communicate.

Fifteen weeks is not that long. I don’t want to lie and say that this course was a

“life-changing” experience, but we definitely went over some important concepts that will likely

have everlasting effects on me as a writer. This class altered many of my presumptions about

what an English course is meant to be and if I were to take another English class, I more than

hope that it would be similar to this one. Thank you for a great semester.