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Harsh Shah
R. Arnold
English 1101
11 November 2010

Evaluating Reflective Essay

I believe the old saying goes a little something like “practice makes perfect.” Throughout
this semester in English 1101, I have had a few small assignments and a couple of essays. Even
though I did not have a plethora of assignments and essays like in high school, I feel that all the
assignments that we did have made me an overall better writer.
I remember the first chapter we were learning about in English, which was how to
incorporate detail into writing. I thought my writing had already consisted of intense detail,
however, I learned how to make pieces of writing more expressive. The first essay topic was to
write about a significant event that happened to me, while also including a certain amount of
detail into my essay. I chose to write my essay about the time when my dad suffered a stroke.
Since that was my first essay of the class, I wanted to make sure it was close to perfect. But also
another aspect I had to worry about was the detail that my essay had to entail. I had never written
an essay where I was forced to include more than the typical amount of detail. After a couple
hours of work, I thought that my writing had not changed at all, until I read over what I had
written. My work seemed completely different from what I had written in the past. My essay was
more interesting, and even contained a little humor. However, even though I had added detail, I
thought the essay would sound even better if I added additional information into the sentences
that lacked detail.
To aid in our writing process, we were required to meet with our professors and discuss
our papers. I walked into my first college conference with my paper in hand, expecting Mr.
Arnold to tell me that my paper sounded great, and that I did a great job including a good amount
of detail. In contrast, I was told that I had too much detail in my paper. As a reaction to my
professor’s comment, I started making huge revisions to my essay. Also, for further assistance, I
turned to my English 1101 textbook to look at examples of different types of work that included
detail within them. After listening to my professor and looking over examples in the textbook, I
rewrote my essay, and found that it sounded better than when it included an unnecessary amount
of detail. While going through the whole process of composing this essay, I learned how to
incorporate a good amount do detail into a paper, while not overflowing the essay with too much
detail. Detail should be used when the writer has to emphasize a certain moment; using it
consistently throughout the essay negates the emphasis on the important sentences.
The next topic that I learned about after detail was explaining what something is, or how
something should be done. The first assignment that I had for this topic really helped me to get a
good grasp on how to explain what a certain item is, or how something should be done. Even
though this was my first time explaining something in writing, I felt that I had a pretty good hold
on the topic.
Since we were learning about how to explain certain aspects, the next essay that was
assigned was based on the student picking something, and explaining what it was, or explaining
how something is done. My essay topic was how a high school graduate moves into their college
dorm. In my opinion, the essay seemed easier than most essays because it was simply explaining
how to do something. I felt that this topic came easier to me than the previous topic I had
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learned. When writing how to explain something it came naturally; whereas, when I was writing
about my significant event, I had to stop and think of a certain ways to emphasize the important
moments with detail.
Even though my writing structure has changed throughout the semester, there is no way
that my writing would have improved without the help from my professor, and my peers.
However, I would have to rank the one-on-one conferences with the teacher as the more helpful
of the two. The personal sessions gave me further assistance if I was missing any essential
features in my paper. This gave me the opportunity to know what the professor wanted in my
essay, which would help me improve my overall writing quality. The peer review did somewhat
help, but I feel that it did give me a better perspective on how my peers were structuring there
essays. Additionally, the peer evaluation gave me feedback on my essay and several different
ideas on how I could change my essay to make it more clear and concise.
Throughout the semester, we have covered multiple topics, which I now have a better
understanding of. The topics that we have covered are used in everyday conversations; however,
throughout this course I have learned how to incorporate these topics into writing format. In
conclusion, all the different writing styles that I have learned this semester will most definitely
help carry me throughout college level courses, and well beyond that point.