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Mia Jones

Professor Roxana Dewey

ENG101-11990

17 November 2020

Reflection Final Exam

1. Consider your accomplishments this term; describe the strengths and weaknesses of your work

in this course in terms of both your process work and your final written texts.

I think this class has been the most I’ve improved in a course since middle school. I have

learned so much and have become aware of my strengths and weaknesses, rather than just being

able to define them. Not only have I learned numerous outline formats I can use, but also tips and

tricks to make my essay formatting easier, such as HATMAT (Hook, Author, Title, Main

characters, A short summary, Thesis) for a Literary Analysis outline. I believe some of my

strengths are staying organized throughout my essays, staying in a clear structure. I also think I

have a decent word selection, using “college-level words” rather than keeping it simple. Lastly, I

would say my constant habit of re-reading my work from start to finish helps with revising and

finding the tiny errors in my writings. On the other hand, I believe that one of my weaknesses is

sentence structure, while my essay structure is decent, my sentences tend to get scrambled the

longer I revise. As well as wordiness in a non-argumentative piece, or using extra words that

could be cut out and the sentence would keep the exact idea. To finish, I would say the last

weakness I have is run-on sentences. I seem to forget how long I have been writing a sentence

for once I get hyper focused on my work.

2. What strategies will you take away from this semester to use in other classes? Why?
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I have multiple strategies that I will take from this semester to use in other classes. First, I

learned to minimize the use of contractions, as it takes away from the authentic impact of a word.

Another strategy I will use again is the knowledge of the nine different patterns of organization

in an essay (Description, Narration, Illustration/Example, Process, Definition,

Comparison/Contrast, Cause/Effect, Classification and Argument/Persuasion). I will also use

“fanboys” (For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, So) again, as it helped me memorize the coordinating

conjunctions. Lastly, the most important strategy I learned was to record the sources I use as I go

so they do not become lost. All of these were new learning for me and I will be using all of this

information in the future.

3. Which essays do you feel especially proud of? Explain why.

I felt especially proud of my literary analysis essay, “‘The Monkey's Paw’: The

Outcomes of Fate” and my Position Argument essay titled “Banned Books”. I feel that I

improved massively in my writing, especially my formatting by the last two of my essays.

Although I wish that I had made the title to “Banned Books” more interesting, I would change it

to “Banning Books Infringes on Our Rights”. I chose this because it is bold, but not too

outlandish; it is a factual statement. “‘The Monkey's Paw’: The Outcomes of Fate” was

undoubtedly the essay that showed my writing improvements. It has not been graded yet, but

getting a 95/100 on “Banned Books” makes me extremely proud of my advancements over the

course of this semester! I cannot wait to get my grade and feedback from Professor Dewey on

my literary analysis. I hope to learn any last bit of information from here before the end of this

semester. She was by far the best English teacher I have ever had; she made me fall in love with

writing again.
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4. Which essay (or writing experience) did you learn the most from? Describe what you learned.

The essays I learned from the most were honestly all of them. I learned many important

writing formats and techniques that I was not taught before. Such as spelling numbers (e.g. two

not 2), Using MLA formatting (e.g. double spacing, name/teacher/class/date, numbering pages,

times new roman, 12pt font), and italicizing the title of books in your essays. All basic writing

formats that none of my previous teachers had taught me, or had taught me right from wrong. I

learned that teachers actually read your essay, not just look and grade based on the blind eye. My

professor took the time to thoughtfully critique my essays, not just correct them. For example,

instead of simply noting to change a specific phase around, she suggested options that I could

consider instead. A well as adding commentary on things that excited, wow-ed, or shocked her;

specifically in my memoir about my Spinal Fusion.

1. Analyze specific rhetorical contexts, including circumstance, purpose, topic, audience, and

writer, as well as the writer’s ethical, political, and cultural implications.

I believe that I strived to meet each competency of analyzing specific rhetorical contexts,

including circumstance, purpose, topic, audience, and writer, as well as the writer’s ethical,

political, and cultural implications. First and foremost, the rhetorical context refers to bringing

that piece to light, showing the topic in an interpretation of what could be. I make sure my

The purpose is to inform, evaluate, analyze, or convince. I set my audience up to for the topic of

my writing as well as referring to those who could relate, add, or challenge my topic. My topics

are based on how broad I can make it to fully express my idea, as well as specific enough to go

into detail on it. With the contents in my writing, I will specify the time when the text was
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written, the location for it being an academic journal or another context, and state the overall

message surrounding the text.

I also begin my outline by stating the purpose, topic, audience that I will be using in my

essay. That way, I have it defined from the start and can base my topic around my outline and the

implications I want to convey later on. I think I have done a good job at conveying proper

ethical, political, and cultural implications. Such as making sure all my points stay on the topic

of my essay, cutting out unnecessary information that is not useful in supporting my main points,

and limit my sources (e.g. sticking to either news articles or academic journals). By stating the

ethical, political, and cultural implications of the text as one of the first steps in drafting, it can

provide the reader with a basis for deciding whether the implications are main points,

counter-arguments, thesis statements, or supporting evidence.

2. Organize writing to support a central idea through unity, coherence, and logical development

appropriate to a specific writing context.

I believe that I met to meet each competency of organizing my writing to support a

central idea through unity, coherence, and logical development appropriate to a specific writing

context. While I understand it completely, I do have a tendency of getting a little scrambled at

times. I try my best to stick to the outline and drafts when writing my final report, but I can't help

but get off topic in spans. I feel the most challenging aspect of these contexts was demonstrating

coherence. I made sure that I always had a strong counter argument to support my thesis, but

periodically a simple factor of not having enough evidence or sources, could reduce lots of my

credibility on the matter. I also feel as if there are not enough transitional words or phrases I can
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use without repeating at least one (e.g. therefore, as well as, in addition, etc.). I always look up

new transitions that I can use, but many do not fit the tone I wish to communicate.

When writing in unity, it should aid the topic sentence idea(s) and has to maintain on that

same path. Secondly, a coherent writing should be logically organized, such as cause and effect,

numerical sequence, or time sequence. Last but not least, to include logical development in

essays, it would be logically spaced out; in order to list the argument and incorporate validity. An

example of how I demonstrated this was in my essay “‘The Monkey's Paw’: The Outcomes of

Fate”, by keeping to my theme of “Be careful what you wish for”, including my thesis statement

that “Fate should not be messed with, as it comes with a series of misfortunes to be awaited”. I

continued this theme by incorporating the sentence “Whether it is a curse, rule, or moral,

breaking something that is set in place for a reason, will lead to unsettling and usually

unavoidable consequences,” to bring my thesis statement back around in an alternative way. By

doing this I am demonstrating writing in unity, taking my thesis statement and expanding it

throughout my essay.

3. Use appropriate conventions in writing including consistent voice, tone, diction, grammar, and

mechanics.

I believe that I met to meet each competency of properly using conventions in writing

including consistent voice, tone, diction, grammar, and mechanics. I desire to say that I strived

to, but in my view, I could have done more. I have a problem with switching my point of view in

my text. I will switch from first to third person without realizing it, or acknowledging that it is

incorrect. My voice and tone are relatively strong, as I stay with the emotion I wish to transfer

throughout my essay. For example, if I am writing an argumentative essay, I make sure to either
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stay neutral or stay passionate about the topic, but going back and forth does not appear

methodical. Always striving for a reasonable choice of vocabulary, my diction and grammar are

extremely considered. I take the word that fits the most for the context, then use an online

thesaurus to see if there are any better word choices that I can use.

My style of writing that I strive in are argumentative writing and narrative writing.

argumentative writing is something I can get passionate about, and learn more on the subjects I

will be arguing. For narrative writing, I prefer poetic styles and sentence structures, along the

lines of William Shakespeare and his use of old english literature. I meet in persuasive writing

and analytical writing. I enjoy seeking the controversial opinions and complicity of things, not

scientific facts that are already established or easily accessible to the public. Furthermore, I use

the casual form of diction rather than the proper formal diction. By using informal diction, that is

where I begin to decrease my appropriate writing structure, specifically in a final essay. The

biggest aspect of my writing that I hope to improve in, is my use of wordiness and unnecessary

complex language.

4. Summarize, paraphrase, and quote from sources to maintain academic integrity and to develop

and support one’s own ideas.

I believe that I strived to meet each competency of summarizing, paraphrasing, and

quoting from sources to maintain academic integrity and to develop and support my ideas. I have

been working hard to summarize properly, as it is an important piece in citing sources. By my

last essay, I had gotten feedback from other students regarding my end summary in “‘The

Monkey's Paw’: The Outcomes of Fate”, being almost perfectly transferred from my thesis and

ideas in each part of my work. There was an assignment in the beginning of the semester to
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summarize the texts provided. I do not believe I got as good of a grade as I had hoped, but from

that I learned how to properly summarize sources from the feedback of that assignment.

I have learned from this course that quotations must be word for word to the original text,

and should not be a large quote. Secondly, I learned that paraphrases are quotations from a

passage that are put into your own words, therefore it is typically shorter than the original quote.

Lastly, I gain an understanding that summaries are putting the main topic of an article or source

into your own words, as a result, they are incredibly short in comparison to a paraphrase. By

using these methods, it can provide context for the reader, give examples, defend your position

of argument, and give breadth and depth to my writing. The main learning from my summarizing

assignments is at the end a summary, paraphrase, and quote must all be properly cited in APA in

my text and in a MLA citation page.

5. Use feedback obtained from peer review, instructor comments and/or other resources to revise

writing.

I believe that I strived to meet each competency of using feedback obtained from peer

review, instructor comments and/or other resources to revise my writing. I took the opportunities

provided to me for bonus points and used that as a way to not just boost my grade, but my

knowledge. I took every correction given to me and worked it out in a revising document, even if

I did not have to turn it in for a grade. I used my classmates' commentary as a way to advance

my writing skills, rather than a form of judgment. I made sure to run my essay though multiple

grammar and text correction sites to seek any unnoticed mistakes. I also asked people who were

not my classmates nor my teacher, to boost my confidence in my paper before submitting.

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I absolutely loved the discussion boards and how we got the chance to further correct our

work before the final submission. That helped me so much when going from my graft to my

final, as it gave me a human perspective, rather than just an online auto-generator. Many of my

corrections I had learned from and will use in other classes, such as olining techniques, a varied

sentence structure, sounding authentic rather than a fairly neutral tone throughout. A main point

that I learned from this course was eliminating words such as “that,” “like,” and “really”. By

putting that knowledge into my essays, I found it easier to stay on track and it gave it a polished

feel. In conclusion, without the discussion boards and feedback received, my writing would be

no were as advanced as it is by the end of the semester.

6. Assess one’s own writing strengths and identify strategies for improvement through instructor

conference, portfolio review, written evaluation, and/or other methods.

I believe that I strived to meet each competency of assessing one’s writing strengths and

identify strategies for improvement through instructor conference, portfolio review, written

evaluation, and/or other methods. I showed that each crique was carefully reviewed and

evaluated. I conscientiously analyzed my lesson instructions, kept a close eye on upcoming

grades and graded material updates, paid attention to my professor when she was explaining an

assignment or reasoning, reviewed test results and used my classmates’ and professors’ edits to

my advantage. After every assignment I asked myself questions, such as “Have I included too

much/ too little information?,” “Did I remove irrelevant information that might confuse my

audience?,” and “Did I use appropriate resources?”.

I go back and review previous assignments and the corrections that have been made by

fellow classmates, including my professor. I do this anytime I begin to write a new essay, or
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before I turn in my final drafts. I also use the strategy of not focusing on every correction, but

focus on the positive remarks too! This builds my confidence in the writing skills I know I have,

rather than trying to make it perfect. I focus on one paragraph or idea at a time before moving to

the next, that way I stay in my essay structure and not not get my thoughts mixed up. The most

important thing I learned when working on any assignment, is to not be afraid to ask questions.

That is the teachers job, there is nothing to be ashamed about, as they went through the same

thing when they were students.

7. Generate, format, and edit, and writing using appropriate technologies.

I believe that I strived to meet each competency of generating, formatting, editing, and

writing using appropriate technologies. I learned to use GCCs databases for online research. To

obtain only academic sources for my essays, specifically informational. I also learned how to

format in numerous ways and for different purposes, essays, and outlines. I was taught

pre-writing strategies to use as the first parts of my outlines and drafts. This way I can draft out

my ideas in different ways and see what comes of them all. My favorite pre-writing technique is

word listing, taking the topic of my essay and writing at least twenty words to either use in my

essay or to describe parts in my work that I want to talk about.

I also noted many mistakes in my writing format that I did not realize before. Such as

spelling numbers, MLA formatting (not just in the citation page), how to properly write the date

in MLA format (Day Month Year), etc. I also learned to lower but not limit my usage of "filler

words", commonly being "as well as", "most", and "as much as". Professor Dewey also taught

me to have other people read my paper and revise it, that way I can catch the little mistakes that I

did not notice on my own. Not only for my final draft but my outlines and drafts as well. Some
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additional points I learned were jotted down in my notes! One of those learning points for my

essay generating, formatting, editing, and writing are, always sticking to a third-person narrative,

and staying in the third person. In the same fashion, make sure that my contractions are right, or

do not use them at all (preferred). Lastly, never overuse quotes and quotation marks, as it can

take away from the actual piece of writing.

- What advice would you give to a new student in ENG101?

I would advise a new student in ENG101 to just relax. As simple as it sounds, I was

extremely nervous for my first year of college and I ended up having little to no reason to be. If

you just stay on top of your work and take the notes and critiques your professor gives you, you

will succeed. The only one who will let you fail is you.