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Kirsten Wakefield

Professor Massie

ENGL 1301

6 May 2021

Reflective Essay

Reflecting on how much knowledge you have gained throughout a course is vital in

growing and retaining those newly learned skills. This semester has been imperative in helping

me grow as a writer. I have learned how to organize my thoughts better and put them into writing

in a way that the reader can thoroughly understand and potentially relate to. Organizing my

thoughts, choosing relevant quotes, and properly citing were the obstacles I faced this semester.

However, I found my unique ways to combat these problems.

Knowing how to outline your essay in a way that will keep you on track and keeping

your thoughts organized can be immensely difficult. This was especially difficult when I was

working on my informative research essay on mental disorders. I faced difficulties with how I

wanted to lay out my paper. I hoped to outline it in a way that would help me throughout the

writing process. I had quite a few different ideas and I tend to struggle with making decisions

during my creative process. It helped me tremendously to look back at my past essays and

examine how I had outlined them previously. It also helped me to write out all the ideas I had

and determine which route would be the best. At first, I had planned to make my essay about

three different mental disorders. I had chosen to write about anxiety, depression, and ADHD in

my outline. However, I ultimately decided that may be overwhelming and difficult. Especially

since for the last essay I would need to interview individuals with these mental disorders.

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Although my essay did not end up being true to my outline, I recognized that it does not always

have to be what you originally write out. I ended up growing immensely just through the outline

process and rough draft trials of my last essay,

Using quotes is a vital part of creating a meaningful essay. It can help show that you have

thoroughly researched and acquired knowledge that you can blend in with your writing. It plays

on the validity of your writing and can develop the overall meaning. At the beginning of the

semester, I had difficulty picking quotes for my essays. I wanted them to be relevant and not so

long that they overtook all my ideas. Even in the first essay, the documentary analysis, I felt that

my quotes were not the best they could be. I had chosen to use direct quotes from the

documentary I had chosen on Amanda Knox. In the end, I found that the quotes I picked did not

flow with the overall theme. It was not until my essay about mental disorders that I finally found

that I got the proper quotes that added to my overall paper. I found that it was more effective for

me to focus more on the validity of the quotes and find ones that had reliable information. This

helps show the reader that you know what you are talking about considering it was an

informative research paper. Validity, reliability, and how much the quote flows with your writing

are all essential to creating an exemplary paper.

The final obstacle I had this semester was properly citing my sources. Even during my

essay on mental disorders, I still had critiques about my citations being inaccurate. I had failed to

put the website title, “Bipolar Disorder” in quotations and missed a comma before the date in my

in-text citation. I only struggled with in-text citations when it came to web pages that did not

have a listed author like this one. Nevertheless, I learned from my mistakes as Professor Massie

thoroughly helped me each time and finally, I learned this vital skill. Properly citing is important

because incorrectly doing so can be considered plagiarism. Another struggle I had throughout the

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semester was making a works cited page. I had difficulty getting it exactly right even after

numerous attempts. Professor Massie assisted me with this struggle as well. She taught me the

order, the proper layout, and how to do hanging indentions. At the end of my last essay, I

realized how much progress I truly made and how grateful I am for all the consistent help.

Reflecting on how much knowledge you have gained throughout a course is vital in

growing and retaining those newly learned skills. This semester has been imperative in helping

me grow as a writer and student. I have learned how to organize my thoughts, choose relevant

quotes, and properly citing sources. These skills will stick with me through the rest of my life

and further benefit me in college along my journey.