Kaitlyn Thomas

ENG 1201
Professor Kretzer
October 26th, 2021
Step One: Reflection

Reflective writing is the process of revising and reexamining your writing in order to turn

what is typically a creative writing piece into a more analytical piece of writing. Reflective

writing allows the writer to go through the three-step process of looking back, analyzing what

was done right and what could have been done differently, and then lastly projecting what they

will do differently when writing their next writing piece. When writing a strong reflective paper,

it is important to write about your thoughts, how they made you feel(Were you comfortable? Did

you feel confident?). You should ask yourself the following questions: Why did you do it that

way? How will you change it in the future? What implications have you learned that will help

you?

After looking back and reflecting on my current paper, I feel there is a lot of room for

improvement as well as things I wish I would have done differently. Time management along

with critical reading were my top two struggles when I was writing this previous assignment. I

always have a set plan to sit down and just get it all done and then something happens. I typically

enjoy writing papers and I am relatively decent at them but the biggest struggle I always have is

getting the paper started. I struggle with being able to formulate how to properly begin the paper

without guidance from others. I feel as if I did make a good argument along with keeping a

decent rhythm and flow of the language.

Looking back, I encountered many difficulties during the writing process. After

beginning the research needed for this paper, I did regret my song choice but I was unsure if we

were able to pick a new one mostly because we had already been required previously to submit

our thesis statement for peer review. The introduction is a big problem area for me because as
Kaitlyn Thomas
ENG 1201
Professor Kretzer
October 26th, 2021
Step One: Reflection
previously stated, I always struggle on how to write a good attention grabber to really draw the

reader in. A problem area of concern for me is that sometimes when I get “on a roll” so to speak,

I tend to ramble on and I then make it difficult for myself to be able to wrap up what I said in the

paper into a strong and solid conclusion. I have always struggled with remembering to include

my in-text citations while I’m writing and not just put my sources into the works cited page.

One of my strengths is that I feel that I am good at keeping the flow and being able to

easily transition from one paragraph to the next. While I struggle with getting the paper going, I

feel that I am good at writing papers, especially when given the opportunity to write an

assignment where I choose the topic. I love doing the research and jotting down everything along

with prewriting bits and pieces out. I wrote a previous paper in one of my college classes a few

years ago and I remember I wrote it about eating disorders and the correlation to social media

and I feel like that was personally my best paper yet.

Overall, I struggled with writing the previous paper and maybe it was due to the topic and

song that I chose to write about but I feel like this reflective writing assignment helped me. In

my next paper that we will write for this class, I want to make sure I really do some minimal

research before submitting my topic of choice, that is if we get to choose it. I also think a peer

review could be helpful when searching for advice on if my introduction paragraph is good. A

big help was having the peer review for our thesis statements because after writing and

submitting mine, I got good feedback from another classmate and was able to shorten the thesis

down and make it flow better.

Kaitlyn Thomas
ENG 1201
Professor Kretzer
October 26th, 2021
Step One: Reflection
Works Cited

Young, Jaymes. “Jaymes Young - What Is Love [Official Audio] - YouTube.” What Is Love,

Jaymes Young, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRP3Cqgpd6Q?

“Haddaway - What Is Love [Official] - YouTube.” What Is Love - Haddaway,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEXWRTEbj1I.

Betts, Jennifer. “What Is Reflective Writing?” What Is Reflective Writing?, Jennifer Betts,

https://grammar.yourdictionary.com/for-students-and-parents/what-is-reflective-writing.html.