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Christina Gallegos

Instructor McCann

English 1301.127

1 December 2021

End Of Year Reflection

When working on my end of year revisions, I made sure to revise and correct all of my

essays and reflections that I did throughout the year. While revising I made sure to use all of the

important rhetorical choices. The first one that I did was reread to make sure I didn't make any

grammar or structure errors. I then read my essay in a way that I could read it from a different

point of view; this helped me add in more metaphors and in similes. This would not only help

my readers connect more with my issues, but it would also boost my writing significantly. The

more rhetorical techniques you use, the more strategic and well-written your essay will be.

The design of my website was such an important component of my final grade, I knew I

had to invest a lot of effort and time into making it beautiful and clean. I started with my domain

name, this was going to be an important factor because this is the name of my website. I knew I

wanted to do something that went along with both my essays and reflections. I then compared all

my essay topics to see some similarities with the themes. I ended up deciding for dance as a

theme for the website, since I had this topic for two of my essays. I also choose the color purple

for my main color theme, because that is my favorite color. I wanted a deeper meaning, so I

equated the various degrees of writing to the various levels of difficulty in dance. I then got

started on the design. For the home page I wanted to include a big indulging title which I landed

on “Dancing Through English 1301”. This shows not only what class and what I will soon talk

about but also incorporates the dance topic. I also added information about all three essays in the
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home tab. I did this so they are also aware what the purpose of the essay is. Then I added the rest

of the tabs that have the rest of the necessities I need to add inorder to fit and organize all of my

information. So in the “Essay’s” tab I have all three essays with all the drafts that were needed

with the essay. Right on top of the essays I also added a small description about the essay and

what my instructor had commented when I turned it in. The next tab is the “Peer-Reviewed

Workshop”, this is when a group of my classmates read and fix any mistakes that might have

been made. They review that it follows all given guidelines and has no structure or grammar

errors. The next is the “Reflections” tab, here I added not only essay reflections but I also added

reflection/ activities. So I added the three essay reflections, which was done for every essay

done. We were given questions relating to the essay experience and we need to answer them and

reflect about the writing process. Lastly for the tabs is the “About me”, here I just listed facts

about myself and how writing and dancing have made a difference in my life. Not only did I add

facts about me I also included facts about this course, and what the purpose of this course was.

I had many reflections and activities to choose from, the one that I for sure knew I was

going to add was “Shitty First Drafts”. I really enjoyed this assignment, I liked how we were able

to admit that we are not always going to be perfect. And how we are going to have bad writing

days. I feel like just being able to write and release how I feel is not as confident when writing

my first drafts. Another assignment that changed my writing was “Overcoming Writer’s Block”,

I again liked expressing my feelings on the same topic of not always being a perfect writer. And

just reading a passage on how even the best writer gets writer's block, it was an eyeopener. I also

really enjoyed the tips and tricks they provided on how to overcome it and maybe even prevent

it. The next assignment that I added was a reflection on a short reading that was included in our
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class book. This was one of my favorite chapters to read because it was very informative and

helpful.

In this course English 1301, I learned many helpful and important facts that will help me

grow as not only a writer but as a person. Being able to enjoy writing and reading was the

highlight of my class. I am not one to like reading and just seeing the agenda that I needed to

read a chapter did not make me not want to read. I knew that this was going to be very helpful

and important information so I read it and learned so much. I learned a lot also from writing the

essays and researching my topic. In the third essay I learned the ability to interpret and evaluate

songs from the artist's perspective. I think this would be very useful in other classes, such as a

music lesson or even an English class where I'd have to study a text. In many articles that I

would need to read, I would know how to search and give each word a deeper meaning. When

writing the second essay I also learned the differences between breakup songs from other genres

would be useful in other classes, I believe. Writing about the same genre in different areas aids

me in describing how diverse but similar they all are as a writer. This ability will aid me in the

future while writing comparison and contrast essays. I also discovered how critical it is to look

after your mental health, regardless of your age. This might be used in a lesson on the human

brain or perhaps a psychology class that focuses on the importance of mental wellness. I may

also utilize this knowledge to inform any dancers who are enrolled in a dance class and are

experiencing symptoms similar to those described in my essay. Overall I learned how to become

a better writer with so many new skills, one of them being the understanding of text (looking at it

in a different meaning. I now can use my writing skills to help with any other course even just a

nicely worded email to my professors. As a writer, my identity has shifted dramatically. I can
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utilize all these new talents to aid my writing; my identity is now wiser, and I can identify and

piece together any type of content.

Yet not everything I learned will be able to be used again in another course. I think what I

learned in all of my dance related essays, I would not apply in any course. I learned about all the

problems that dancers are facing in today's society and how they are affected. Not just dance

wise but metal health wise. I followed a new twitter page thanks to my first essay that helps not

only me but other dancers that just need a little more motivation and important resources.

In the beginning of the year I made a lot of mistakes that I was not aware were part of my

strengths and weaknesses. Luckily I don't make those mistakes anymore and I grew as a writer.

In the beginning I was not able to cite an MLA. Now I can cite anything in MLA, book, article,

and even a social media page. I learnt how to credit all of my sources while writing Essay 1. My

citations in my first essay were not ideal, but I learnt from them and now my citations are more

clear and conspicuous. Transitioning between statements and paragraphs is another learnt

technique. You said throughout the grading that I should use more transitional words, therefore I

made care to include more in Essays two and three.

For the creation of the website the hardest thing was the organization. I am a perfectionist

and I wanted it to be clean and organized, yet since I had so much work that needed to be added I

was not able to keep up with the image I had planned in my head. My computer also was not

able to see all the scribed documents since it did not let chromebooks view what was posted on

the page. Due to this I had to check the website on my phone everytime I wanted to add a new

document, which was very time consuming. The least challenging was figuring out how the

website worked. I already knew what to do and how to add text and pictures. I knew all of this

because of the youtube video that was provided with a step by step tutorial about Weebly.
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When it comes to English 1301 it is one of the subjects that I succeed in. Even though I

cry and sometimes wanna just drop out I push myself to follow through. This semester has been

a rollercoaster with every class, due to the fact that I have not been in a classroom for a long

time. My first essay wasn't the best essay I did, I knew I could add more and overall make it a

better elaborative essay. It was all over the place with draft one because coming back from the

pandmeic to a classroom was a really hard transition. The reason for that is because online it was

very easy and light for me. When I found out I was going to write an essay I panicked. The

whole day I was thinking about what community to use for my essay. It wasn't even that hard

because I wrote about something I really love to do. That topic was dancing which was amazing

for me because I knew a lot about it, since I did it all my life. Even though I had a great idea of

dance I knew all the bad parts that come with this sport. I knew I could add this into the essay

process and get that emotional factor because of how something bad really happened. My sister

had broken her leg and almost had to stop dancing. That was news that really messed with me

because my sister was my biggest role model for dance. While writing the first draft wasn't that

easy because writing about dance reminded me about my sister. Even though it was a very sad

moment for me I pushed myself to have a good amount of words and quotes from the

community. I knew it wasn't the best essay I've done because my peers told me that I made better

essays. For the next two essay’s I made sure to pick a topic that really spoke to me, even though I

did not like that I could emotionally connect to the topic it did help. It made me be able to write

more and elaborate more on this topic, which helped me write more and struggle less. This made

me realize that I could be vulnerable in my essay’s and that makes me different as a writer.

Another big difference in my writing was the writing ACE apportionments. This was really

helpful and made a big difference in my writing. They helped me with grammar and structure
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with all three of my essay’s. They gave me tips and tricks for finding sources and how to cite

them in the correct format.

To conclude this reflection essay, this class was very helpful and important to my writing

process. It not only prepared me for my future English writing classes, it also prepared me for the

future. All that I have learned from this course will help me in my endeavors, which would be

my dream career as an Elementary English Teacher. I am prepared to teach my student the way

you did, to care and show kindness just like you Ms. McCann. Thank you for inspiring and

supporting us. Overall teaching us an important lesson that all writing is great writing.