Moreno 1

Cynthia Moreno

Mrs. McCann

English 1302.201

24 March 2022

Essay 2 Reflection

Essay two was by far one of the more difficult essays to write in terms of content and

formatting. Of course, there was a lot to write about since there were ten sources involved, but

finding content from the sources and comparing them with each other was what made this essay

a difficult task. A synthesis essay was not something that anyone had participated in working on

before, but that has been the case for almost every essay that the class has completed for this

course. It is not anything new. However, getting these types of essays will certainly be very

beneficial in other courses.

Essay one was completely different from essay two. Essay one, unlike essay two, was an

experiment that we the students conducted in our free time. Everything that was written down

was based on experience combined with information from a peer-reviewed journal article. Essay

two, on the other hand, was just a collection of sources with an occasional explanation about the

content of the sources and a comparison between each source under subheadings and/or

categories. Essay two was less opinionated and more fact-based while essay one was purely

based on experiments and experiences. There weren’t a lot of applicable skills from the first

essay that could be applied to the second.

The second essay is by far one of the most useful essays the class has participated in

writing. Personally, it is one of the most useful essays we have ever been assigned. The idea of

creating an essay where we are required to utilize sources to compare and contrast ideas from the
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authors seems like an essay that students would be assigned the most in any field. The practice of

finding sources and citing is probably the most used aspect of writing an essay in other courses.

Based on experience, writing essays in college often requires students to use sources while also

providing their own experiences and thoughts on the topics they are writing about. As for what is

not applicable about this essay, there seems to be no aspect of the essay that can not be applied to

other courses.

Creating a bibliography was not a new experience, personally. Back in sophomore year,

our speech instructor asked the class to write a bibliography for a powerpoint the class was

supposed to make. Having no prior knowledge or experience creating a bibliography, the class

struggled, especially since there was no one to guide us. Now, though, the class had a bit more

guidance, so it was a bit easier to write the bibliography. Writing the bibliography definitely

improved summary writing skills.

The most challenging part of writing the essay was 100% finding sources that lined up

with the topic of the essay. In fact, finding sources seems to be the hardest task when it comes to

writing essays for the course. Based on comments from peers, one of my personal writing

strengths for the second essay was comparing the sources themselves and citing. Honestly, it is

pretty difficult to recall personal writing strengths for the first essay, especially since the

instructor has not yet provided any comments for the first essay. However, compared to essays I

personally wrote last semester, my writing style has definitely improved.