Vélez Rivera 1

Mirelys Z. Vélez Rivera

ENGL 1302-208

Dr. Sharity Nelson

April 18, 2023

Essay 3 Reflection

I had thought that essay three was going to be a bit easier than essay two as I already had

the topic which I was going to be talking about and I had already done the research needed for it.

If I wanted, I could have added more information or searched for more websites to utilize to my

advantage. But I could not have been more wrong. I had a hard time coming up with ideas for

counterarguments, even when I was searching on Google, I could not find many comments

respecting people that were against illegal fishing. In comparison to essay 1, that one turned out

to be the easiest for me personally, as I was the one doing the research or experiment and all I

needed from the sources was extra information to back up my statements.

Something I had learned during the composition of my other essays that helped me in this

one was the usage of databases and sources to have trustable information to include in my essay

that backs up my idea or thesis. Always doing the research before writing helps the writing

process and I can write my essay smoother. What I mean by smoother, is that I was able to get

ideas on what to write about easier than if I had not read anything about the topic. I was also able

to include a lot of citations from the sources, making my essay sound more proper and

experienced and gaining the reader’s trust along the way.

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Though something I learned from the past that I probably did not use a lot in this essay

was the exposure of a process in an experiment, as I was more trying to convince my reader to

see why illegal fishing should be stopped and why is it important. Along with it, the utilization of

graphs, tables, or diagrams was unnecessary for the composition of this essay.

Everything I have learned throughout the course of ENGL 1302 I will utilize in the

future. Maybe not everything at the same time, but I know it will be required of me to utilize one

thing or another learned during the course period. For example: as a biology major I will be

required to provide a lot of laboratory reports that may include the analysis of a process or

experiment, maybe done by someone else. Another thing is the usage of MLA format, in general,

to better organize my work and not be providing a whatever paper. Let’s not forget that before

this class, I did not know how to properly cite a person without doing plagiarism as I did not give

the original author the credit he needed because I did not know how to do so. This is among

many more.

I believe it would have been good if the class also included other types of formats on the

writing portion, as we only utilized MLA, if another class asks me to utilize APA or Chicago

Style, I do not have the knowledge of what would be the formatting in those. Something that I

might not use in other courses is the need for me to expose my point argumentatively. It would

all the depend on the situation, but I am most likely to be required to provide a research data

analysis paper rather than trying to convince them why is my point important. But maybe in

other courses that are not like BIOL such as Military Science, might require a lot more of that

argumentative argument.

Generally speaking, having to argue about a certain topic makes you think a lot of what

others might think. If you had brainstormed some ideas beforehand, before starting to write your
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paper, when composing it, is like you make a script of a conversation with another person. You

might start thinking about what their comment will be on the topic spoken, how will they receive

the information and how will they come back at you, why they might disagree, etc. When

thinking about all of these points of view, the writing process goes a better and faster. And even

better if you just let go and write whatever it comes to your mind.

Because of some personal matter, I had some issues and I was unable to turn in or be peer

review be other students. Though out from my side I had some feedback from other family

members, and they helped me to fix my essay. For example, my father had told me some ideas of

counterarguments that people might come at me in regard to my topic. Though he also had a hard

time coming up with ideas. But if I base myself on past essays, my greatest weakness is that I

over explain everything while writing and end up confusing the reader and losing track of the

main topic. I would also have a hard time coming up with a proper introduction and conclusion.

Though as I had mentioned before, I was unable to receive feedback from other students because

I could not turn in my essay on time.

For me, the most challenging facet of this essay was to come up with counterarguments. I

did not have issues explaining my topic or the reasons to why it was important. I believe I had

good convincing arguments in hand for the reader to take into consideration what I was saying.

But when trying to play out what they would say against illegal fishing, I kind of hit a wall and

was unable to come up with enough ideas for the essay composition, in comparison to what I

wanted to do.
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Works Cited

Vélez Rivera, Mirelys Zoe. “Illegal Fishing: Global Impact.” March 12, 2023. ENCL 1302,

Texas A&M International University, student paper.

Vélez Rivera, Mirelys Zoe. “Why Banning Illegal Fishing?” April 13, 2023. ENCL 1302, Texas

A&M International University, student paper.

---. “Essay 3.” Draft 1. March 30, 2023. ENGL 1302, Texas A&M International University,

student paper.