Alex Cerda

ENGL 1302
Professor Saadi
8-7-23
Reflection Essay
For this third essay I felt helped educate me on not only the history and hypocrisy of the
prohibition of marijuana but also showed me the benefits of it. I feel that this gain of knowledge
was similar to essay one from when I had to recover many forms of information to help my
thesis like research and lab workings that had been done on my subject. It was essay two that
helped me in figuring out what sectors of marijuana have positive influences on like when I
talked about the medicinal benefits of the substance. I also felt that my analysis and synthesis of
my reasonings for my position can help me with future courses as it can help me understand not
only my own position but the position of others.
From the comments I got on the peer review I felt that my strength in writing this essay
is using multiple sectors of the world that marijuana have a positive impact on to help my
thesis. For instance, when I wrote about social reforms that legalizing marijuana can lead
towards rather than just talking about one subject. Which was similar to my previous two essays
as I wrote about multiple types of caffeine ingestion and their effects on the first essay, and the
multiple sectors of both sides of the argument on my second essay. Some of my weaknesses
however are the tangents I can have when talking about a certain topic like when I talked about
the medicinal benefits in this third and second essay, and when I talked too much about the
methodology in the first essay. I feel that the professors’ comments will be more positive than
the previous two essays as I feel that I wrote a much better essay than the previous two as my
synthesis was more refined.
From essay one I learned how to conduct a research project and how to take each
participants output to help formulate a conclusion and I did not need to apply that to this essay
as I just needed to take a stance on a issue. For the second essay the stance of why marijuana
should be illegal was not necessary to apply to this essay as I had to choose the opposing side. I
feel that what I learned from this essay can be applied to all my other courses as I had to pick a
position and have it relate to my thesis which I feel can be applied to every course I will take.
I felt that choosing a side for the essay helped my writing by focusing on one point of
view and budling my thesis around that singular point, and eventually bringing other forms of
the argument to further help my thesis, like how I used multiple sectors that marijuana can
have or has already had a positive effect. I felt the most difficult part of the essay was trying to
differentiate which information should and shouldn’t be a part of the essay for instance I
wanted to write a section of how legalizing marijuana could help people relax more in public
settings, but I felt this topic was too vague. Lest challenging was choosing which side to choose
from the previous essay as I felt that from essay two there was more convincing evidence for
making marijuana legal rather than keeping it illegal.