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Juan Guerrero

Profesor Bustamante

ENGL 1302 401

19 July 2023

Reflection Essay

One of the biggest things that I learnt in English 1301 that I used in this class was how to

properly cite sources, both in the works cited, and the in-text citations. I always had trouble

understanding how to cite things the proper way to have the citations and not have it be called

plagiarism, as well as having to figure out not just how to have in text citations, but exactly when

I was even supposed to cite the source. I was always straying from giving direct statements in

order to avoid the heavy punishment of not properly citing someone else’s word. But thanks to

that class, and to you for your quick explanation, I was able to get the hang of it, and I don’t

think I will have any more issues in the future. Another thing I learned in a different class was

how to use the TAMIU Online Library, that was pivotal in being able to complete my essay as it

was how I got the sources to read through and to cite in my essay to back up my statements,

which is a requirement you told us many times about. Without using the online library I would

be pretty much lost, with no way to back up my claims aside of a flimsy experiment brought out

of an attempt to fix my own sleeping schedule. And knowing how to use the online library not

only helped me here, but it will also help me in any other course I will take from now on.

Especially now since I will change/changed major.

Something that I learnt in English 1301 that I was not able to use in this class was likely

the explanation of what genre is, as that will likely not play a huge role anymore in this class, as
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we will likely focus on different things. The previous time I took 1302, we went into a different

direction than 1301, so I am sure you will not be touching on the intricacies of what genre is

either. Something from another class that I learnt that did not/will not come of use in this class

was all the history of philosophy I learned in philosophy class. As much as Plato and Aristotle

and Utilitarianism are interesting to talk about, I see none such topics finding a proper way into

this class, I would certainly be surprised if the metaphor of the prisoners and the shadows was

able to find a proper way into this class. Another thing would likely be color theory, I am

stumped as to how the idea of red opposing green and blue opposing orange would be able to fit

in this class, unless it became a part of the research for a paper in some way, then I guess that it

could find its way into the class after all.

The most important thing that I learnt in the first essay is likely just how to go to sleep

properly, that will not only be useful for the class, but for the rest of my life in general. After

reading about how much sleep matters, and how influential it is, I find it difficult to ignore, as I

would just be wasting a huge part of my potential. After seeing just how much proper sleep can

directly affect grades, and mood, and even proper perception, it is hard to ignore the downsides

of lack of sleeping, even if I am able to turn in a few more works than if I went to sleep early.

But if you mean specific to the way I wrote the essay, like I mentioned before, the way to cite

sources and integrate them into the text is something that will be of great help to me for the rest

of my college career. And also, the online library is integral for the life of any college student

nowadays. As for what I learned in this essay that will NOT be applicable to other classes, it is

probably still all the information about sleep. Hard to see how sleep can really fit itself into a

criminology class or a criminal justice class, maybe a phycology class, but anything other than

that would likely be stretching it, unless I am giving the professor or one of the students tips
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about how to improve their sleep schedules and how to increase their academic achievement,

then maybe it could come in handy, but at that point it wouldn’t really be used for the class, just

circumstantially related to it.

Having to include outside sources into this essay was of great help to me, now that I can

do that, I will find it easy to do whenever it comes up again later in the future. More than

anything it helped me be able to connect the contents of the paper more smoothly, and make sure

that what I say has merit, and that it has to absolutely be included in order to make sense or used

to explain something later on if it had to do with methodology. As to how it helped me with the

experiment, it helps to see what other people did and how they went about it in order to know

what to do myself, although that is not really a thing that I specifically picked up from this class,

it is still something that improved and was refined thanks to this class. Like I said before, I am

more prepared to handle outside sources whenever the future may demand it. If I am going to

have to base myself on other sources to mold my own experiment, I will know how to adapt the

“guidelines” provided into my own project in order to fit the circumstance that I may find myself

in.

My writing strengths have not changed since I was in high school, since I took college

classes in high school I don’t know if that would still count. It’s always the same thing, I’m good

at placing things except for citations, until now that is, and aside of that the sentence structure is

always good. The way I explain and elaborate is usually as best as it can get by the second draft

and the third/final draft just ends up being me trying to see what little things are yet to be fixed.

And that becomes a nightmare when I have to do the portfolio as it is still required to edit it even

further, although at least with the portfolio I at least still have to change the target audience, so I

am not entirely lost as to what to do there. Although I did gain one new issue in the form of
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properly detailing the experiment and the procedure, I found it a bit confusing where the

description of the experiment and the explanation of the procedure started, but I go the hang of it

after a while. The thing that I didn’t get a hang of was explaining the environment and the

participants, you told us in the guides that we should not overexplain, and to make sure that we

didn’t mix the details pertaining to either of the two from the ones that belonged in the method

section and the ones that belonged in the discussion section. I could not figure how much was too

much and how much was too little information, especially when dealing with something such as

sleep, so I just opted for explaining more than too little, and hope that was not too much.

The most challenging aspect of this essay was likely just making sure that I got to do it on

time and having to balance the whole fixing the sleep schedule thing on top of it. It was part too

much work that had to be done, not blaming you as it is a month-long summer course, and trying

to be a mature and capable individual that has responsibility over how he engages school and

home life. But sleeping early certainly gives for less time to work on the afternoons, for both the

essay and the class work, but it was still manageable. The least challenging part of it all is really

just writing it, once I get into it, the words sort of just flow from my hands into the page, it

almost feels like I type before I can fully think what the next, or even what the word I am

writing, will be. Surprising how everything else revolving around the essay is the hard part,

searching for similar articles and sources, setting up and executing the experiment, collect the

data of the experiment, and format it in a way that is easily understood. Yet the essay itself is the

easiest part of the entire assignment. The essay can be written in chunks, like I had to because I

didn’t have the data, or had finished reading all of the sources, or the complete opposite and sit

down for an afternoon and write the entire thing with the sources and data immediately available,
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as it is likely for many others to do, certainly something I used to do before I did the research

into the importance of sleep.