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Iliana Acosta

Trishia Briones

ENGL 1301- 162

October 19, 2023

Reflection Essay of Visual Text Analysis Unit

In the second essay unit, I learned that visual text and rhetorical situations are essential in

writing. Visual text analysis involves interpreting the visual aspects of a piece of art, such as

design and layout, to understand their significance to the audience. The concepts of visual

analysis and rhetorical situations can provide valuable insight and be applied to many courses. I

can use these concepts to look for symbolism and the artist’s intentions within a piece of

artwork. Learning these concepts has allowed me to enhance my ability to understand and

examine images. These concepts have also allowed us to understand visual texts more easily and

quickly.

In the second essay unit, I expanded my understanding of the drafting and revision

process by recognizing the significance of each phase of the writing process. In the first essay, I

overlooked the revision phase and missed a critical error in my essay. I was able to learn from

my mistakes and seek out proper help to ensure my essay was free from mistakes. The concepts

of brainstorming, pre-writing, drafting, and the revision process are universal aspects that can be

used in various courses in writing situations. These concepts help me organize my thoughts,

polish my ideas, and ensure my message is clear and coherent. These concepts are fundamental

to having a successful academic career.

Feedback from my instructor helped me improve my visual text analysis essay by

providing insight into areas of my essay that need improvement. Although I didn’t receive as
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much feedback on essay two as I did on essay one, I used the feedback received in essay one to

improve essay two. I also emailed my instructor to receive help on parts that were challenging.

Peer review with my classmate helped me improve my visual text analysis essay by

opening my eyes to issues with my essay. One element my classmate provided insight on was

my incorrect use of Evermore. I did not realize that works of art are not placed in quotation

marks but rather italicized. My classmate also brought to my attention that I had a fundamental

problem with my essay. Additionally, I was informed that my work cited page was incorrect. To

fix these mistakes, I went back and changed the quoted Evermore to italicized Evermore. I also

went back and reread my essay and made the necessary changes so that it was more coherent. On

top of that, I fixed my incorrect work cited page with the help of my professor.

Editing and pre-reading my visual text analysis essay helped me recognize that I had

confusing expressions and irrelevant information. I went back and studied the album cover and

realized I had misspoken in my essay. I removed the idea of having a cottage in the background

entirely. Becoming aware of the wrong elements in my writing, helped me to prepare for future

writing assignments by paying closer attention to detail and researching correctly. I am now

more vigilant about checking for coherentness and consistency in my writing. I am also more

motivated to conduct better research to ensure my writing is accurate and on-topic.

The most challenging part of this essay was editing and polishing my final draft.

Polishing and editing my draft was the most challenging part because I needed to go back and

make my essay understandable. Although it was readable, grasping the message without

rereading a sentence twice was hard. I went back to the textbook “Everyone's an Author”, and

read some ways to receive feedback. I overcame this challenge by having my friends and family

read my essay out loud to me. I also had my roommate help me make the necessary changes for
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the essay to be coherent. Recognizing this challenge helped prepare me for future writing

assignments by teaching me new ways to receive feedback for my essay. This will also help me

in the future by allowing me to have better writing skills. I am now equipped with the proper

tools to ensure I have a coherent and understandable essay.

The least challenging part of this essay was producing a rough draft. This was the least

challenging part of this assignment because I am passionate about this topic, and I was able to

connect certain ideas and aspects of the album to the topic of this unit. Although I had initially

written about The Giver movie poster, I was able to go back and write about something that I

was excited about. I went back and wrote about the album cover Evermore which was composed

by Taylor Swift. Having a broad topic allowed me to pick something that inspires me and

produce an essay I am proud of.