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Belen Torres

Dr. Sharity Nelson

English 1301-102

3 October 2023

Reflect And Contemplate

In the Genre Analysis Essay, I learned that a flyer, email, or brochure can be a genre. I

learned that the rhetorical situation considers the author, the author’s purpose, and the audience.

The rhetorical situation can also offer context to our writing or piece of media. For example, in

my essay Dissecting the Genre of a Flyer I state, “TAMIU Rec Sports uses the genre of flyers to

convince students who are interested in exercising to take part in their event.” In this sentence, I

state the genre, audience, and purpose of the genre in one short sentence. The way I can apply

the concepts of genre and rhetorical situations in other courses and writing situations is by

evaluating how these factors play a part in my other work and implementing them into it.

I learned that first drafts or even second and third drafts can be the worst pieces of

writing imaginable. Drafting is where we get all our ideas out. The revision process is for

cleaning up our essay until it is sparkling clean. For my first draft, I did not even have a title. I

simply called it First Draft because it is easier for me to produce titles when I am closer to the

final product. Now that I learned about drafting and the revision process, it helps me in my other

courses by making it easier for me to start a first draft. I usually try to aim for perfection, which

makes me dread having to start my essays, but now I know no matter how bad my first draft is—

bad is okay.

Conferencing with and receiving feedback from my instructor improved my essay by

pointing out some aspects I needed revision on. Based on my instructor's feedback I changed my

genre, purpose, and conventions which was the foundation of my entire essay. In my first draft I
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wrote, “By using a schedule as TAMIU Rec Sports method to spread information...” This

statement needed to be rewritten, however, because my genre was wrong. Because my genre was

wrong, my purpose was wrong. My instructor suggested turning “schedule” into a convention

and to break up the convention into two paragraphs. I took her advice into account and reworked

my essay to better fit the essay prompt. I did this by changing my genre into a flyer, so I could

better word my essay.

Peer Review with my classmates helped me improve my genre analysis essay by helping

me fix my grammar and punctuation as that seemed to be one of my weaker points. To give an

example, in paragraph 4 of my final essay it states, “The students are ready for the weekend;

therefore, Rec Sports holds fewer classes on Friday than any other day.” The original line did not

have a semicolon and comma to break the sentence up.

Editing and proofreading my essay helped me recognize that the subjects in some of my

sentences were confusing. In paragraph four of my second draft I wrote, “As the schedule is

targeted towards students, Rec Sports recognizes that said students have a busy academic life.

They also recognize by the end of the week students are tired. They are ready for the weekend

therefore they hold fewer classes.” In the second line “they” refers to Rec Sports, but in the third

line it is unclear if “they” is Rec Sports or the students. Reading this, I realized it was confusing

as to who I was referring to. Thus, I fixed the subjects in the sentence to be more easily

understood.

Now that I was aware of some of the missing elements in my writing, I could better

prepare myself for future writing assignments. I am now more aware of the areas I need to work

on such as my grammar mistakes and unclear subjects. These are things I will be sure to pay

closer attention to from now on.

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The most challenging part of this essay was rewriting my first draft. I knew what I

needed to correct by consulting on the notes my instructor left on my essay and our conference

time but finding the motivation to rework my essay felt draining. Because the process is so

repetitive, the work can feel strenuous at times. It was not my first time struggling with lack of

motivation, and it was unlikely it would be the last time. Recognizing that I have issues with

motivation, I sat down in a quiet space, opened my laptop, and began to type. I often find that

once I have the first line down, the rest will follow. As this is the most effective method to

combating my procrastination, I will continue to use this method for future writing assignments

until I find a more effective strategy.

The least challenging part of this essay was the self-editing part. I am used to having to

self-edit my own work and often think of ways I can improve my writing after I turn it in. In this

case, after I turned it in to peer review, I had already begun to see what I needed to correct. Also,

since the self-review was the last step of the writing process there was not as much work that

needed to be done.
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Work Cited

Torres, Belen. “Dissecting The Genre of a Flyer.” 28 September 2023. ENGL 1301-102, Texas

A&M International University, student paper.

---. “Dissecting The Genre of a Flyer.” Peer Review Draft. 25 September 2023. ENGL 1301-102,

Texas A&M International University, student paper.

---. “First Draft.” 19 September 2023. ENGL 1301-102, Texas A&M International University,

student paper.