Santino Zertuche

Dr. Sharity Nelson

ENGL 1301-130

2 December 2023

Final Reflection Essay

As the last pages of my English 1301 chapter turn, I find myself at the center of growth

and beginnings. This semester has served as a canvas for the development of my English

abilities, creating a picture of the difficulties overcome and the insights acquired. I go through

the turning points in my English class, where every lesson and homework assignment has been

a step toward becoming a better writer. Every task, from analyzing literature to writing essays,

has been a fine-tuning of my comprehension of the complexity and versatility of English. This

essay captures the key points, roadblocks, and successful discoveries that have marked my

journey. It serves as a record of both my development and the encouragement and direction I

have received during this academic journey.

Throughout this course my knowledge on the writing process has grown tremendously. I

have learned more about pre-writing, drafting, revision, editing, and many more crucial parts of

the writing process. More specifically on editing, I have learned revision is key and having an

open mind on change really helps improve your writing. The worksheets before we started

drafting really helped me understand what each part of the essay was and their purpose. I felt like

the worksheets were very helpful because it was easy work to gather your information but it

helped get started on the writing process. This course was unique in that it took a comprehensive

approach. Previous experiences with related ideas left me with unanswered questions. But this

course carefully untangled the complexities, addressing my unanswered queries and offering a

comprehensive grasp of the various aspects of writing. Writing a successful piece of writing

required more than just following the steps; it also required knowing how each one fit into the

bigger picture. In addition to improving my writing, this newfound clarity has helped me

understand the writing process better and has given me the confidence and deeper understanding
of the craft to tackle my future writing endeavors.

I learned Analysis involves a thorough reading and evaluation of a variety of texts,

including essays, papers, as well as literary works in addition to other written forms of

communication. This allows students to explore a text's deeper levels and reveal underlying

themes, literary devices, and layers of meaning. It entails dissecting a written work into its

constituent parts in order to understand its organization, tone, and intent. By breaking down a

piece of writing and seeing its different aspects you truly get a whole new level of understanding.

Seeing the components and how everything is so organized purposefully to help the readers
understand is really helpful to better understand your piece of writing you are evaluating or you

will be using. For example in my genre analysis essay I choose to analyze a booklet. I broke

down this booklet into pieces and analyzed every piece by itself to better understand why it was

there and how it worked with the other parts of it. Subheading, captions, and the usage of two

languages were aspects of my booklet that helped its target audience better understand the

message it was trying to convey. Text analysis is an excellent way to develop analytical skills. I

now know how to analyze, evaluate, and question the claims and information made in written

works because of this course. This develops the capacity for critical thought and the formation of

well-founded opinions, which will be helpful for my future writing assignments.

Through the process of revising one of my three essays I learned that going over your

work after you believe you have finally finished it really is eye opening. After taking some time

of it and looking back at it you realize all the things you can change to improve it. I decided to

revise my first essay. While revising this essay I read it again and also looked at my professor

and peers' feedback. To begin with my professor mentioned some small things I could change

such as giving it a better title, making a works cited section, and eliminating first person

pronouns. I went back and added or deleted as needed to make these changes that my

professor recommended. My peer and professor both mentioned how I wondered off topic and

my quotes didn't have any explanations. I read over these and I noticed they were right, my

quotes and then the information I would give after did not connect well. I added sentences
between these two to connect them and make it flow more smoothly. My peer also mentioned

how some of the paragraphs were too wordy to the point that they didn't make sense, so I went

back and highlighted the parts that did not make sense. I choose better words to make it more

comprehensible.

I believe the most challenging part of revising this essay was having to dig deeper for

mistakes or things I could improve since this was a final draft. I think it was just because I kept

thinking I had already fixed everything on this essay. After reading my peer and professors

feedback It made me realize there was an area for improvement. After overcoming this mind

block I had I didn't have as much trouble to edit and make corrections. When we make our

essays and submit the final draft we don't notice how many things we can improve. Being open

minded and always being accepting towards criticism is a good way to improve your work.

Changing my mindset and being open for help really improved my work as a writer, someone

else's perspective is always a good way to see what you can improve on. The easiest part of the

revision processes of this essay would have to be noticing the mistakes I had made after

reading the feedback I got. As I had mentioned before I was having difficulty seeing what I could

improve before reading the criticism. After reading it everything became way clearer and easier

to see. This is what I mean when I say being open for help really makes a whole lot of

difference, if i would have never been open to change what my professor recommended then I

would have been stuck. I now noticed what I had done wrong or just sloppy. I went back and

made all the changes my peer and professor recommended.

To communicate these course concepts to my general audience who might not know

what they are, I briefly went over what they are and their meaning. I just want my audience to

understand the point of each essay and be able to see why and how I did everything. For

example I would name the concept, explain how it worked, and then give an example. For

Genre analysis I explained that we were dissecting a piece of writing and seeing why and how

these different aspects worked. For visual text we were picking out everything we saw and

caught our attention, thinking, why is that placed specifically there? For the rhetorical analysis
we were seeing how these tools used such as ethos pathos and logos helped better the target

audience's experience while reading or even persuade them. Over all I basically just briefly

explained what each one of these is and how they work for the reader to get a good

understanding.

At first I was really confused and had trouble with all of these terms, I would get

discouraged. For me the hardest part would have to be understanding what everything meant.

This was not even really hard for me but it is what I struggled the most with. When my professor

would tell us to analyze a writing or to look for the genre I would get confused. I think this

happened to me because english has never been my string suit and I never put in the effort to

learn all of these concepts. I caught on quickly and realized that I just had to pay attention.

Everything started making sense and I soon started to know what all of these terms ment.

Making connections really helped me, for example for analyzing I just didnt over think it I would

remember that to analyze meant to just learn more about the writing. I think what also made me

struggle with this was that I kept thinking that these were really complex terms and that they

where going to take forever to learn. When I actually stopped worrying about if I was going to

learn them or not and just tried everything worked out perfectly.

The least challenging part of this course for me would have to be gathering my

information for my writing assignments. This stage of the writing process is also known as pre-

writing, it is when you gather your information and ideas before you draft. For all three of the

essays I worked on this semester I had a good and enjoyable time pre-writing. I think the reason

why I found this the least challenging is because it’s brainless work. Since in this stage you are

just gathering information you do not really have to put a lot of thought into it. Having creative

freedom also plays a role in making this writing stage so fun and intriguing. Being able to just do

anything and not have to stress about meeting certain requirements makes me look forward to

doing this process. During this stage there is a lot of exploration and discovery. Since I am just

gathering ideas and just looking for things I can write about, I don't feel as stressed.

Prior to this English course my relationship with English and Language arts was not the
best. Ever since I was younger I did not really feel a passion for writing. Maybe it was my

teachers who did not make it a goal for their students to enjoy English, or maybe I just never

liked it. Up until now I would have said that English was probably my least favorite subject. This

course changed my view on the English subject completely. Taking this class has made me

value writing and see how important it is. This class has made me excited to learn more about

the writing processes and many other English aspects. With everything I have gained from this

class I feel prepared to become a part of the academic writing community. Past me would have

never guessed that in the future I would enjoy English as a class and having writing

assignments. The knowledge I now know because of this course has made me see what

english and writing really is and why I should appreciate it.

In conclusion, this whole semester has been a learning curve. I am confident my skills in

English have grown from the beginning of the semester till now. I am so thankful for everything I

have gained from this course. Learning about English and really understanding how to

appreciate it gives me a whole new aspect on how it works. I have learned many things such as

the process of writing and the different types of writing throughout all my assignments in this

semester. The homeworks and assignments helped me grow tremendously as well. Every task

served as a foundation, revealing new levels of understanding in the creation of gripping stories

or strong arguments. As a result of the lengthy procedure of drafting, editing, and polishing my

work, I now recognize the quirks and creativity that are specific to each style. This essay, which

serves as a testament to my journey, captures the difficulties I've encountered as well as the

steps I've taken to improve. This essay, which serves as a tribute to my development, reflects

the struggles I've faced as well as the conscious steps I've taken to get better. It is proof of the

tenacity and commitment that have characterized my quest to become a better writer, a voyage

that keeps enhancing and molding my identity.