Bella Ulloa

Professor Oscar Martinez

English 1301

30 September 2023

Reflection Essay

I feel like I learned how to better construct an essay because knowing me, I have a hard

time coming up on how to start my essay. What ended up helping me alot was the outline,

because it gave me ideas on where to start and how to continue. Although my first essay draft

was not the best, I had a good time getting feedback because it helped construct my essay better.

And also the book that we are currently reading in class has helped me alot in understanding

what rhetorical devices are, how to use them, and what their purpose is. Now I understand the

importance of what genre you use depending on the event that is happening.

What I have learned about drafting is that it is trial and error. You can write as many

drafts as possible, but they can only get better based on your feedback. The revision process

personally for me was hard but it had been doable. What had helped a lot was the peer review

feedback. Thankfully I had a good partner and she had told me what I needed to fix and how I

can fix it. Another way I had been able to get my revision done was the conferences that were

held. Although I had been the last person to ask questions about my essay, they had already been

answered through my other peers' questions. When it comes to essays, I have a lack of

imagination in the sense that I cannot think of anything to write. Because of these workshops, it

helped me brainstorm a lot and gave me good ideas on what to put and what not to put in my

essay. I had also gone to an ACE visit, and that also helped me. My tutor had told me what else I
can revise or add to my final draft essay. By highlighting and adding comments to my essay on

what I can improve.

I had mentioned it in the previous paragraph as well, but what the peer review and the

conferencing helped with was with my construction. I had a hard time trying to construct my

essay and knowing what I needed to fix. I understood that my essay was extremely flawed, but I

did not know where to start on how to fix it. Thanks to the peer reviews and the conferences, I

had a better idea on how to fix my mistakes and how to make my essay better. Professor

Martinez had given me advice on my thesis, both my bodies, and my conclusions. All of those

were extremely flawed, but thanks to him I had an idea where to start on how to fix it. I also had

advice on how to connect my ideas to my thesis. Usually, I throw my ideas all over the place

hoping they would come together, but always ends up being repetitive or being extremely

disorganized. My peer review had targeted what I needed to fix and how I can fix it, now my

essay looks much better than it did in my first draft. As for the conference, all questions I had on

my essay and about the essay had been answered by my instructor as we were going through

other peoples' essays.

For my peer review, my peer had ended up telling me what I needed to fix and where to

fix it. She had pointed some sentences that I thought had made sense at the moment, but once I

read them outloud I had realized that they did not make so much sense after all. Thanks to my

peer I was able to fix those sentences in both my body paragraphs. She had also pointed out my

thesis and how to fix it. She had said that my thesis had been missing some subpoints like what

the goals were. I knew that my thesis may have been flawed, but I was not sure how to fix it, but

she ended up giving me advice on how to fix it and giving me ideas which had helped a lot.
When I was writing my final draft I had constantly looked back on what she had said so I can

implement what she said in my essay.

While I was proofreading, I had realized that before I was about to submit I had a lot of

missing detail still in my introduction and my conclusion paragraphs. It was hard for me to come

to a conclusion for my essay because I did not want anything to be repetitive or unwanted. I

definitely had to change my intro and my body because I still lacked important information in

my thesis and my conclusion. I had ended up fixing those mistakes by getting advice from my

instructor. It helps me become aware on what I need to do for the future so I won't make the

same mistakes again.

The most challenging part of my essay was keeping up with the word count. It was hard

keeping up with the word count when I had to constantly revise my sentences making them

shorter. I had to remove any repetitions which I did have a lot, and I also had to remove any extra

information, which as well I had a lot. Doing this was not easy because I had to come up with

more information on what to add and how to revise my sentences. If anything, the hardest thing

for me was the word count. Unlike this reflection essay, there are a lot of things that I had to

avoid. This reflection essay is a lot longer than my actual essay 1 because I can freely talk on

how I feel. On the essay I did have a hard time avoiding first person pronouns. Recognizing this

challenge helps me so I can learn to prepare for longer assignments and managing the way I use

my vocabulary.

Finally the least challenging part was submitting it. When I looked at my essay for the

very last time. I realized now looking back at the peer review and the example drafts, what I

needed to add and revise. Knowing what I needed to revise made things a lot easier for me to fix.

The conclusion in my opinion, had turned out a lot better and so did my thesis. My body
paragraphs ended up being easy to fix, mostly because of the help between my peer and

instructor.