Reyes 1

Hiram Reyes

Julie Baker

English 1301 – 280

2/10/24

Reflection Essay #1

I've concluded after writing my genre analysis that this essay is helping me in classes

both now and in the future. Because of this essay, I can now correctly focus a paper on its

primary goal and maintain a central thesis; However, I don't think writing a genre analysis is

something this paper would apply to in other classes. I assume I won’t be enrolled in any

additional classes that require this kind of essay.

Analyzing a community has helped me improve by being able to resonate with my

audience, and by seeing what topics are of interest. For example, writing on a major subject to

my community gives me the ability to be a better communicator with a connection to my

audience.

I would say my writing strengths in this essay were giving examples, providing evidence,

and elaborating on them to support the structure of my essay. The biggest weaknesses were in my

first draft…Being able to focus on the analysis, the purpose of the essay, and the central idea

were the aspects I was having trouble with.

While going through the process from first to final draft, I learned many things about the

rules of writing and myself. Peer review feedback was a big thing. According to both peers, I was
 Reyes 2

able to get points across clearly to my audience. Something I learned about myself from my

essay is how I can adapt to feedback and adjust to writing a better paper.

My understanding of genre, community, and participation is being able to navigate a

genre while still being able to give expectations of the genre to my audience. Being able to

emotionally connect with my audience while staying within my thesis structure is a great

example.

At first, the most challenging aspect of this essay was understanding the purpose and

guidelines of the essay. For example, the first draft I wrote didn’t follow the guidelines of the

essay causing me to rewrite the whole paper. The least challenging aspect was finding an article

to write about. After reading about choosing a local organization, I automatically thought of what

to write about.

My identity changed this essay in the aspect of becoming a better writer. With the

feedback from peers and the professor after the first draft, I've come to understand the purpose of

a genre analysis.