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Armond Walker

Julie Baker

ENGL 1301

2-8-2024

Reflective Essay

While completing my first major essay, they’re were many things that I learned and

realized that would be helpful for me to implement outside of English class. I feel as though the

method of analysis of the piece of writing that I had to read and dissect was something that can

be applied outside of English. I have to read and pick apart pieces of writing in other classes like

UNIV, Accounting, and History, so I will definitely be using that skill set in those classes as well.

Something that I do not think I will be implementing in other classes is the use of the MLA

format. The MLA format is very important and useful within this English class, but I am not

required to use it in my other classes. Having to analyze the brochure helped my writing in a

positive way. It taught me how to organize text better and also ways to be descriptive when

trying to be informative to an audience.

I feel as though my main strength of this essay is my organization. I think I do a good job

of breaking my essay up into paragraphs that work together to explain my main idea well. On the

other hand, I believe my main weakness is my use of filler words. There were many words that I

put in my essay that were unnecessary in attempt to reach the word count, but they were not

needed in the end. After looking at the feedback I received, I noticed a common type of feedback

people gave me was that my transitions were good and my paragraphs flowed from each other

smoothly. I also got feedback on simple grammatical mistakes that I will be sure to look out for
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in future essays. From this essay, I learned that I put an emphasis on detail and organization so

the reader has an easy time reading my essay.

Reading the genre that I had to write my essay about, I understood that the brochure was

promotional and an advertisement for the school. I noticed that it used many different methods of

describing the school and showing what the school has to offer like graphics and bulletins. The

most challenging part of this essay was making sure I used all of the elements of the brochure to

back up the main topic. The least challenging was finding parts of the brochure to quote and use

as direct evidence. I think my identity as a writer changed in a way where I am more aware of

my common writing habits and I know how to utilize my strengths more effectively.