Olmedo 1

Ian Olmedo

English 1302-208

Dr. Kevin Lindberg

30 April 2024

English 1302 Final Reflection

In this English 1302 course, I learned how to find credible academic research and how to borrow

work from others. Throughout this course I had to find journals that I could use to structure my

argument. I choose to find if further education or if getting a mentor can help me achieve my goals of

having a business faster. If I were to search this up on google I would get thousands of links, most of

which would not help me. I had to find credible journals that have been written and reviewed.

In order to find a good research paper to use for any academic papers, I have found that searching

“TAMIU KILLAM LIBRARY,” and finding peer reviewed articles. Peer reviewed articles are the

easiest to use because they have previously been sent through an approval process, the process

includes professionals or experts in the subject reviewing what is being discussed to insure that the

artifact is true and properly structured. This means if the article or journal has been peer reviewed it

has been checked thoroughly and is ready to be used as an example or source.

To find these credible sources I looked towards my university's Library. Through the online portal I

can filter to only find peer reviewed journals under the topic I entered on the search bar. Finding

articles on the topic of business was easy; however, my topic was to find a business mentor V. higher

education was difficult. I came across a couple dozen journals, and what helped to narrow my choices

down was to create my own annotated bibliography. For the course I only had to find five sources,

that means do five annotated bibliography. I chose to do eight in order to find out what artifact that

may persuade me to find a mentor over being in school. So by checking my Universities Library,
 Olmedo 2

filtering out non peer reviewed journals, then creating my annotated bibliographies I was able to find

the sources needed for my paper while ensuring they are credible in the business field.

Once I had my sources I had to know how to borrow information in order to include it in my

writing. By citing my sources I was able to use information from someone else's journal to support

my opinions/claims. In our course book there is a chapter that covers how to cite sources at the end of

text and in text. I never knew there were so many rules to give credit to someone else's writing.

Class assignments in the form of quizzes encouraged us to find information from the class book,

“Everyone’s an Author” by Andrea Lundsfurd. Lundsfurds book highlighted many major points, if

not all, on how to write and structure an article. Lundsfurd covered how to cite all kinds of writing

and the proper way to include all information necessary for your reader to find the source being used.

To help me understand the academic research process and how to work through it, we had many

quizzes and activities. As I just mentioned, when we were learning how to cite a source the professor

had us stand up and make a citation with the information he gave us. Example of this would be telling

us an author's name, it was a journal, date posted, who published it, and the title. With this

information we would have to properly structure a citation for a journal. With activities like these, I

believe as a student we learn more because we have to struggle a little bit to get the right answer and

that makes the problem stay in our head.

With a total of ten quizzes that we completed in groups throughout this course, a couple stuck out

to me the most. Quiz #5 that went over “Quoting, Paraphrasing, summarizing.” With this quiz I

learned when and how to include a block quote in my writing, use ellipses and brackets, and . Block

writing is used when it is absolutely necessary ,because it is a quote that will take up four lines in my
 Olmedo 3

writing. These block quotes will create almost their own minnie area that has smaller margins than

the rest of the writing.

When and how to use ellipses and brackets when quoting someone else's work. When transferring

someone else's previously stated work onto my paper I may not need to use all of a paragraph to get

my point across. There can be information that does not help what I am mentioning and with

unnecessary information my reader may get lost; therefore, I would include ellipses over the areas

that I am skipping. The use of these ellipsis will indicate to my audience that I took information out

of the original artifact. This same quiz taught me how to use brackets in my quote, brackets are

almost like the opposite of ellipses. With brackets my audience knows the information within is

information I have included. I would add brackets to help my reader understand who the source is

talking about.

Patchwritting would be when I include quotes along with my take on a topic. By including quotes

and rewriting my idea on that quote because I may not be well versed in the topic. This form of

writing enable writers like me to start working with new sources that I may not have known about.

An example of this would be me as a business student writing about science, something I am not well

versed in. This can be the easiest form of writing but it can lead to someone plagiarism if they miss a

citation. With use of someone else's work and my own writing going back and forwarth can lead to

me missing a citation, if I were to miss including someone's citation then I just stole their information

and have plagiarized.

With the journey through this course I have learned how to structure my writing with and against

my sources. This lesson is one that I will be able to keep on using in all of my other courses. Being

that every class asks for at least one piece of writing to ensure and document growth in literacy, I will
 Olmedo 4

have many more papers to do throughout my academic career so I will have many opportunities to

apply what I have learned in ENGL 1302 in all of my other courses.

From learning how to find sources that are well researched, checked, and published by writers with

credibility and how to ensure that I give credit to those artifacts I have collected so that I can use

others' work to support my claim. Before I learned how to find these worthy sources, I would just

google a question and use the first couple sources. Now I have matured to find sources that are

credible on the topic I am discussing; additionally, I learned the more recognizable or known the

author of my source is, the more credibility that I can bring to my writings.

I have learned more about the process of creating a good paper throughout my participation in this

course. A few mentions like peer reviewing, revisiting my thesis and ways of writing that can weaken

or strengthen my paper.

In this course we utilized peer reviewed papers that have been seen by professionals in a field and

in class we peer reviewed each other's papers in order to catch errors that were made simultaneously

learning what could help if we included or not included in our own papers. During these peer reviews

my classmates would take a look at my paper and tell me where and what I did well and where I may

have lost my reader. The simple process of having a new set of eyes added an extra layer of

preparation in my essays before submission.

When I went through these peer reviews a common occurrence was me veering away from my

thesis and the topic I was to cover. This problem was most prevalent in my first paper, since then I

have learned and tried to re-establish parts of my thesis throughout my paper. I have now mentioned

what part of the thesis I am covering in my first sentence in each new paragraph, this makes it easier

for my reader to follow my ideas and allow for proper communication.

 Olmedo 5

In Addition to having a fresh set of eyes take a look at my work and revisiting my ideas, I have

learned that I have to pay most attention to the way I am structuring my claims and thoughts. By

following chapter 19, “Analyzing and Constructing Arguments,” of our class book previously

mentioned by Lundsferd covering common ways of writing that can build weak arguments. By

learning about straw man and slippery slope arguments, I am able to look at my writing and know

that I am creating a weak argument that can be easily argue or debunk. With my mind being opened

to these weak structures I am able to ensure I do not replicate them.

More activities that helped me with my writing process would be a couple of quizzes we

completed. Quiz covering chapter 30, MLA Style of “Everyones an Author” by Lundsferd. This quiz

asked us many questions on the format and style used in artifacts made by someone else, we had to

look for what made the paper MLA style. Strategies like how the work cited page should look in

contrast to APA style. This chapter showed me how a period is to follow the close of a section in a

citation, such as the title, date, and name. Furthermore, this chapter covered double line spacing, the

title of a newspaper in italics, and how I the author should be cautious when switching from APA and

MLA format as there are many similarities that can be mistaken for one another.

Following quizzes that guided me through my writing process were Chapter 39, “Writing for a

Public Audience,” allowed for me to understand the difference in composing a paper for myself

versus creating one for the public. This chapter was given to us to compare the end of semester

portfolios we created last semester in English 1301. This simple exercise of revisiting our work from

the past and comparing the differences we would have made allowed for me to evaluate my decisions

and create a strategy for my new portfolio. Sharing my experience with my classmates and hearing

their journey of creating a portfolio gave me the opportunity to pick and pull what I liked. By reading
 Olmedo 6

where communication to the reader could get lost and noting what could have been done differently

to maintain audience attention will allow me to better format my website.

With being the audience for others' portfolios I read with no idea what had previously been

done. This showed me where it was common to lose the reader and that I would have to be as specific

as possible in order to create a flow for my audience where it is easy to follow along and

comprehend. I also noted that being vulnerable to the audience and taking accountability for the

mistakes I made while writing will give a representation of my learning capabilities. By stating all

steps of my journey, good and bad allow for my reader to relate to my writing process.

With a new semester came new lessons, in ENGL 1302 I have gained more knowledge to help

build a stronger foundation from 1301. In that previous course I learned how to use peer reviewed

journals, greate my analysis, and finally how to compose my article. During this 1302 course I

learned more on how to utilize peer reviewed journals to strengthen my claims. By finding reliable

sources and analyzing them by first breaking each source up into little summaries in my annotated

bibliography, greatly enhanced my comprehension of information I found.

My favorite part of this semester is that it involved a lot of reading other people's work. By having

to peer review and check one another's writing I feel that I was able to learn from others without

feeling like I was the only one messing up. 1301 Introduced the concept of imagining someone

reading our paper and to stay aware of it; moreover, 1302 showed us that there is always someone on

the other side of the paper. By recognizing the audience of my papers I am forced to consider their

opinions and the ability for them to understand what I am writing. I had always written as if my

audience knew what I was talking about, but now I have understood that I should detail as much as

possible so that my reader can effortlessly read my paper. This English 1302 course has allowed me

to grow as an author and has definitely given me a drive to keep reading.

 Olmedo 7

Work Cited

Lunsford, Andrea A., et al. Everyone's an Author. 4th ed., W.W. Norton & Company,

2020.