Valentin Garcia

English 1302-221

Ms.Mccann

5 May 2023

Final Reflection essay

When going back to my essays and reading them I now notice many little or big mistakes that I

didn't notice before and that is very cool because it shows the progress I've made in Writing skills

from first starting this class to now. In my first essay when going back to it I noticed little

mistakes such as using you, him, she etc, and fixed them because those have not been allowed

from the start but I tend to forget them sometimes. The major Rhetorical choice I made in the

first essay was adding a results paragraph. When reading it and receiving feedback from one of

my peers they noticed I didn't have a results paragraph and to my knowledge, I just decided to

add that in the conclusion and call it a day but I was wrong for that. I added a new paragraph to

better show the results that concluded from the whole experiment it helps my reader better

visualize what happened and if it was a success or not basically a little summary of the whole

experiment. In my second essay, I noticed that I had many, many citations and when I was in the

midst of typing the article I remember thinking this is too many quotes but then said no it's

alright because the point of this is to get the author's point across not mine. Now that I look back

at it I realized it was really too much and decided to change it by taking off some of the author's

citations and instead paraphrasing them but still citing the work since it's in my words but their

ideas. I decided to do this so the paper doesn't sound so repetitive when it comes to what the

authors are thinking and instead has a smooth flow. As well as little mistakes in grammar, etc
Now when it comes to my website I decided to change my theme in my website to one of my

personal lifestyles which is working out. At first, the whole layout itself was different. I had

essays in one homework in another and reflection, etc. I then came to realize that there were too

many tabs. I wanted my website to flow smoothly. I wanted it to look nice and organized and

easy to access for my users. I also decided to add some pictures of bodybuilders just to fit the

theme a bit, kind of give it that theme, and added a few gifs here and there just to make it more

fun and not make the website look so dull and plain. I also decided to incorporate a variety of

clever tools provided in the website and I got the idea from one of my peers. It's the Scribd

document and it is a way to put your essay but people will be able to scroll and read it and not

need to click any link to get to your pdf. I did it because it makes my website look more

professional as well as full.

When looking back at the homework they all helped me get to where I am now. For example, all

the ones that involved Analysis of the authors helped me the most because it is what we used the

most for these past essays. For example, essay 2 involved making an annotated bibliography as I

mentioned before. We had to get 10 authors and briefly explain what each one was about but the

homework really helped me because I then knew exactly what I was looking for. I knew how to

scan through the article and find the author's thesis which was the main points he or she would be

discussing. After that was to search about different points and who the author's main target was

and his main audience. Overall the homework was the mini versions of the Big articles so in a

way it was exactly like doing the work but just in a slightly different manner. Another activity

that was brought into account was peer review assignments. When first doing those I really didn't

see a need for them. I would just take my classmates' advice in person. But as I progressed in this

class I started to see that it was really helpful. It was a way to bring the best and most acceptable
version of my paper. For example, when I was editing my papers I didn't really know how to

approach my third essay I did not know what to change or add, and funny enough I did not

remember what my classmate's comments were about it. I started to get frustrated when I

remembered I could just go back and check my peer review feedback. It helped me change some

paragraphs in my third essay as well as add some new information and fix little grammatical

errors

In English 1302 I learned many things in every essay. The first essay was an experiment that

progressed over a week or so. If anything I had to learn patience to be able to get through the

experiment and in reality it's something I knew I needed regardless because it was barely the

beginning it was only going to get harder from here. In essay 2 I learned the power of research.

Before starting this class I didn't know how to research something or even where to find reliable

information on whatever it is I was trying to find. In essay 2 I learned how to do exactly that

because essay 2 required I have an anointed bibliography with 10 citations on what it was I was

doing. Luckily for me, my topic was fairly simple, and therefore got a lot of reliable sources. In

essay 3 I used all of that knowledge and applied it with a bit of my own twist on it since the last

essay was a mix of our own opinion backed up by citations of the authors. As a whole, a genuine

lesson I got from the class. It's time management that has always been a big problem for me

because I tend to procrastinate a lot. As time passed in the class, I saw that little by little that I

would actually focus more on my work than other situations not related to school. instead of

doing something that wasn't related to school like watching tv, I would do my work even if it was

a little it would progress over time and help me at the end because at least when the due date

came I would have at least 75 percent done instead of the usual 40 percent or somewhere around

there
It was hard to think of a way That I could not use English 1302 in other classes but In English,

we always had to have the format in MLA, and for the most part that is not applicable in other

classes. For example in History 1301, since I chose to do the paper tract, once doing it in MLA I

found out that I couldn’t write it in MLA format; it had to be in Chicago. And I had to reformat

it. For the most part, though most skills learned in English 1302 are skills I am always able to use

and they all are useful in different classes and situations as my life progresses and if anything that

is exactly was English taught me to do. How to incorporate a variety of skills that I may not have

but will learn as I incorporate them more into my lifestyle.

When first starting off this semester I had many strengths and many weaknesses and I can

proudly say they both got stronger. One of my main strengths was always my ability to be

creative and express myself and the points I want across. Sometimes it may prove to be difficult

but I find the best arguments to show what I want to explain. For example, in my past essays

when it came to the topic of steroids I would introduce a commonly known Misconception like

“if I take steroids I’ll have all the work cut out for me”. With that, I’ll use that to get some of my

points out. Overall it helps explain in two different ways. In this situation, it was a common

misconception with steroids, and the hard truth was that your work really isn’t cut out for you. A

weakness that I actually learned more about is patience. Patience is something that I have but do

not have at the same time. It depends on the situation but when it came to English 1302 I tended

to not have as much. I would get easily frustrated and not know how to approach some of the

essays or questions sometimes. As time passed I learned how to beat my own mind. Instead of

giving myself a hard time I would set the chill mood to work and would give myself time instead

of doing it at the last second. I would start on whatever it was some days before and put on some
music and after that, I would feel a sense of relief because I knew I had time, I knew I could take

it to chill. There was a problem and I found a solution but it was all due to English 1302.

The website had its fair difficulties. The main one was the layout I had a hard time figuring out

what and where to put certain information. I wanted it to look good and have a good presentation

because I saw some of my classmates doing some very clever Weebly. But as it was I had a hard

time even trying to put text because they would go to the opposite side. One of the main

problems I had when creating the site was that there is no undo button. I was working on my

essay 3 tab when I didn't know what I clicked but somehow I managed to delete the whole tab

and I had to restore that tab. If I’m being completely honest when that happened I just closed my

laptop and worked on it the next day. Like I said I’m working on the patient part of me. The least

challenging part of the website was probably adding all the information. Since I rarely had any

missing work or assignments I was able to just put them where they belonged. As well as

learning the website and how it worked it got easier as I worked on it more and more.

As people we grow from the mind every day, we learn new things and find ways to live our lives

differently, smart, and to the fullest. When starting English 1302 I knew kind of what to expect

since I had already done 1301 the semester before but to my surprise it wasn't as bad as I thought

there were a few obstacles here and there but I made it. So when asking me the question of how

has my identity as a writer changed I would say that I'm more mature and willing to put in the

work that is needed to strive. What I mean by that is that last semester in my head I just always

sort of did things last second and focused on other situations outside of school. I passed but it

was harder because I made it harder. Now I look and see the way I work and the way I've

changed my methods to get the best outcome and still be happy at the end of it.
English 1302 helped me in many ways and overall will keep helping me for future purposes. I'm

glad I went through this class despite it being easy and hard at the same time. Learned many new

things that I will use to pursue my future