Reflective Essay: They Say/I Say

Throughout this semester we have had to write many types of essays. Although this is a college English class there is still room for improvement. I made much improvement during the semester of the class. I was able to identify my weaknesses. I learned how to make improvements to the areas I was having problems in. Although each essay we did was different I was able to begin with one essay and throughout the semester turn it into two other essays. I was able to change my style of writing to fit the type of audience I was working with. I will continue to work on my writing and keep improving it.

The revision process for me was difficult. It was difficult because I thought that my ideas were clearly stated and organized. However, that was not the case. There were sections in which the language of my essay made the ideas that I was trying to convey disorganized. Other times I had too much going on and had to slow down the pace of the essay. In brief there were errors within my essay, therefore I needed to make revisions to improve the quality. There were many changes/revisions that I made. Firstly, I omitted a paragraph in which I made a relation to 187 Reasons Why Mexicans Can’t Cross The Border. Though it had good content in regards to identity, I realized that it threw off the idea of a close reading. The objective of this assignment

In looking back on the three essays that I wrote this semester, I did notice several changes and improvements in

The first essay that I revised was Essay 2, Analyzing an Unsustainable Practice which dealt with cell phone addiction. The main reason why I chose to revise this essay is because I feel like it is a topic that could be expanded on and many people could relate to it. Moreover, when I received the feedback on this essay, I noticed a few major and minor adjustments I could make to build on my essay. So, the major improvements I made in this essay were rearranging my paragraphs to make the essay flow smoothly, adding another paragraph explaining the development of poor communication skills, and providing examples to expand on my points that were unclear. I also made minor improvements to this essay which was making a small tweak to my thesis to make the audience understand the point I am trying to make and fixing my incorrect grammar.

After reading Kayla Millman's final draft of her writing project number one, I would give the piece of writing a score of a C. The second paragraph contained a lot of repetition with the word “it” confusing the reader on what “it” really is. Easily, she could have written out what was being spoken about to keep the reader on the same page instead of struggling to keep up with the small grammatical errors. Another problem found with repetition would be the excessive pronoun use of “you” and “I”, and having the pronounce use moving back and forth, confusing the reader. Another point to be fixed in the piece of writing is to keep ideas in place rather than all over the place. In reference to paragraph three, she as the writer includes her thoughts

I started writing my essay by thinking about the obstacles that I had encountered in life. In my essay, I wrote about how I was struggling in the AP U.S. History class. The most challenging part of writing my essay is how to organize the essay. It is very difficult to decide which moment to include in the essay. I wanted to focus on the AP U.S. History story, but I also believed that it was important to talk about the struggles that I had to face when my family immigrated to Chicago. The least challenging part of writing my essay is coming up with the similes and metaphors because I often used them in my writing, so they just came naturally in my head. The feedbacks that I received from my peers were very helpful. They helped me fix my grammar

One important feedback was to make my assignment concise, so I will not use the 10% extra on the word count limit. I think I have achieved this goal as this assignment word count did not exceed the requirement. I was able to do so by writing first the main idea of each of the paragraphs, and after that I expanded the information I am providing a little by little, until I almost reached the required word count. Another important feedback was to use a spell and a grammar checkers, which I did now by using a

After reading your essay, I think you did a good job on this assignment, especially on reasoning your proposition. I like your introduction paragraph the most. By narrating your personal experience with writing, you introduced your problem associated with writing that “writing only for assignments” and made a very good transition from your story to the proposition which clearly stated at the end of your first paragraph “Once I felt that what I had to say was meaningful…I started to enjoy writing more and more for the class”. As a reader, I was told what you are going to say at the next few paragraphs after reading your introduction paragraph and I expected you would say more about why you think that made you enjoy writing. But when I continued

Mostly I struggled with the MLA format, using multiple source , and my thesis statements. For example, in essay 3 my thesis statement was “In society, it has been a cultural idea for years that females cannot do male things.” I could have made that better and told a story to have the reader more excited about hearing what I was going to say next. The things that came easily to me are the body paragraphs, organization structures, supporting details, using correct grammar, and my conclusions. For example, in essay 1 my conclusion said “All in all, I feel as if the word holds a certain importance to me now that I use it so much. I don’t like anybody outside my friend group to use it the way we use it because I feel we should always claim ownership to the way it’s used right now. There are some people outside of my friend group that has caught onto it and now use it daily, but as long as they know who originated the way it is used I guess it will be fine. My friends and I are just different in a way where we don’t do what everyone else is doing and like to start stuff on our own for each other to use or benefit from. We are pretty far from normal, but we just like to set trends and not follow the trend. I believe that is what will lead us to the path of success in the future.” I feel I do a good job wrapping everything up I talked about in the essay and provided a good closure for my audience. After being in English 151 I have gotten better at realizing my

The writing technique that I need to improve on is my transition sentences to the next paragraph. I think it easier for me to start a new paragraph rather than end one

There was many steps that helped me improve in this class including drafts and peer-evaluation worksheets. Having a rough draft is one of the best ways to help me improve on my essays because it gives me a professional eye to see the problems that I’m not able to. Discussing the prompts of our essays had benefited me because it gave me a sense of direction of where I should start and another perspective. Peer-evaluation worksheets are also one of the great tools used to improve my writing because it gave me a different approach on my essay that is by peers. They wrote some particularly useful revisions I should make to increase the value of my writing. By having a rubric to follow as guidelines had immensely improved

A goal I have for myself in regards to this challenge, in this course and beyond, is to not get lost in the details and the wavering viewpoints and to find specific ideas and thoughts to focus on to help guide my papers to be more clear. I believe that I am a decent writer, but I can always get better and I believe learning how to focus on fewer points will make my essays stronger. But, with my skills now, I expect to clearly and successfully express my ideas to my professors and classmates through my papers and homework assignments. I hope, as my writing skills develop and progress, I will have a successful four years at Boston University and in my future

In part one of "They Say, I Say (TSIS)," and chapter 8 of "Writing Research Papers (WRP)," the general theme is how to properly use another's work to formulate and augment your work. I have found that the most difficult part of writing research papers is utilizing quotes and summaries to enhance my arguments in papers. It is difficult for me because I often misuse quotes and even summarize the wrong things. Consequently, I confuse my audience, and weaken my argument. In chapter one of "TSIS," the authors use a story to illustrate to the audience that the most important thing for a writer to have is a point. This coincides with misusing quotes and summaries because they take away from the "point" of a statement, paragraph, or paper. I have found

My biggest struggle in writing would be starting my introduction because I never really know what information to add in my stating my thesis statement. Although, one way I’m trying to improve this struggle is by either adding small quotes or definitions to hook the reader and to add some info about my topic. Furthermore, one essay that I feel reflects my writing the best would be the midterm essay. I picked the midterm essay because even though it was timed I still took my time and carefully picked which examples I thought would best represent my opinions. In addition, I feel using the quote “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world” by Nelson Mandela was a very powerful way to keep the reader interested. Ultimately, while I still haven’t overcome the obstacle of writing an introduction I know I’m slowly starting to find my way towards my goal of not struggling when it comes to starting my essays.

The third essay that was written was a critical argument. This assignment required me to choose two articles from the school library and write an essay stating my opinion on a particular subject. The topic I chose was medical marijuana. This topic was interesting to me, so it made the assignment fun. On this essay I had fewer mistakes than in previous essays. I continued to struggle with APA citation and the use of commas. When I looked at the feedback from this essay, it gave me confidence. I felt that I was learning and my writing skills were improving.