Final Reflection

 Here is my final reflection:

Jesus Arevalo Merino

Deana Nall

English Composition I

7 December 2020

Reflection

            The first major assignment was the “Where I’m from” essay. In this essay, I wrote about my hometown and all the positive and negative experiences I lived there. I also described the places where I spent most of my time when I lived there. As I explained in my thesis, although I lived many bad experiences in my hometown, it will always occupy a special place in my heart. For this assignment, I wrote about the happy memories first, then I wrote about the bad memories, and in the end, I described the current situation my hometown is going through. The reason why I also wrote about the negative experiences I lived in my hometown is that I wanted to be realistic. No matter we come from, we all remember at least one bad experience. It was hard to start typing because although I had a lot to write about, it is always hard for me to talk about myself, but once I started typing I could not stop.

            The second major assignment was the “Ad Analysis” essay. For this assignment, I had to choose an ad and analyze it. I wrote about the message the company wanted to communicate through the ad, I explained the ethos, pathos, and logos shown in the ad, and described the ad. I also talked about the targeted audience and explained why I thought the ad was effective. For my thesis, I decided to go ahead and talk about the main argument of the ad because the ad I chose was very obvious and people would get the message as soon as they saw it. I chose a Starbucks pumpkin spice ad because I work at Starbucks and at the time I wrote that ad analysis, it was pumpkin spice season. The ad was displayed inside the store I work and I really liked it. For this assignment, I followed the rubric given by the instructor and I really liked the way it turned out.

            The third major assignment was the “Music Argument” essay. My topic was “Music should be accessible to everyone”. I chose that topic because music apps literally try to force us into paying for music. This assignment was very difficult to write because I could not find many articles that supported my point of view. For this assignment, I talked about the fact that artists make most of their money by touring, the Napster scandal, and the history of advertisements on YouTube. My thesis explains that music has been a medium of expression for centuries, therefore, it should be free for everyone to enjoy.

            My favorite composition review assignment was “The look” reading response. “The Look” is a story by Larry Lehna. In the story, the author talks about the emotionless and hateful face called “The Look” he had to wear for eleven years while he was in prison and how he eventually lost the look after his academic advisor was kind to him. The reason I really enjoyed writing about this story is that I loved reading it. My thesis is a short summary of the story. I wrote about how I felt while reading the story and what the story made me think of.

            Learning Outcomes (Composition I):

1.     I learned how to appropriately respond to various rhetorical situations, purposes, and audiences. The positive feedback I received from my instructor and classmates after they read my where I’m from essay communicates that my audiences were able to understand and enjoy the essay I wrote. The ad analysis essay had many purposes and I was able to write about all of them. I was able to write about the main argument, ethos, pathos, logos, evidence that support the main argument, targeted audience, effectiveness, and more.

2.     I learned to use writing and reading for inquiry, learning, thinking, and communicating. I was able to communicate my point of view on free music through my music argument essay. I learned information about my topic by reading articles. I was also able to think of a way to write my essay so that people would understand my point of view.

3.     I learned to integrate original ideas with those of others. In the music argument essay, I wrote about my own opinion on music and why it should be free which is something many people think. I was also able to find online discussions on the topic and most people supported my point of view and talked about why they thought music should be free.

4.     I learned to develop flexible strategies for generating, revising, editing, and proofreading. I read my essays three times to revise them and edit anything that isn’t written the correct way.

5.     I learned to use collaborative writing processes. I have used the TREX more than twice.

6.     I have demonstrated knowledge of structure, paragraphing, tone, mechanics, syntax, grammar, and documentation. My where I’m from essay received a 20 out of 20 on organization and a 10 out of 15 on grammar and mechanics. I make sure I research and have a lot of content before I start writing. I keep a neutral tone in all of my essays except for the music argument.

 

Learning Outcomes (Composition Review):

1.     I learned to demonstrate an awareness of usage and mechanics through developing and revising compositions. I have a 257 out of 257 in my composition review class which lets me know that I do a good job when it comes to developing and revising compositions.

2.     I learned to demonstrate critical thinking skills by reading texts in various genres and responding and developing compositions. All of the reading responses I have had to write for this class had different genres and I was able to complete all of them and get a perfect score. I never had a problem with expressing how I felt or what I thought after reading stories.

3.     I learned to develop a variety of strategies for generating text and for revising. When I write my reading responses, I follow the order the instructor wants us to follow and I read my paper twice to make sure I am not missing anything.

4.     I will reflect through a final portfolio demonstrating an understanding of purpose, audience, and usage/style. I wrote about my understanding of purpose, audience, and usage in my final portfolio.

Strengths and Challenges

            I believe peer review is one of my strengths because I am a perfectionist person and it is easy for me to spot others’ errors. I like giving people advice. I have also been told that my advice helped people see something they did not notice and caused them to change it right away.

            I believe comma splices have been my biggest challenge because they have been the major reason why I lost points on my assignments. The pattern of error presentation helped a lot because through that presentation I learned to avoid them myself.

Overall Benefit

            I believe I did very well in both classes. I did not know what to expect because I had never heard about English classes in college. I thought I was going to be writing very long essays every week, but both classes were very enjoyable and I learned a lot. I believe I am prepared for English 1312 because I did very well in English 1311 and English 0111. I also like challenges.