Reflective Essay

Trace Cummings

Reflective Essay

ENGL-1001

13 April 2020

Reflective Essay

Introduction

The biggest thing I struggled with during this course is the peer review and the draft requirements. I have no issues with submitting a rough draft and a final draft, but when we have to submit three total drafts it created a multitude of issues for me. In my eyes, the only thing that matters is the finished product and this goes with nearly anything in life. As long as you have the finished product and you achieved it with no moral/ethical sacrifices, who cares how it ended up there? At the same time, ‘in my eyes’ means nothing as I’m not the one grading my papers (obviously). That doesn’t change the fact that I disagree with the way things are done but again it’s not up to me but I will express my opinion when asked! I won’t just say that and not provide some background for why I think that. When there are three required drafts, and we have to submit each one and show what changes we made, I think it encourages sub-par work. Especially for the rough draft. If I’m absolutely REQUIRED to make changes to something, I’m not even going to try to make it good at first. “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” (Cummings). Maybe it’s just the way I operate (I’m a procrastinator, let’s be honest) but I like to get things done right the first time around. I have no issues with fixing mistakes that I make because I usually don’t get it right the first time but if my grade is dependent on there being tangible changes between each draft, you can bet your bank I’m going to butcher that first draft in order to leave space for future changes to satisfy the draft requirement. I’m not everyone else but I’m sure I’m speaking for others when I say that the draft requirements were problematic.

The main skill I’ve improved in over the course of this class is patience. I’m not sure if that’s specifically a writing skill but it’s definitely applicable to writing as well as many other facets of life. It takes a lot of patience to write a research essay and I learned that in this class as I’ve never done that before. It’s easy to want to grind out an essay and throw some fluff in to satisfy the word and length requirement but the patience I’ve grown has helped me to take it slower which will definitely help with future writing assignments. 

As a writer, I’d say my biggest strength is honesty. My hope is that my honesty will translate to an audience that is more receptive to what I have to say and when I put it into perspective when I’m reading something and I feel as if the writer is being honest with me, it puts me at ease even if they’re not telling me what I want to hear. It helps me know that they are being real and not just trying to sell me on something and I’m more likely to accept what they have to say. However, I do think this can work against me sometimes. There’s a balance between brutal-honesty and wording phrases in a way that doesn’t scare readers away and I’m still trying to learn that.

I haven’t held back my thoughts or opinions even when it feels like an unpopular opinion. I think it’s good when you can say something that maybe others are feeling but don’t want to voice as it builds respect (if done correctly) and can help to sharpen others as well. 

Rhetorical Analysis

I learned that college writing and reading are no joke and I also learned that I cannot wait to graduate and never write another paper again. I’m not saying this to be negative or funny but to be completely honest to the question. This assignment scared me and opened my eyes to the fact that I’m no longer in highschool and it’s time to put on my big-boy pants. It was a necessary wake-up call, just not the one I was expecting. I comprehended VERY little of Dr. David Bartholomae’s “Inventing the University”. It was very hard for me to stay engaged while I was reading this article and it was probably the most challenging assignment that we had to do. 

Analysis is very different from other forms of writing in that it’s primarily objective. In my opinion (see what I did there) it’s much easier to write subjectively. I’m very good at giving my opinion, but when you tell me to back that up with some evidence or make an honest assessment of something and show why it takes much more time and energy. I struggled with making statements and assessing Bartholomae’s claims as I couldn’t quite interpret them and how am I supposed to make a statement that is verifiable if I don’t understand what is being claimed.  

Exploratory Essay

I learned a lot about the field that I planned to go into and I also learned how much there is to know that I don’t already know. Put it this way: I know nothing and this was confirmed after grinding out this assignment. Exploration is different from other forms of writing in that it is a bit more flexible especially when compared to analysis. It’s not 100% subjective but it’s also not as rigid as something like an analysis. It was difficult not to take a position on my topic as I said but ultimately this paid off and I was able to learn a lot more by leaving my bias at the door when looking for information. Exploration is important and as demonstrated to the class, it’s the precursor to something deeper like a research essay.  I did not struggle with this assignment as much as I did with the analysis and it was actually the most interesting of all the assignments we had as I was able to explore a lot of questions I had and it taught me a lot about my topic.

Research Essay

I learned in the Research Essay that reliable sources are not as common as I’d like to think and that there’s all kinds of information available on the internet and not all of it is true. It’s easy to want to read and believe any article you see but the sourcing is so incredibly important and can tell you a lot about why what you’re reading was written. Research is similar to analysis in that it’s very objective but research is almost more objective and requires much more statistics and facts rather than claims and statements. The hard part is compiling all of the information that was found. It was extremely tough to find information that did not conflict with previous information that I’d found and it was extremely discouraging when this happened. This made sticking to a position tough as well. The best part about this assignment was concluding and explaining all the information that I found and was much easier than coming up with information. 

Multimodal project

I did not learn much from the multimodal project. This one was another tough assignment for me, as this project hinged on my ability to explain my position with media in different forms which I am extremely lacking in. This only highlights a weakness and an area to grow in though, so no reason to get down about this. A multimodal project stands out in that it relies on other types of ways to explain and forward an argument or idea. It was definitely tough for me to find media to use, and in the end I decided to just make a lot of my media to overcome this hurdle and while I do not think it is the answer, it is the route I took for this specific instance.

Conclusion

I wish I had been more disciplined in my use of class time and time outside of class overall. I’ve already mentioned that I have some procrastinator tendencies and this will not fly in college. I am proud of myself for not giving up and sticking in this class even though there were times where I felt too challenged and discouraged. I wanted to give up and I didn’t and that’s something that I’m prideful of. To someone that is coming into this class, I would advise them to not get discouraged when the assignments feel overwhelming or tough. You are able to do it, you just have to apply yourself.