english essay

Professor Martin

English 115

8 Dec 2013

Reflective Essay: Journey Through English 115

I began this English 115 class eager to write but also nervous since I had not written formal essays in a while. I had generally good writing skills that I acquired throughout high school, but I lost many of these skills since I had not written many essays within the past year. Thankfully, I received numerous handouts from Professor Martin that were extremely beneficial and greatly helped improve my writing skills. Particularly, a handout that taught me how to properly introduce, state, and analyze quotes; this information really changed my writing style. Rather than explaining quotes in a random manner like I usually did, I analyzed and organized them in a logical way. Analyzing quotes pushed me to critically think in order to put my thoughts down on paper in a way that made sense to the reader. I am very glad that I took English 115 with Professor Martin because my writing style has changed for the better.

I have learned many skills in this class that I will certainly be using in the future. I am really glad that I learned about the “quotation sandwich”. There is a particular format for writing quotations that greatly helped me this semester: introduce the quote, state the quote, and then provide analysis for the quote. This way of stating quotes creates a “quotation sandwich” that makes logical sense and creates a good flow throughout the paragraphs in an essay. I loved this handout on quotes so much that I even passed it on to my sister and a friend! I also learned about the importance of having someone review my essay before turning it in. In class, there were peer review sessions that I really benefitted from because I was able to hear an outside opinion and I could use these suggestions to improve my essay. I also really like peer review because I have the opportunity to read another person’s essay and I can learn from their writing style and even apply it to my own writing. When my essay about The Great Gatsby was peer reviewed I realized that I was not proud of what I wrote because I did not feel comfortable having others read it. Therefore, I got rid of that essay and wrote a completely new one that I was very happy with, which is the one I decided to put in my portfolio. Another skill that I will definitely be using in the future is using outside sources. I learned how to use the resources that are offered by the school such as “One Search” which is a free article database. I am a Biology major so I will be writing many research papers in the future and I will be able to use the skills I learned in this class to accomplish that. I also learned the importance of format and organization in an essay. An essay needs to be properly formatted to be complete; it needs to be in MLA format and have the correct margin size for example. Proper formatting makes an essay look more polished and professional. I will be using all of the skills that I learned in this class for my future writing.

All of the assignments challenged me in different ways. I felt that the second essay challenged me the most because of the numerous outside sources I used and had to incorporate in me essay. I wrote a proposal argument that proposed the use of water refill stations instead of using plastic water bottles. I used this essay in my portfolio because I felt that my writing grew a lot during this essay because I pushed myself to find information that really supported my thesis. I was interested in the topic I wrote about so it was very interesting for me. However, finding sources and integrating them in my essay was difficult because it needed to make logical sense. I felt that the least difficult assignments were the “Moodle” posts since they were short informal responses, so naturally they were less difficult than the other assignments. However, they were still beneficial because I could read and respond to my classmates’ responses as well as read the comments they left on my own Moodle posts. This class provided a range of work with different difficulty levels that definitely improved my writing skills.

I have improved on many skills throughout this semester. I have greatly improved on the weaving quotes into my essay as well as analyzing them. Providing analysis in an essay allows the writer to explain the quote and relate it to the topic of the essay. I also improved on using outside sources that supported my thesis. I used to use quotes that did not really contribute to the essay topic, but now I use credible sources that relate to the thesis and I know how to properly cite them as well. In the future I hope to improve on writing introductions and conclusions; I want to avoid sounding repetitive so I need to ensure that I summarize or restate what was in my essay, rather than simply repeat it. I also want to improve on making my essays flow better. Furthermore, I think that using more transition words when I write will certainly improve the flow of my writing. I can only improve my writing with practice, and I will always use the skills that I have learned.

English 115 with Professor Martin has greatly improved my writing skills in various ways. I learned numerous skills that I will always remember when writing in the future. I learned about the importance of structure and organization of an essay. I am now aware of how to make the paragraphs in my essay flow and I will definitely be using this skill in the future. I learned how to properly site sources which I will also be using in my future writing. I will continue to use the valuable writing skills I learned in this class and my writing skills will continue to improve with practice.