Reflection Essay

Reflection Essay
Oputa Chinedu William
The University of Texas at El Paso



























2 Reflection Essay








I have learnt lots of things about reading and writing before I enrolled for 1311.I
will not deny the fact that this course brought out the good writer in me and broadened
my literary knowledge. I started noticing this from my first writing which was the
Literary Narrative which made me look into my literary past as I have never done
before. The journals I write every week made me take writing more serious because other
students will see them, so I wont want to do a bad write up. I always heard about the
APA writing style but never learnt it until this very course. I used to write without paying
attention on if I was a persuasive as needed and if the audience will get my point but after
reading some article that changed.
The process of peer reviewing before final submission of assignment was very
beneficial because it gave me the opportunity to correct my mistakes before I submit. It
also exposed other writing skills of other students to me, so in as much I learnt new
writing strategies and mistakes I in my writing was made clear to me. The revision
process exposed me to some revision skills. The revision skills are like guidelines of
twos in commenting and also the commenting in colorful blocks. In future, I revise more
like a professional and politely just I have learnt. The peer-review made the class more of
a social environment, which is good for learning.
Personally I was always afraid of research because I had the thought that will
have to read big books from the library. My fear was extinguished as I was exposed to
wonderful archives like Google scholar, Jstor and Ebscon. After I have learnt much about
Reflection Essay

discourse community ethnography and rhetorical analysis, my writing will be more
conscious. I plan to do this by first of all knowing the discourse community that my
writing falls into and the necessary terms needed. Writing the ethnography was the most
tedious but now I know that I have to paraphrase my direct quotes to break it down for
my audience. I will be referencing my quotes better as well because of the knowledge of
the discourse community ethnography. The rhetorical analysis with the help of Aristotles
Appeals, will be taking note of the direction of my writing and try to balance ethos,
pathos and logos. In other words the emotion, credibility and use of logic in my writing
will be better used. I just feel these rhetorical appeals are the salt of writing so therefore
gives the writing a good taste.
The e-portfolio process affected not only my writing but also creativity. The e-
portfolio with the cover page and other pages I tried to be as good i can in my writing
though there wasnt much writing. The citing of pictures is also a new part of my writing
as well as the glossary part.