Gutierrez 1

Gabriel Gutierrez
Mrs. Bevill
ENGL 1301-04
10 December 2014
Looking Into the Reflection Pond
Communication has endless boundaries. Everyone has their own ways which they
communicate. Speech, art, sounds, music, and, technology are all great ways for a person to
communicate with anyone around the world. One of the many things that I have improved on
during my time in class was the ability to interact with people and receive good feedback on my
work.
One of the most interesting things that have changed about me during my time in class is
definitely the way that I think and analyze. My thought process has increase dramatically in the
amount of steps I take to judge something, or come to a conclusion. I always easyly assume
things prematurely without giving topics much investigation, which in retrospect made the first
few assignments in class rather difficult. Know I know, especially when creating ideas from my
academic writing to sit down and dig a little bit deeper in the subject, see the entire picture, and
even look for ideals in the background and foregrounds of things. Another thing that I learned, is
to always ask yourself why. I found after the second assignment that I was always asking myself
why the author created this piece, who was the authors target audience, Although rhetorical
questions arent allowed in academic writings, sitting down and asking them in youre head
makes the prewriting process and thinking outside of the box simpler.

Gutierrez 2
One of the other things I have improved on is my communication skill. Peer reviews
helped me to come out of my shell and meet new people, I gained the confidence to be critiqued
by others and ask for constructive criticism to better my writings. Not only was I asking for
criticism, I was giving my own as well. Proof reading someone elses paper is a great way to find
common mistakes and fix the same errors in my own paper. I feel like this is the most important
change for me as a writer. To communicate with peers and teachers to make my writings better
was I vast step for me as a student. Having my essays observed in front of a group of people was
pretty nerve raking, however it was the best way for me to improve my work and enhance my
papers.
I have also become more familiar with MLA formatting. Leaving high school I had little
to almost no experience with MLA. I didnt know how to cite quotes, credit websites or books,
or even how to set my document to be double-spaced. I have also learned the correct way to
place and word my headers. Along with learning a new format I picked up on how to search for
good credible sources online. This class thought me the importance of credibility and how it can
make or break the integrity of papers.
Looking back on the semester, I sense that all of the knowledge that I have accumulated
and all of the skills I have acquired are only going to continue to mature and develop making me
a better writer. I want my skills to progress and keep growing as continue my path through
college, perhaps even expanding far beyond that.

Gutierrez 3