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Guadalupe Jaimes
Professor Ditch
English 113B
08 May 2015
Reflection Essay
As a freshman, I have to say that I was a bit nervous about college. High school made
college seem really challenging, as if I wasnt struggling in high school enough. My high school
teachers couldnt stress enough how important it was to do well and pay attention in their class,
especially my English teacher. Ms. Ramos always reminded us about her college experience and
how she really appreciated her high school teachers because they taught her strategies that
benefited her throughout her college days. I now find myself thanking her for everything that she
has taught me because I feel like I definitely put her lessons to practice during both semesters of
my English courses. Of course, instructors are the main source for gaining new knowledge and
new strategies in writing, but not all teach the same things. For example, each instructor has their
own way of teaching which may or not be beneficial to the students. Luckily, I learned to adapt
and find a way to incorporate every teaching method of lets say, some sort of writing technique.
I use my knowledge from my former and previous instructors and combine them, resulting in
better comprehension of the lesson. Although I still have yet to learn and master many other
English and writing strategies, I can definitely say that my writing has improved in ways that are
noticeable and greatly admired with accomplishment.
In the light of, feedback that my instructors have gave me throughout the many essays I
have written, positive and negative, I acknowledge it. I take into consideration the negative
comments I receive and ask myself a simple question; what could I have done to make it better?

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For instance, my English professor, Corri Ditch, commented on my Project Text essay, Lupe,
very well done! Your writing has improved tremendously since last semester!. My professors
words mean so much to me because being that she is a college professor and well educated in
English courses, shows me I really am improving. Although a peer editors comments are
important, an actual professional in the field, is much more meaning and valuable.
In like manner, I dont only view the feedback I receive. I also like to check the grade I
earned because a number grade is very valuable to me as much as the feedback. I say earned
because I believe the grade I receive is the grade I earned by the many effort I put into any
assignment, not only for this course. Not trying to sound cocky or arrogant, but I am the type of
person that is used to receiving good number percentages on their essay. If I ever receive a low
grade I then resort to the feedback so I could make sure not to do the same mistakes again. In my
Project Space essay, I received an eighty-seven percent. Quite honestly, I expected a grade a little
better than an eighty-seven percent. However, after I read the comments on the side margins I
knew I had to make sure I read them clearly and acknowledged my mistakes. Moreover, it is
evident that I improved on my writing because of the actual scores and comments I received in
two essays I wrote this semester. For instance, I was assigned the Project Space essay first than
the Project Text essay. In the Project Space essay I received an eighty-seven percent while I
received a ninety-one percent in the Project Text essay. The higher percentage and less comments
noted on the essay proves that my writing has improved.
Furthermore, I believe rubrics are crucial to follow in order to ensure you answer the
prompt correctly. I think it is helpful how some teachers show the rubric before-hand so one
could check if theyre doing it correctly and to their best of their ability according to the
prompts requirements. On the other hand, there are teachers who hand out the rubrics when the

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essay is graded already. I like it better when I receive the rubric afterwards because I find it
challenging. I like challenging myself, so it is interesting trying to test myself and see if I could
answer the prompt to its fullest and still obtain a fine grade. Ive been given a rubric before many
times, including high school, that I have a sense of what is on it and what is required. This, I
believe, demonstrates the improvement I have made throughout my writing courses.
Additionally, as I looked through my Project Text essay, I noticed the check marks
marked on the works cited page. Check marks, to me, represent a job well done. Finding credible
sources and citing them was not a strong suit for me in high school. I used a total of seven
sources for the Project Text essay, all with check marks next to them. I feel like I mastered
researching for credible sources and citing them. The LRC workshop and the CSUN Online
Databases are what I used as resources to search for my credible sources. The Owl Purdue is the
main cite and resource I use when I am struggling with citing any source I have. The Owl Purdue
cite and the CSUN online database have definitely helped me improve my research and citations.
In disagreement, my papers may show an area where I need more practice and room for
improvement. For instance, I could make my essay a lot better if I simply read the prompt
correctly. However, as Professor Ditch mentioned, printing the actual prompt will be very
beneficial. From now on, whenever I am assigned something that includes a prompt or
instructions of some sort, I will make sure to print it out and annotate it so that I could
comprehend to its entirety. Luckily, professors in college have office hours which make it all the
more better. I could now receive help from my professors at a specific time which is something I
wasnt able to do in high school. With such strategy and help, there is many chances of
improvement.

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In brief, feedback is important information that I take into serious consideration. Learning
from the previous mistakes yearns for a better outcome in the next essay. Researching, citing,
and directly answering the prompt, according to the rubric, are crucial things to learn and include
while writing an essay. Writing, and everything that encompasses it really is recursive! There is
always room for improvements, which I know I will keep doing in my future writing courses.