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Andrew Flores
Professor Collins
ENGL 1301
30 November 2016
Reflective essay
My goals this semester were to learn and improve my skills needed to write an academic
essay. This semester was a success for me and I feel that I can now write a strong academic
essay. I was able to improve my academic writings with the introduction of rules and skills that
are required for academic writing such as the lack of first and second person point of view,
comma splices, the elimination of trash words, peer editing, and self-editing through
ratiocination.
There were an abundance of rules to academic writing that helped me succeed and many
methods to self-check myself and make sure my pieces of writing met the requirements and were
successful pieces of academic writing. The rule that stuck with me the most this semester was to
never use first or second person unless given permission by the professor. If I used first or second
person, it would not be considered academic writing and since the consequences for doing so
were so high, that is why it stuck with me the most. The next rule that stuck with me the most
was to eliminate any present comma splices, which are the unnecessary use of commas. My
professor was so adamant about comma splices that it was imprinted in my brain throughout the
semester. Throughout the semester, eliminating comma splices allowed me to better develop my
thoughts and sentences which helped me strengthen my essays. A major part to my advancement
in academic writing was the ability to recognize trash words, eliminate them and upgrade my
grammar which I worked on throughout the semester when reviewing my papers. This skill

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helped edit my papers and make each piece of writing more academic and professional. I also
learned to use peer editing to improve an essay and I learned how to thoroughly edit a peers
paper. I learned to take peer edits seriously and edit papers truthfully and meaningfully so that
my peers get the best feedback possible. I was able to effectively edit peers papers throughout
the semester but I was also able to improve my writings thanks to others who peer edited my
papers which helped me improve overall as an academic writer this semester. I was given many
quizzes and notes throughout the semester to make sure I understood the full meaning and all the
aspects to academic writing. Perhaps the largest factor to my growth as a writer this semester was
self-editing through ratiocination which focused on all the rules to academic writing and honed
in on all the skills needed to successfully write an academic essay. It helped me catch my
mistakes and catch patterns in those mistakes and allowed me to successfully correct those
mistakes and improve my essays and help me succeed this semester. With the use of
ratiocination, I was able to see my improved grammar and professionalism in writing. Selfediting also allowed me to make sure I was correctly citing my sources so that I was not
plagiarizing my papers. This was most evident in the report essay in which I was able to
correctly imbed my information from my sources and also correctly cite them and make sure of
this through self-editing.
I am pleased with the progress and improvement I have shown in my writing throughout
this semester. With the correct guidelines and skills provided to me throughout the course, I was
able to fully engage and apply myself to become a better writer. I am also thankful to have had
such a passionate and understanding professor to guide me through this semester and make me a
better writer.