Olivas 1

Alexis Olivas

Professor Batty

English 101

28 May 2017

English In Puente

This semester was one where I got to learn different things. Being part of Puente made

me have an academic and personal growth. The things done within the classroom that wouldnt

have been done in elsewhere helped much. Overall, I have learned about things such as writing,

reading and critical thinking, myself as a writer and how to apply all of it to my future.

Writing, reading and critical thinking were things well elaborated in this class. When it

comes to writing I learned several things. Such things were how to create a visual rhetoric essay,

an ethnographic essay and a literary analysis essay. I also learned how to fix grammar mistakes

which can misguide a reader. Those three essays plus peer review in class helped a lot too. In

addition, we read the book Still Water Saints by Alex Espinoza. While reading this book we also

analyzed it by answering questions, and those questions made me see what are the kind of

questions I should be asking myself in order to be a good active reader. When it comes to critical

thinking, all those things came to play making me become better at it. The essays, plus their

revisions and such made me think more about how to improve them and such. Also, asking

constant questions while reading helped me be actively and critically think about the analysis in

the book and such. I have never known there was such thing as writing essays about murals or a

place. It was nice to be introduced to that and explore other kinds of writing aside from the

usual ones.
 Olivas 2

As a writer I had a lot to learn. I always made simple grammar mistakes such as run-on

sentences and comma splices. Through this class I had time to focus on just three essays and

really go into depth where my problems are seen most and how I can fix them. Along with that I

believed I improved my essay organization skills. I also know the writing process better (such as

working backwards to see if one has everything in the checklist) and can effectively make my

essay. Those are the main problems which I think now are less shown in my writing with the

help of class activities such as the slides. During this class I not only fixed my problems but I

reinforced my strengths such as being able to come up with good topics and using my overflow

of ideas effectively. I hope to continue to be able to fully get rid of my bad habits such as making

run-ons or being unorganized and to improve in those aspects.

For the future , I plan to apply these skills both in school and my career. As for school I

am hoping that this reinforcement on the basics help me get through English 103 and English

105 with success. I also hope it helps in other heavy reading and writing classes. As for my

career, I am working towards being an elementary teacher. I hope that I can achieve my goal of

getting an associates degree, a bachelor's and a masters in the future as well.