Igarian 1

Lucy Igarian

Professor Beadle

English 115

7 December 2017

Reflection Essay

Throughout this semester I believe that I have greatly improved as a writer and a critical

thinker. I mainly improved on my analysis, organization, and clarity, because with each essay I

grew as a writer, and started to put all of the suggestions together to make the quality of my

writing better. In the beginning of the semester, I mainly struggled with backing up my thesis

because I wouldn't really link the evidence I had to the arguments I was making in my body

paragraphs. I would also lose touch with the topic at hand as the essay progressed. Along with

that, my essays were very unorganized because I would constantly repeat myself. Lastly, the

biggest issue I had with my writing was was that I wouldn't extend on the ideas and points that I

would make. I would just say things and leave it there without an explanation or evidence to

back it up. With all of these mistakes came improvements and I'm glad that I was able to learn

from them all.

The first area that I improved in was analysis. In my project space essay, that was

something I really struggled with. For example, I would say things like, Fear of these labels is

what creates a specific monster, which is the fear of judgment (Igarian 1), and I wouldn't really

explain what I meant or why I made that claim. I also never explain what the connection between

these labels and the fear of judgement was, but in my project media essay I really explained all

of the claims that I made very thoroughly. This can be seen when I say, Terminology can also
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be a real issue when it is coming from the leader of the United States. The president has such a

huge influence on Americans as a whole, because of his position of power, and the fact that he

uses the word aliens to describe immigrants really motivates this fear that people in America

have towards immigrants from all over the world (Igarian 2). Here I actually explain my entire

claim and why it could end up being hurtful or seen as wrong. Along with that I explain the

effect it would have on the citizens of the United States. By doing that I make my point much

more clearer and my specificity better in the project media essay.

The next area that I greatly improved in was my organization. My project space essay

didn't really flow at all and was very hard to follow. I feel like I could have done a much better

job at connecting all of my ideas and putting them in the right order. In my project text essay, I

think organization was what I was best at because of all the criticism I got on my prior essay. I

made sure that my thesis was clear and supported so I wouldn't have trouble backing it up in my

body paragraphs. For example, I had stated, Shin Godzilla (2016) has dramatically changed

from the original Godzilla which was made in 1954 (Igarian 1), as my thesis and backed it up

by explaining it and talking about its significance and stated , This change is significant because

each movie assigns a different meaning to the battle against the monster, displays the drastic

changes in society, and showcases the evolution of destructive and nuclear weapons (Igarian 1).

Having a firm thesis really helped set the flow and tone of the entire essay as a whole. This

helped me learn that once you have your main idea set, the rest just flows very easily and clearly

for you and the reader.

The last area that I improved in was my clarity. My project space essay was very

confusing at times and some of my paragraphs didn't really have a purpose or were just repeating
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things that had already been said. I kept about talking about fear and judgement for almost the

entire essay and didn't really introduce any new topics or ideas. I also didn't do a very good job at

explaining ideas so I always felt the need to go back and add on to them. Now reading it back

and looking at all of the comments I can see how unclear things had become because the more I

would repeat myself the more confusing it would become. I really worked on this in my next two

essays and made sure to have enough new points to not constantly repeat myself. Along with that

I made sure to elaborate enough on an idea, so I wouldn't have to go back and re explain it later

on. This really helped keep my essay not only organized but interesting because there was a

constant flow of idea that were understandable and thoroughly explained.

Overall the process of writing these essays really changed me as a writer. It taught me

many new skills that I will implement in my future essays. With each comment came an idea of

improvement and those improvements not only helped me get my thoughts across to the reader

but it also helped me understand the arguments I was making. Instead of just stating facts, I am

now able to elaborate on those ideas and create a clear and understandable connection to the

thesis. I learned how to take the criticism and incorporate it into my writing. The most important

things that I learned were the importance of organization and clarity. Without having a set

outline to follow, essays can often times get very complicated and confusing and start to loose

their purpose. I learned how to form my sentences and paragraphs in a way that is much more

clear and understandable to the reader. This is why as time went on, I improved greatly in all of

the areas needed and demonstrated a vast understanding of the topics at hand.