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Darlene Gomez

Professor Beadle

ESW 113A

01 August 2019

My Reflection Essay

I remember doing outlines and first drafts in Elementary, and that was the last time I ever

actually did them willingly. Then in Middle School, I was having a hard time and I can’t

remember much academically and to be honest I probably wasn’t paying attention just like I had

been in Elementary. As a result of not paying attention and not making when I was younger, it

has cost me so much in my academics in every subject now. But, one thing I do know is that ever

since I can remember English was my favorite subject and it continued to be my favorite subject

for a long time up until now. This is a good sign because if I hate it now, that means that I have

learned the right way to write a proper English paper and the only reason I would hate it is

because I have to do it the right way now. This summer class is probably one of my favorite

English classes I’ve ever taken because of how much I learned about the actual subject. It was

very challenging for me, but my writing has improved since High School.

Progression One was my first time writing a four-page essay. That’s insane because I

would’ve never thought I would be able to write a four-page essay. In High School, I’d write five

small paragraphs and that’s what I would call my “essay”. If anybody were to have told me to

write a four-page essay I think I would’ve cried. So, for the first progression essay, I almost

cried at least 30 times because previously I never had much to say in the essays that I had written
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in the past, so it was a pain to write them. Trying to write and convey my ideas so that my

readers can understand me effectively has always been hard for me. So, literally Progression One

was a mess. I changed it a whole bunch of times, but nothing seemed to work. I worked hard on

it, but it wasn’t my best work. I learned a lot when my Professor returned me my paper with lots

of helpful feedback, I never got feedback like this on my papers in High School. I learned that

there are so many rules to writing an MLA format paper. Some rules, I put it on god, I didn’t

even know about. Revising progression one was just as hard as I remember doing it the first

time, but I needed more evidence from my articles from my primary sources and my thesis

needed to be more specific because it was too general.

By the second progression, is where I saw the most improvement. I got super nervous

because I realized after reading the feedback on my previous paper that there’s a lot of things to

look out for. One of the things that I have always hated using in my essays is evidence. I literally

would never use it, and I didn't use evidence much in my first progression essay. So, in the

second progression, I used a lot of evidence from my primary source and the research articles

that I found on my own on the CSUN database. I’ve never used this much evidence in my LIFE.

I also feel like in this second essay I wrote a bit better, shout out to the 77 percent I got on it I’m

proud of it. It’s probably the best essay I’ve written in my entire life haha. But, I did lots of

summaries, again my structure was a bit off in my body paragraphs and my thesis was not strong

enough. Regardless, I do feel like I did better in this essay, it was strong.

Even though I know that I haven't improved so much where all my essays could get A's

in this portfolio. I learned that you need a strong thesis and you have to make specific so that it

can be a roadmap for your body paragraphs. A strong thesis is good because it's meant to be
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arguable. I also learned that you can argue anything you like as long as you have the evidence to

back it up. One thing that wasn't inforced at my school was that structure/organization is key to

writing a good paper. Unlike most English classes I've taken in the past, I feel prepared for the

classes I will take in the future. I've learned all of these things now, it's just all about practicing

from here because it's very difficult for me. Also, I'm glad I took this summer course. Sure it was

super tough for me and I struggled to make a good, clear, and clean paper, but I learned so much

in this English summer writing class and I'm glad that I took it because I feel like I did something

productive. Unlike most English classes I've taken in the past, I feel prepared for the English

classes I will take in the future, so for that, I am very appreciative.