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Maria Alvarez

Professor Jennifer Rodrick

English 115

06 December 2019

Reflection

CRITICAL QUESTION:

The author compares the struggle to write a successful essay with the challenge of

winning a soccer game. What comparison would you use to describe your writing process?

Author Statement: I decided to write about this to show that writing a perfect essay and

winning a soccer game are similar because when I faced both of these challenges there were a lot

of things I had to do that were similar even though one is a sport and the other one is not. I want

to also reflect my performance in the course and compare it to my performance on the field.

The days that I know I have a game I start to visualize the things I want to do during the

game, it goes from making a goal to getting a good tackle to maybe even saving a goal, it all

depends on the position I play. Similar to that when my teacher tells me to write an essay first I

brainstorm and it all depends on what type of essay is required for me to know exactly what I

want to talk about. It can go from a ​narrative essay to a compare-&-contrast maybe even a

persuasive/argumentative essay. The things I do in the game all depend on what position I am

playing as well as the things I want to write in my essay. Of course not everything goes as
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planned for example in the game I might start to miss goals or maybe I start to give bad passes,

this is the same thing as when I start to look for articles and evidence to support my idea but I am

not able to find any. I start to get frustrated in both situations but deep down I know if I do not

keep calm I will end up messing myself up even more. That is why there is a break in between

the game and that is when I get myself together to come back even better, and although there is

no second half while writing an essay I try to not overwhelm myself and take breaks in between.

Now there is a difference between playing highschool soccer to playing on a soccer club.

When I first started to play highschool soccer everything was so easy, not to brag but I was one

of the best players. Then when I joined a soccer club everything came crashing down, I was not

the best player anymore, there were other girls faster than me, more skilled than me and the

competition became harder. I look back at this and think of how much it resonates with my life

now and with this course because in highschool I would not try when it came to my english class

or when it came to writing essays because my teacher would always give me good grades and

tell me that my essays were good and that I had one of the best arguments in the class but then

when I got to college everything was so hard, I really tried and I did not get the grade I expected,

then I realized that my teachers never pushed me to be better and they did not even correct my

errors.

We all know that in order to win a game and be a good player in the field you need a lot

of communication with whoever is your coach, now to pass a class and do good you also need a

lot of communication with your teachers. I had coaches that love me and communicate with me a

lot and I had others that do not even know my name, the ones that communicated with me more

were the ones that pushed me the most and made me a better player. Same goes for teachers, I
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have known teachers that are very scary and they do not know who I am but there were others

that were super friendly and even made me like reading and writing. This year with Jennifer was

a good year because although we were not super close she still made it easy for me to feel

comfortable and ask questions and she was always there to answer me and help me out.

Also in order to win a soccer game and be the best I had to practice a lot, and it gets tiring

and annoying sometimes I did not want to practice but at the end I learned that if I did not

practice it was only going to affect me and my game. It is the same when it comes to writing a

perfect essay, if I do not practice, if I do not read get help and correct my errors it will only end

up affecting me and my grades.

Overall winning a soccer game and writing a perfect score is hard, they both required

patience, focus, persistence and practice. I always have in mind that I am not going to win every

game I play, you know like they say “you win some you lose some” but the one thing I know is

that regardless of the score I try my best, this is the same way I feel about writing an essay, I try

my best and if I do not get a good grade or the grade that I wanted, I’ll get it next time.