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Jane Cox

Professor Beadle

English 115

9 December 2019

Reflective Essay

There is no escape from writing; it plagues our daily life both in and outside of school.

From the texts we send to the essay we submit, we are writing with the intent to be effective in

our message. I have never considered myself to be a strong writer, but that never stopped me

from trying to be one. I thought that strong writers were gifted in their natural ability to write and

therefore did not struggle through countless revisions. In my English 115 class, I learned that

there is no strong writer in the sense that I had previously believed. There is a process that

everyone goes through no matter what level of writing they consider themselves to be at. While

there will never be a perfect first draft, there will always be the pursuit for the perfect draft,

whether that is the third or the 30th. Over the course of this class, I was taught a wide variety of

techniques to improve my writing and make my arguments the most effective that they could be.

We have written three separate essays, all of which lead me to grow as a writer in a number of

ways, namely in my evidence analysis, paragraph lengths, and counterarguments.

One way I advanced as a writer throughout this class was in my evidence analysis.

During the first essay, Project Space, I received a lot of corrections on my lack of connection

between my evidence and the argument I was making. When we moved onto Project Text, I

continued to have this problem. I read and reread my essay, but I didn’t understand what my

professor meant by this. I would state and explain my evidence and its significance, but when it
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came to directly relating it to my stance, my mind would automatically fill in the blanks. It was

only when my professor said something along the lines of read your essay through the eyes of

someone unfamiliar with your topic, that my errors clicked into my understanding. This one

statement changed my view of my work; I realized a pattern in my writing that was over

explaining the information and underexplain the analysis, which I thought was a given. I learned

that directly relating my idea evidence to my argument makes my entire essay easier to follow

and more effective.

One of my biggest issues that I have learned to address and will continue to address in

my writing was my paragraph lengths. In my writing, I tend to over explain in an attempt to

make my ideas clearer, but it only results unnecessary repetition and statements. I would

consistently find that my paragraphs would take up whole pages, but I couldn’t find a way to

make them smaller. The was a major problem in my Project Space essay; my three body

paragraphs were originally split up by authors and each one included their uses of logos, pathos,

and ethos. At the time, I didn’t think it was correct to split one body paragraph concept into

multiple paragraphs. But as an assignment, I was required to visit the LRC and this visit helped

my to understand that with the amount of information that I was putting into each paragraph that

it was necessary to split them up. For my next two essay, I made sure to keep this in mind and I

believe that it really helped with the clarity and flow of my writing.

This course helped me to improve as a writer when it came to making counterarguments.

In my past essays, I had never been required to make any counter arguments. In this English 115

course, we were required to make one for Project Text, but I didn’t quite understand the concept

of it. I thought I knew what to do, but when I sat down to write one, Ifound myself confused on
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the format requirements. In my outline for my Project Text essay, that confusion could be clearly

seen: I wrote a counterargument and rebuttal at the end of each of my body paragraphs, which

did not further my argument in any way. By the time I turned in my final Project Text draft, I had

visited both my professor’s office hours and the LRC and felt that I understood how to make a

counter properly. But then I had to write another one for Project Media. I wrote one that I

thought was good, but during our peer review, I realized that a counter argument should be

longer than my few sentences. After receiving the correction to add actual evidence into my

counter, I solved my length issue. This course taught my how to make a counter argument that

that adds to the effectiveness of my essay as well as how to know when and where it is

necessary.

In my English 115 class, I learned a great many things that will help further my writing

ability and effectiveness from my paragraph lengths, to building my argument and even to

building a counterargument. I know that going into my next semester that I will never write the

perfect essay on my first try; even the best writers struggle through multiple drafts. To struggle is

to be in pursuit of something better and to grow as a person. This pursuit can be seen in everyone

who seeks out education of any kind. I am not a naturally good writer, but I know this will never

stop me from doing well because everyone can learn and that’s exactly what I am doing.