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Kaylee Ringuet

Professor Massie

English 1301

05 January 2020

Reflective Essay

During this semester, my writing has definitely improved. I have learned many new

concepts about communication through the English assignments, such as how to correctly write

to the intended audience, how to make my essays flow smoothly, and also how important it is to

pay attention to details while researching and then including those details in my writing. With

each assignment, I have noticed specific writing concepts that I have continued to improve on,

others that I repeatedly made errors on, and which assignment taught me the most.

Throughout the duration of the class, I realized that I improved on two certain

components of writing a great essay. On the Review Essay, I realized that I mistakenly failed to

include a concluding sentence on one of the paragraphs. When writing the second assignment, I

made sure to incorporate a concluding sentence in each paragraph. According to my peer

reviews, my Review Essay was well-organized for a majority of the paper. But on the Report

Essay and the Visual Rhetorical Analysis, I felt as though I had a better grip on the organization

than I did at the beginning of the semester. As a result of this analysis, my concluding sentences

and my organization improved.

In addition to the improvements, there have been errors that I continued to make on every

assignment. On some of the essays, I realized that I would summarize a statement, when instead
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I should have quoted it. For example, on my Report Assignment when I was explaining the

statistics of how many abortions were performed in the year 2017, I should have quoted the

statement. Another example of my errors, I noticed that I needed to go into more description on

the topics of the body paragraphs on my Report Essay. An example to support this statement is

that the professor’s feedback stated to “explain further.” Thus, I continually made mistakes such

as paraphrasing when a direct quote was necessary and needing to go more into depth on details.

Lastly, as I analyzed each assignment, I realized which of my essays taught me the most.

The Report Essay gave me the opportunity to write about others’ opinions rather than writing

about my own opinion. I found it quite difficult not having the ability to express my beliefs.

Therefore, the Report Essay taught me the most about communicating and writing, surpassing

the Review Essay and Visual Rhetorical Analysis.

On each assignment, there were mistakes I made but also instances of correct writing

techniques. I analyzed that my concluding sentences and organization improved throughout the

class. I also noticed that I repeatedly needed to quote statistics and also be more detailed on

certain topics. As I analyzed each assignment, I came to the conclusion that I learned the most

from the Report Essay. English 1301 has taught me how to improve my writing, how to write for

my audience and the manner in which to convey the paper’s intended message.