Marroquin 1

Jhonatan Marroquin
Professor Jon Beadle
English 113b
11 May 2016
Reflective Essay

I started the semester in 113 b writing down what were my weaknesses and strengths in
my writing. My weakness was explaining what I was writing about further, rather than just
writing down my thoughts. I always had a tough time write a thesis statement, they were always
short and not really effective. I would always write out a simple thesis and try to build off it. I
always ended up leaving out why it mattered and why my audience would car about the topic. I
really did not know how explain why it mattered and why my audience would care, I seek help
but still did not really understand so I would just attempt to explain why it mattered. Most of my
thesis had potential but I would always just leave at that.
Another problem that I faced was; I would summarize most of what I read and use that on
my paper. I also did not correctly analyze the text to explain what exactly was going on and why
it mattered. This also connects with not really explaining what was going on in the novel our
class was assigned to write about. When I was assigned Project text I had a difficult time finding
a topic to write about, another weakness I had. When I figured out which topic I was going to
write about, the research for evidence and outside sources was difficult, I wasnt able to find the
scholarly sources I needed. Another weakness I found along the way was knowing the difference

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between scholarly and credible sources, even though I was taught the difference I still found it
difficult to notice the difference.
Writing through out college I did not have the weakness of not having meeting the
expectations from the prompt. I never had difficulty with length in my essays, usually because I
have enough information from a text and outside sources to keep the length of my paper so the
meet the requirements. When I received my essay back I noticed other mistakes like punctuations
and missing words. As I revised and polished my essay and read Professor Beadles comments
and applied them to my essay. The length of my essay got longer but I still have trouble with
sources. I have to make my outside sources a priority for upcoming sources in my future essays.
I also had quotes that I did not relate with the novel. I was able to fix the problems for my
revision.
Some strengths that I have is able to write a good outline to get started on my outline.
Before I started English in college I never wrote outlines before for my essays, so this was a
weakness for me but when I looked at an example and how the professor wants it to be done, I
was able to complete an organize outline. For my first essay: Project space, I was able to write a
4-5-page essay on my culture. I did have some weakness in that essay as I did in the second
essay Project Text. In Project space I also did not further explain my writing. As I read the
comments I saw that I did not explain why my culture identifies who I am. There were also parts
in my essay where I did not fully explain what I was writing about. I left a lot of questions the
reader might have asked unanswered. In project text I did not let the reader know why he should
care about the main characters situation, why his actions were mistakes, and why he risked
exposing himself. I learned that I have to use textual evidence from the novel to explain how it

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shows the answers to the questions a reader might have. I notice that there is still a lot of
improving to be done in my writing. Now I am aware of my mistakes and going to work on them
for future papers.
I have a lot of weaknesses in my writing that I took notice in this semester. This reflective
essay was supposed to be an arguementive essay on how my essay writing has improved over
time using evidence from my own text. I started the semester with an average score on my first
essay project space. I knew that I was supposed to improve my writing for the next essay to
revieve a higher grade, but ended up have a harder time writing the second. I had more weakness
than strengths in my second essay. For my final portfolio I went back to both my essay to revise
and polish my essay from any mistakes or information I left out. I realized my mistakes and fixed
accordingly to the comment professor beadle left for me. Now that I am aware of these mistakes
and weaknesses I could better my writing. My writing did not improve this semester like expect
it too, instead I learned my mistakes and improve them while revising my essays.
I am not able to argue how my writing improved this semester. I am able to write about
how I know how to explain my writing further, cite my work, and show why an argument is
effective. This was all a learning experience, I learn what my weakness where and fixed them to
improve my writing.