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Belle Bellmyer

Professor Collins

ENGL 1301

21 February 2017

Reflection Essay

The spring semester of 2017 I had the pleasure of attending Professor Collins

Composition one English class. My aunt, a high school English teacher, recommended her to me,

and I enrolled in her class. This semester was challenging for me because I was enrolled in 3

other classes besides English, so I found I had to prioritize my assignments and leave time to

complete them in my schedule. Even though this semester was at times difficult, I still

thoroughly enjoyed attending Professor Collins class, and found I learned much more than

anticipated from this class. This semester I learned ratiocination and how to write thesis

statements through essay one and essay two.

Professor Collins taught the class the details of a thesis statement, why one is need in an

academic essay, and also provided us with a fill in the blank formula to utilize. She defined a

thesis statement as, a short statement, usually one sentence, that summarizes the main point or

claim of an essay, and she also explained to our class that a strong thesis statement will control

the subject matter and state to the reader why the topic is important. As I wrote my essay, after

completing each paragraph, I referenced back to the thesis statement to ensure the subject matter

matched the thesis in my introduction paragraph. My thesis statement as written in Essay one, I

will be reviewing the Maybelline Volume Express the Rocket waterproof mascara based on
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price, brush quality, results, and longevity to determine if the product is one that I would

recommend. Also, my thesis statement as written in essay two Tablets vs Textbooks has

become an important debate among educators because tablets and textbooks are the essential

learning tools for students and the students success depends on the decision of which tool to

use. This helped me to efficiently stay on topic and quickly finish the assignment without

unnecessary issues. The technique mentioned helped me to complete each essay assigned for this

class and also aided in the writing of required essays in other courses.

Ratiocination was another technique I learned that resulted in improved writing and better

understanding of what is required in academic writing. Professor Collins presented the class with

an easy to follow power point which defined ratiocination and listed the steps to complete it. The

first step is to circle every be verb in the essay then reduce the total number by either

eliminating it altogether or changing it to a livelier verb. Step number two is to highlight the first

word in every sentence of your paper, and ensure there is no repetition throughout each

paragraph. Step three consists of highlighting every other sentence to evaluate sentence lengths.

Create a diversity in sentence length and revise throughout the entire paper. Step four, eliminate

any dead words, such as very, really, got, get, stuff, a lot, contractions, many, just, good, bad,

says, and replace with improved diction. The last step is to locate all pronouns in the essay, such

as he, she, it, they, their, and ensure it is clear to the reader what the pronoun refers to. This series

of steps helped me to notice mistakes and highlight the areas I needed to correct. I noticed with

each essay these mistakes became less and less of an issue. For example, before editing essay

number one consisted of 40 be verbs, but essay number two only 22 be verbs. Ratiocination

has helped me tremendously in this course, and I will thankfully carry this knowledge with me to

English Composition two.

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The techniques I have learned this semester will help me achieve a higher score in each

class that requires a writing assignment. It will also aid in my ability to read and understand any

essays or papers more in depth than before I understood this content.