Pitts 1

Brigette Pitts

Engl-1302

Professor Moore

30 November 2017

Reflection

This fall semester was formative by giving me greater confidence in the organization of

my writing and in preventing grammatical errors. Going into this semester I had issues with

organizing my thoughts into effective and sensible writing as well as grammatical issues. As for

grammar, my biggest struggles are with comma splices, seen mainly in the rhetorical analysis

and causal argument assignment. Throughout the semester the rhetorical analysis, causal

argument, and proposal were good exercises in learning how to use language effectively to

express an educated opinion. This composition two class also gave me the realization that well

authored papers are possible from anyone if paired with diligent proofreading and peer review.

In the rhetorical analysis essay the most recurrent issue is either a missing comma or an

unnecessary one. This accompanied with excessive wordiness and repetition make for a rough

essay upon reflection. Wordiness is an issue I carry through much of my writing due to not

knowing the correct words to express a thought. However, the grammatical errors are what

makes it clear that this essay was early in the semester. Instances of needing commas are seen in

places such as the comma required after students in the sentence, Jobs reminds the students

Your time is limited, so dont waste it living someone elses life. This is combined with

comma splices in situations such as when he was younger he had no idea if his hard work

would pay off down the road, all he could do was trust in himself. Errors such as these are seen

throughout the body of the essay most frequently and greatly lower the papers overall quality.
 Pitts 2

Moving on to the casual argument, it had an overall better organization than the first and

each sentence has a purpose that related to the thesis. The causal argument also contained less

red ink overall. The most recurrent issue has to do again with the comma. There are instances

of missing commas, unnecessary commas, and comma splices all throughout the essay. One

example of an unnecessary comma is seen in the sentence this type of transaction usually

happens at gun shows, or online. This essay had improved upon the rhetorical analysis by

limiting the extra and unnecessary information caused by repetition and wordiness. However, the

predicaments with commas remain and although I have learned much about the proper use of

commas, I continue to struggle with them.

In the last major essay, the proposal essay, there are some comma splices and other

awkward punctuations; but overall the assignment displays improvement in my writing skills

over the semester. Although there were some sentences with a lack of citations this essay was

one of the better writings I have completed in my academic career. Wordiness was another one

of the comments on this paper which is a frequent struggle for me in all writings and I will

continue to work on this in the future.

Throughout this semester, I have learned to better organize thoughts in a way that allows

for effective communication skills and how to use commas in the correct manner. Learning these

skills has made me more confident in my ability to write without sounding completely

uneducated. In the rhetorical analysis, the comma splices and extra verbiage used are scene quite

often however these issues are less prevalent in the final proposal essay which shows some

progress. The proper use of a comma is still an issue in the second major essay (the causal

argument) but it was clearly a better organized paper. In the proposal essay I used all the skills

obtained throughout the semester to write a paper that expresses an opinion well and contains
 Pitts 3

limited grammatical errors. I will carry on using the communication skills I have learned in this

class in other professional settings.