Jaden Shackelford 

EN-101-66 

Mr. Owen Neace 

4 September 2019 

Final Reflection Essay 

Earlier in the semester, our class had an intro assignment that required us to talk about 3

habits of mind that we would like to take into the semester to use or improve on. The habits of

mind that I chose were persistence and dedication. I feel that I have accomplished both of these

habits of mind by completing the assignments in this course. This class has taught me a lot about

how to be a better student and how to be a better writer.

These two habits of mind were exercised all the time throughout the semester while doing

our writing assignments. Being persistent on an assignment was big for me. A lot of times I used

to just give up or not give my best effort as a writer when I felt an assignment did not make sense

or just seemed super hard. As we went on through the semester I saw myself fighting through

that want to just stop or give half effort on a paper or poem. I had to be persistent with doing the

work the right way so I could get the best out of myself and the grade I wanted to earn. My

second habit of mind was to be dedicated to my work. I am a true believer in if you put your

mind to something and give it your best effort then you can achieve it. I took that mentality into

this english class so I could hold myself accountable and get things done. I started studying the

material that we were writing about, practicing the different writing styles we use, and asked my

classmates to help me and review my work. All in all, these two habits of mind helped me stay

focused on each task and complete assignments on time and in the right way.
 Throughout the semester, I stayed consistent with my writing process which consisted of

multiple things. These things made the process less stressful because I felt like I was not

overanalyzing my paper and was more so letting things flow in with time. When hearing about a

project, paper or poem, I would take a few days to think about ideas I would like to use and put

them all together. Once I had my idea, I would create a well thought out outline and just let it sit

so I could clear my mind. Coming back to my outline, I would then draft my essay using

everything I talked about on the outline. After finishing my essay, I also like to let them sit so I

can think about what I talked about in it and how it can be improved upon. This allows me to let

one of my peers or friends go over my writing and give me feedback on what can be changed or

what is good. Clearing my mind of the essay can help new ideas generate in my head that I can

later add to it. Finally, when I come back to the paper, I add and fix any errors I made that can

help improve it so I can send off my completed version to turn in. The Profile that we had to

write was probably the toughest paper I had to write all semester. It required a lot of things out of

you. Things like going and interviewing a complete stranger about things you thought you would

never learn about, looking up a lot of different important material about your subject online,

going through the entire writing process, and just locking in and engaging yourself into an

objective that can be hard to understand or do. Finding what I was going to do the profile on

probably took me the longest out of everything.

In conclusion, My habits of mind came to be very beneficial and were a huge reason why

I believe I did well in this class. Applying them to my everyday work, not just in english, helped

me exercise them which will also help me out in the future. Being persistent and dedicated to

whatever you do will always be beneficial towards your end goal. In my case, it helped me get
through harder papers that I thought I could not write, poems that I thought I was not a good

enough writer for, and other obstacles that you face going through the writing process. Using

these habits of mind on a consistent basis allowed me to grow and learn much more than I would

have without them. Sticking to these habits of mind can help anybody get through things, even if

they are not school related.