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David Oliva

Professor Ditch

English 113B

11 May 2020

My Reflective Essay

During the spring semester, I took an English 113B class because it was part of the

required classes I needed to claim the major that I am interested in. From my experience in

English 113A, I was expecting to go by this class easily, but suddenly, this class became more

laborious for me. When I my first two essays were returned, my professor pointed out a lot of

things that I should work on two improve my essays. There is always room for improvement and

through out the semester, I’ve been working on improving my writing style for my essays, and I

must say that I have improved in the 5 months that I have been in the class. Before anything, let

me explain some of the things I was struggling with.

One of the first things I struggled with was analyzing. On my first essay, I didn’t properly

analyze what I was writing about, even though I got a decent grade for it. In the past, I had a hard

time knowing the difference between analyzing and summarizing. A few things I also needed to

improve in was the transition between paragraphs and making sure my argument would stay

connected to what the prompt was about. In my second essay, I did not do as well as the last

essay. What I was missing from the essay was analyzing properly again. What was also missing

was my organization of the essay. I needed to construct a much smoother transition between my
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body paragraphs to make my arguments more reasonable with the evidence I was providing, but

also, add a counter argument so that the reader stays alert that my claims aren’t exactly official.

Along the way, there were some punctuation errors and grammar words I needed to fix as well.

Fortunately, I managed to find a way on how to improve these errors I was committing on my

essays. Let me explain how.

After a few visits from the LRC writing labs, I discovered a new way of properly

analyzing better in my essays. My way of thinking was that, in order to properly analyze

something, I needed to get more into depth about it. So instead of focusing on the backstories

and summaries of authors and characters that I talked about, I would just explain in depth on

what they mean and how they would truly feel. Thanks to the help of my writing tutor, I also

managed to find ways on how to properly transition my body paragraphs and organize my essay

so that it would make more sense. To really know how I put into practice these new skills that I

acquired, allow me to explain how I applied them during my revisions of my essays.

Staring with my first essay, I needed to analyze different articles to determine which

space of happiness were they focusing on. What I did was use small quotes that were used as the

main thesis for each of the articles and from there explain in depth on what type of space was the

author aiming for. I recall adding a small quote in one of the body paragraphs because I realized

it was important for me to use and further support the claim, I was making about it. In my

second essay, I needed to dig a little more deeper for evidence and explain even more deeply

about what my characters were actually feeling. To come up with a counter argument, I needed

to think realistically, and place myself in the position that the characters were in to determine

what they would possibly feel emotionally. Applying the skills I managed to learn wasn’t as easy
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as I would think, I had to redo my second essay in order to organize it better with the evidence

new analysis I acquired and construct more organized counter arguments that were needed for

the essay.

Revising these essays were not easy at all. I needed to fix some major parts in my essays

that could have changed my grade more positively. The second essay was the most difficult for

me, not only because I had to redo it, but because I needed to apply my skills of analyzing and

discover the deeper meanings behind each sentence. Fortunately, I feel more confident about the

revisions I made on my essays. Thanks to my professor, SI leader, and the LRC writing lab

tutors, I can confidently that I have improved skills in writing. Especially with analyzing,

organizing paragraphs and using evidence.