Carlos Zapata

ENG 1301 109

Professor Sharity Nelson
6 December 2021
Final Reflection Essay
I have added more details towards the elements of ethos, pathos, and logos. I felt like I
lacked sufficient evidence when providing context and background for each of my essay. When
going through feedback I also found that I had lack of understanding to each of my genres. More
often than not I would go ahead completely miss the topic. “Within the text seems confused
about the purpose of the expository genre, though the purpose is moderately accomplished.
Evidence of a misunderstanding of audience and how the genre works for the author’s purpose.
Focus of the text is not the written genre though the backdrop is moderately the community”.
With this feedback I was able to learn what to attack first when editing the final and revised
version of my essays. I found a lot of mistakes I would have not originally found if it was not for
the things, I had learned throughout the semester of fall 2021 English 1301. I was also more
aware of the audience I was writing for. I tend to get the same feedback from my professor about
my lack of professionalism and using incorrect terms I addressed the audience with. I have gone
through each of my essays so I can change the level of formality and the usage of me and you, I
was completely aware that these habits were only going to lead to a lower grade, but I guess their
addition may have been subconsciously. I also went ahead and corrected many oof my run on
sentence. They are not appealing, and they only make the essay look less credible In essay 1 I
learned how to properly approach my essays. Essay 1 was really troubling me because I had to
get rid of a lot of habit or at least suppress them. Essay 2 taught me how to correctly compare
and contrast. In this essay I learned how to organize my ideas to which I can correlate my entire
essay to. It was quite a challenge to find an article I was interest in, as well as continue to read it
along with writing my ideas correctly into multiple paragraphs I had written my thesis and letting
it be known before writing all the details, which damaged in the long run the amount of content I
was going to be able to discuss
I easily went for a website design that is welcoming adding photos that do not scream or
over stimulate the reader’s mind. Blue is known to be a calm color that make photos pop. Which
will most likely attract an audience. I added minimalistic effects throughout the website. For
example, when adding my assignments and essays I took the time to put them in chronological
order so that way if the viewers had questions they could freely access and not get confused as to
what assignment belong to the lecture of the week. I also added a personal bio so I can ensure
that there is some type of connection between reader and author, when I read, I wonder what
does the person that wrote this and how is he outside of writing, I do not know about a lot of
people and their opinions, but personally I enjoy reading about authors and their personal life and
perhaps how they got to live through this experience. I also used some emotion within my bio so
the readers can see that like anyone, college is a really difficult hill to climb. I added that as some
type of relativity between me and reader, I truly believe that other college students will be a
major audience for this type of work.
I do get assigned in the future and apply the same fundamentals I have gained throughout
my journey to improve my essays. Although I since now I had to peer review and assignment it
is fair to say that it was perhaps a more difficult way to organize ideas. It was critical I believe
that My peers were definitely more comfortable sharing thought and doubts within nothing like
the first time around where nobody was able to speak up or fault I guess “bad” to answer
somebody negatively. It definitely affected my outcome to result in quite the improvement form
my last writing personally at least. My classmates and I also had to go through multiple
assignments, on which all of them helped the class be able to understand the main objective of an
incoming essay. We had a peer review journal to which we had to read, analyze it thoroughly
and, end find out what rhetorical choices were performed and describe them. For example, the
usage of professionalism and what audience it was targeted towards, and why this is important
towards a good written article or essay. It was a very easy assignment to understand and with a
great professor that was willing to help and actually interact with her students no doubt that it
was only for the best to keep up with anything assigned. Peer reviewing classmates’ article and
discussion. They were a great way to try to keep some sort of interaction, while also effectively
have feedback from other student who may be on our level compared to the professor. There was
tie were maybe I could not find out by myself I did something wrong or if I completely missed
the genre, the group of students I was paired with were happy to show their review on the
foundation of my essay.
There is definitely a lot of things that I will be able to pass through my future classes.
During each essay assigned to my class which ended up being 3 in total, my classmates and I had
the task of evaluating and giving feedback to each other to use their opinion to re evaluate our
writing and improve it in one way or another. However, a skill that I can say we gained form it is
the ability to contact with each other and work as a team even if the feedback and how to
properly use constructive criticism. I see it as a valuable skill because working with strangers for
a major part of the college experience and thinking that someone is using your work in negative
way and taking offense to it will most likely put a strain on the way you work as a team. Another
skill learned it the usage of the TAMIU resources as a second-year undergraduate as well as
fresh off the pandemic online system, it was difficult for me to try to acquire and know if I could
get a hold of resources, I was to able use in order to help my college education. I happened to use
the TAMIU library resources in order to find research for one of our assignments given to us. I
believe this is a great lesson to people first being introduced to the system to not be afraid to ask
and take advantage of anything being provide to the students attending. Heading forward to my
future classes that may need me to write, I will have new knowledge given to me about multiple
aspects of the writing art. I have taken this course before, but I have not given the same effort, I
was able to truly get a grasp on what was given to me and work with it. I was on task every week
sadly my grade was not able to reflect it as much, but I know I am more than satisfied with my
performance.
 I do not see a lot of things that happen to use. I truly believe that anything I have learned
in class has the ability to be able to be applied to other courses. English is like a foundation for
the rest of classes. I mean rather than obvious hand work courses which rely on the person doing
hands on activities, I would say an English course does not lack the expandability of the
knowledge being transferred over to other courses. It is difficult to find a course that does not
revolve around writing, give feedback, and have discussion being online or in person it does not
matter. In addition, the weekly homework that revolved along the book that was provided for the
semester. It was useful for class and the for a grade, but outside of class there was very little
things to which I could move forward to and apply to my other courses. There may have been
small definition of questions, but it lacked the efficiency to create a full connection to the readers
mind and it was often at time were reading the section was not enough to learn from.
When I first started this class, I truly believe I could not learn anything else more than I
had learned and that my writing will probably stay within a mediocre level for the rest of my
university years. I had no strengths, and I was pretty sure of that I had no idea my writing skills
were going to be able to jump to such a high level though still not where I want them to be. Still,
I do have my weaknesses as well as strengths. I would think that my sentence structuring is one
strength I can rely on every time I write or type out anything. I will always rewrite any sentence
that may sound like a run-on as well as anything that needs my ideas better organized. I could
further my strengths and say that having a good topic and keeping readers well informed about
what is coming, is a great thing I have learned to do. As an average writer I must make up in
areas that I lack so adding extra evidence and well put ideas are an extra. I will go ahead and put
extra effort when doing research. My main weakness belongs to my thesis statements. I had idea
finding them as well. Whenever we had the task of finding the thesis or main topic sentence, I
would have to try three ties as hard as my classmates. It is not my best moment as it really does
demotivate me to not write with such inspiration. It puts a strong hold on my writing skills. I
believe that every single essay assigned to me from essay one to three I have created a proper
thesis but always ends up needed to be corrected. I have no idea what stops me besides myself
maybe perhaps overthinking just holding me back and writing more or less than I should be
doing. I also lack the organization when transferring my thesis main points to my paragraph. Yet
again, I believe I had successfully done my job of staying on topic and removing unnecessary
stuff to my essay, I end up having to see feedback about how I have used ideas wrong and that
they do not belong here. I have continued to work and further understand to rather add my
strengths and not focus on my weaknesses on my writing which only ends up with my
discouragement
I found building the website easy to access and easy to maneuver around. It was like a
replacing mechanic, as the students were already allowed to use a pre-prepared website in order
to allow easier movements and set the foundation to properly. It was quite the experience thought
it wasn’t made to fully make a website creating it and clearing multiple design, getting us to find
what was the best fit was a very fun final project to which I have not been introduced yet. The
least challenging part was choosing what font and colors to use when first choosing your
foundation. I went for a blue easy going for the eyes and welcoming. It was really fun because
technology I really find interesting so making something with my creativity and further
exploring it was as fun as it got. Another easy task was getting my essay and assignments to be
in the proper spot. Thing were easy to move around and add links as well as text boxes. It was
pretty much advanced way of using Microsoft PowerPoint in some way and it could not have
been easier. When it came to difficulties there was close to none, of course there is a first time
for everything as I am referring to the first time, I ever opened the website. It of course like
anything has a learning curve and adding that it belongs to our final essay no one want to go
ahead and mess up when first introduced to it. When I first heard we were creating a website my
first reaction was to panic and think how I will get this task done with such little explanation. As
soon as my class offered the lecture learning how to travel the lecture was easy going and a great
process.
I have definitely changed my identity throughout my semester. I started as a timid writer
not knowing what audience or what I was attacking. I believe during my fist essay I handed out a
lot of insecurity within my words and did not hold any true value. I lacked the courage and
assertiveness that is necessary within rhetorical essays. I was mostly focused on smaller things
and getting my writing finished rather than properly edit and proofread and improving myself. I
lacked intellect and formality. I would often use a lot of slang and not know how to address my
audiences. I would address a more professional audience and not be aware that it was incorrect
due to decreasing its credibility. I do blame myself for a major portion, English has never been
my favorite topic, so I have not paid much attention to what comes with. I had no favorite genre
o write I just wrote as an assignment and get I over with. As time passed on and the semester
went on, I was gladly ready to write and found myself as a writer. My confidence rose and I had
newly acquired knowledge on how to attack different topics given to me. I now enjoy research
and look forward to looking for information that will help me smoothly transition ideas into my
paper. It is odd seeing that I have completely changes my work ethics when it comes to writing,
it is hard to believe my first essay I freestyled it and would have much rather just used as
minimum information to create a below than average writing piece. Now I have discovered more
of my identity and have added goals both short and long-term. Short term I believe I was
successful as my main goal was to get comfortable and gain more knowledge to have more of a
foundation whenever I start to write. Long-term I have added to get more comfortable with
words which I am not familiar with or have not come around to learned so I do not repeat my
words as often and make it fair for any audience reading.
This class showed me and introduced me to a lot of things and was the true first college
experience I was introduced to. After such a difficult start due to covid and online only classes, it
was rarely the case when I had to full on engage and have weekly due dates. It was definitely
interesting start to my face to face version.