Lara 1

Reflection Letter
By Emmanuel Lara | November 2014 | 1392 Words
Throughout this past semester, I learned various writing techniques and I was able to
enjoy a class full of classmates who were passionate about learning. My English 100 class is the
pre-requisite needed for students who were not able to meet the score requirement needed to
obtain a college-level course, to advance to a college-level course the year after, English 1A. I
had a wonderful professor who was passionate at teaching the English subject and was always
optimistic. I came into this class expecting it to be difficult and I expected to struggle since I had
been told countless amounts of times that my writing needs improvement, and I still believe it
does.
In order to improve my writing for the upcoming semester I will seek help at the Writing
Center as well as from my professor. One observation I have noticed in my writing is that I tend
to make various mistakes, these mistakes can vary from repetition to the misuse of certain words
(or the incorrect typing), and those same mistakes can cost me points. The only method to stop
myself from committing such errors is to reread my sentences and check once I finish, but in my
English 100 class I learned to reread my sentences from bottom to top. This method helped me
understand the grammatical errors I was committing. This method allowed for me to see it
through the readers eyes and determine if it made sense since when I write I tend to think that
everything makes sense but that is only because I know what I am trying to express through my
writing.
In class we would have a writing assignment to do almost every day as soon as we
walked into class. This would allow for the students to quickly place their thoughts onto paper

Lara 2

and it would act as a nice warm up for the assignments that then awaited the students. I felt that
this was a great way to prepare for the upcoming writing assignments, and thus, I began to write
early in the morning on my way to campus on the train. Usually I wrote about things that were
on my mind and lingered, things that I was not able to get out of my head. I was able to use this
as a practice for descriptive language, and I was then able to see my errors after class or a few
days after when I would look back to it.
The professor of this class, Ms. Gail Taylor, allowed for me to explore a different world.
I was gifted with the ability to go and watch Kiss Me Kate at the Pasadena Playhouse, this was
the first time had ever gone to go watch a play and the tickets were free. Free tickets were crucial
since I dont come from a family that has a lot of money to spend on resources that do not
involve food or rent. I was even able to take a friend, this made it much easier for me to travel to
a location that I never visited and arrive home late. I enjoyed the play and at the end of the night
my friend and I kept discussing our favorite songs of that whole play and he was thankful for
having also been given such an opportunity. On our way there we noticed how different the
environment was compared to our neighborhoods; we tend to usually mess around as say things
such as: We come from the hood! or We know the struggle! but as we walked through this
neighborhood we saw people were out on a Tuesday night enjoying themselves and leaving their
computer outside of a local coffee shop. Where we come from no one is out at this time unless
you were out buying groceries, at a friends/relatives house, or on your way home (Fridays are
the only day people are out celebrating or enjoying themselves). You cannot leave a computer
unsupervised unless you are asking for it to be stolen; the night at Pasadena seemed to be bright
and vivid.

Lara 3

This professor would notify us on events that had happened recently each week. I still
remember most of them. We had the HeforShe campaign that Emma Watson spoke upon at the
UN, the Ferguson case with Michael Brown and whether body cameras should be worn by police
officers, Barrack Obama and the issue of San Gabriel Mountains, and most recently Barrack
Obama and the immigration policy. Most of the essays that were for this class were based on
these events and it helped students conduct research and be more aware of what is happening
around them. My favorite essay would have to be the essay we, as a class, turned in. In this essay
we described ourselves/ what we had gone through without indicating our gender or name.
Professor Taylor then told me that she had also been through something similar, this opened my
eyes and showed me that I was not the only one who had gone through an unfair phase in high
school. The professor and I had similar interests such as a love for photography and this showed
me that getting to know your professor is something great, you can even get tips on what to and
not to do in college/ English. Along with a great professor, came a great English class.
The classroom was a safe environment in which students could share ideas, present, and
write and not be ridiculed. Every student in this class had a motive, and that motive was to get
done with college as soon as possible. That was the same reason we would all come to class at
8:30 in the morning on a Saturday. I came to class with the mindset that English was going to be
a course I would not enjoy, but I came out with the mindset that this course was great. The
students in the class all have an objective they wish to reach, and different interests in social
issues. Social Issues which vary from: gender discrimination, to flag burning, to the worth of a
penny, to computer hacking and the invasion of privacy, to femicide, to substance abuse, and the
list goes on and on.

Lara 4

Although there were many pros in this course, there were also cons. The first being,
everyone not finishing the peer review. There were many students who were not able to peer
review each others essay, this was due to many student not submitting their work in time and
maybe some students not remembering to submit a peer review. As a result the peer review was a
failure, but maybe next time the students should all upload it on the same day (such as a
Wednesday or Thursday) and then have a certain amount of time to grade it rather than it all
being done at once (therefore Friday would be a day for students to leave their comments on
their peers essay). The other flaw was that, not sure whether this falls under every student, I was
not able to finish reading the Dreams from My Father. I know that this book touched on many
interesting aspects and social issues, but I was not able to finish it. One possible solution could
have been to have begun reading from the first week of school; this would have resulted in me
knowing more on what the book was about and how it might have been relevant.
Overall, I enjoyed this course and I would not have changed it for a free Saturday or extra
hours of sleep. I would recommend any student at Pasadena City College to take Ms. Taylors
course and prepare for a good amount of work. The only advise I would be able to give the
students is to be on top of their work and submit their assignments on time, since I know many of
my peers where not passing due to late submission/ no submission whatsoever. Try to be alert to
all the notifications, and if you ever need help just ask the instructor she does not bite, on the
contrary, shes very friendly. Currently I am trying to get into the STACC class that professor
Taylor will be instructing next semester, and hopefully I am able to get a seat for another
glorious semester.