Karam 1

Layla Karam

Professor Beadle

English 115

5 December 2019

Reflection Essay

Criticism is common when it comes to writing. It helps make a piece more coherent,

presentable, understandable, and impactful. A writer’s work is never perfect, and like all forms

of art, practice is what helps you to become better at your craft. As someone who plans to pursue

a career in Screenwriting, strengthening my writing is something that I welcome, no matter how

hard it may be. The projects assigned this semester differentiated in the topic and in the levels of

what writing components were needed. When it comes to writing about rhetoric for Project

Space, ​Metamorphosis​ for Project Text, and analyzing posters for Project Media, criticism is

vital to make an essay more effective when the writer explores more than the prompt by

examining the text. I was able to learn how to utilize my analytical skills, factor in visual

elements more effectively, and acknowledge the power of outside sources.

The majority of essays use analytical skills because they are more preferred and are given

to writers to prove a thesis further and make more valid claims. The analysis is what makes an

essay personal; without commentary, an essay consists primarily of quotations and leading

sentences. With Project Space, my analytical skills were put to the test. I had to analyze various

articles and prove how I utilized the rhetorical strategies of ethos, pathos, and logos more

effectively. At first, the task seemed natural, since I had previous knowledge of knowing which
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author met the requirements. However, after I found the analysis of the evidence, I provided

seemed more one-sided, as I only showed direct quotes from my favored author instead of giving

examples from all three to further prove my point. After revising the essay with that in mind, I

was able to write a less biased piece. The next essay allowed me to take what I learned about

reiteration and analysis to help me better understand the importance of visual elements.

Visual elements are essential when it comes to telling a story, especially when the

audience only sees words. Providing a description adds more life and character to the piece,

which makes staring at various letters more bearable. However, with an author like Franz Kafka,

providing visual elements should be looked at more closely. Readers should pay more attention

to what he writes because he deliberately uses visual elements to delve further into his storyline;

in ​Metamorphosis​, he uses visual descriptions to provide a better understanding of the

protagonist’s psyche. With a story like ​Metamorphosis​, where the setting is controlled, followed

by elements indicating isolation, recognizing other visual elements represented in the story

should be readily acknowledged when analyzing such a metaphorical root. Looking back on my

initial draft of Project Text, I realize that I have become more enamored with the visual elements

than I initially thought, focusing more on interpretation rather than providing evidence and

background. Although I understood what was important to focus on, it seemed that I allowed my

opinion to outweigh the actual text, in an essay, there should be a balance between the two.

I made sure to reconnect my thesis to my body paragraphs instead of a sidetrack to my own

opinion on the story. Understanding how to make a balance between them helped me with

another essay that required the use of outside sources.

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Throughout the years I have spent writing, I usually never turned to look for outside

sources. However, when it became a requirement to find other sources besides the primary, I

realized how careless I was before writing this essay when it came to utilizing my resources.

Never did I consider that there are many texts out there that can provide me with further

assistance in proving my thesis besides the source itself. Although I was aware of this in the

beginning when it came to writing ​Metamorphosis,​ I did not fully understand just how much

freedom I had when it came to choosing my sources. Looking back on my Project Media draft, I

couldn’t help but feel that the fact that the poster from “​Midnight in Paris​” contained the famous

piece of Van Gogh was more or less overlooked. It was an element I could have used more in my

essay, realizing that, I see how vital sources can be and how much they can impact a thesis. I

gained a greater understanding of knowing that when analyzing a visual text, it also means to

explain everything significant in the essay.

Overall, I feel that my analytical skills as a writer had become more well rounded than

when I started at the beginning of the semester. My knowledge of the different aspects of

analysis has become more flavored, improving my writing skills. My attitude towards writing

has become more mature than it was from the beginning, as I am more aware of the value of a

citation. The cost of the quote is present elements in novels like ​Metamorphosis,​ and the needed

amount of attention to taking when it comes to utilizing resources and skills. Not every essay

requires outside sources, analysis of visual elements, or the use of rhetorical features. What I

have taken from this semester is a better understanding of realizing where these skills are needed

or not.