Kim 1

Hailey J. Kim

Mrs. Bates

English 111-Dual Enrollment (3A)

24 January 2020

Persuasive Reflective Essay

Throughout this past semester, I have seen my writing build up and grow into what it is

today. I have been able to experience the process of writing in everything throughout life. I’ve

learned that the way I have delivered my essays truly impacts the way people read and perceive

my delivery on certain topics.

Overall, the organization in each of my essays was one of my biggest improvements

throughout this first semester. In the past, I never really considered how to correctly organize

each sentence that made up my individual paragraphs. In my narrative essay, one of the

sentences that opened the essay in the first paragraph says “The year was 2014, I turn around

quickly and dash past the palm trees, ready to stuff my face with any and all foods my family

was cooking.” In this sentence, I feel like I should’ve worded it better to make it flow within the

first paragraph of my narrative essay. The wording of this essay was very simple and needed

more complex and descriptive words. In my more recent essays, there is a big difference in the

organization and word choice. I titled this page “Fighting Against The Waves” because it truly

felt like I was a surfer trying to get past powerful waves when I was in the process of writing my

very first essay of the semester. When moving against the waves, it felt as if I was putting all of

my efforts into getting past one big wave, instead of actually surfing with the wave.
 The way I organized my first paragraphs in my first couple of essays showed that I didn’t

truly understand how to write my thesis statements or hooks. My hooks didn’t catch the reader’s

attention and not much thought has been invested in each of my thesis statements. In the

classification essay that I wrote, the hook started off with: “The Hawaiian Islands are considered

to be a common location for vacation spots, but many people aren’t aware of all the islands that

make up the state of Hawaii.” My organization in my division/classification essay didn’t have an

efficient hook or introduction, instead, I just jumped right into the content, not knowing how to

capture the reader’s attention. My introduction, hook, and thesis statement in my research essay

shows tremendous growth from the first paragraph in my classification essay. The reason why I

titled my division/classification essay page “The Roughness Of The Sand” is because it wasn’t

my best work and was one of the roughest essays I’ve ever written throughout this semester.

With plenty of time invested in my research paper, I was able to sufficiently organize the

structure of the essay based on the history and overall topic. I wasn’t aware of how important the

organization was in an essay until I started continuously writing more essays, making sure each

paragraph flows with the topic of the essay and re-reading each paragraph to make sure it made

sense in where it was placed in the paper.

Aside from just my narrative essay, my process analysis essay has shown that my writing

process wasn’t efficient. Just by reading my process analysis essay, it was obvious that I didn’t

invest my time into doing research on what I was actually writing about or coming up with a

sufficient plan to organize my essay. My draft wasn’t as great and not much editing was put into

the essay itself. The lack of my writing process within my process analysis essay resulted in how

unorganized it was. In the fourth paragraph of my process analysis essay, I briefly discuss how to
become successful in the classroom, when I should’ve elaborated on how specifically to earn

good grades in class. Just like how the waves backtrack into the ocean, I should’ve gone back

into my original outline and plan before writing the essay and include and specify how to

conquer these specific steps. I titled this page “The Changing Tides” because I turned my writing

around with my word choice and grew from my previous essays.

In my final essay of the semester, I compared and contrasted the complexities of both

softball and baseball. I am very proud of my work in my compare and contrast essay because I

wrote it to the best of my ability. I admit that I should have put more effort into my writing

process to better outline the essay as a whole, but I don’t have any concerns as to how it flows as

a result. This last essay is better organized and has been better planned and outlined than all of

my other essays I wrote earlier into the semester. I titled this page “Swaying With The Palm

Trees” because even though I am still developing as a writer, I feel like a palm tree swaying with

the gentle breeze, looking down at my journey, struggles, progress, and hard work that I have

invested into the paper and led me to its results.

At times, my writings may spiral and become confusing, but with the new skills and tips

I’ve learned, I can re-build and overall improve from my original thoughts. I chose to use the

beaches of Hawaii to compare to my writing because of my nationality and the way that I

compose my papers. Even though the ocean has a salty taste, my writing can be salty, bitter, and

tasteless at first when I’m writing about my topic, but can later flourish like the beautiful blue

color that reflects from the radiant sun. The swaying palm trees, beaming sun, crashing waves,

and gentle breeze happening all at once may seem hectic and confusing but in the end, it can be

peaceful and beautiful. The rise of each wave represents the ideas that pop into my head when
conducting an essay or paper, and as it grows to be a bigger wave, my ideas grow to put an

impact on my readers. Each grain of sand lying on the ocean floor represents each little detail

that I try to emphasize when I write. Although there’s pollution in the ocean, there’s always a

way to solve these problems, become open to new strategies, and explore new options to receive

different results. When I’m writing, I am always making ripples and little waves to start

something huge, and each time it grows to be a bigger wave, the more of an impact occurs when

it reaches the shore.