Final Reflection

This has been quite a semester and I am thankful that this class has taught me many
things that I will apply in my future courses. I plan to pursue a master’s degree, and I understand
that effective writing and researching is so important. That’s why I appreciate all that I leasrn in
these beginning English courses to help with my transition from high school writing.
To answer the 1st question, I learned how to narrow my search results as well as more
sites to find academic articles. I learned how to better navigate the university’s library database
which will be super helpful because it has an abundance of information that I can use. I’m sure
there is many more papers and research to come, and not just in English, so I will take this skill
and improve it, so I can be the most efficient when accessing articles and sources. I also learned
how to create a solid question to start off my research. This was so helpful because I was able to
look back at it multiple times as I was writing my paper. I learned this by reading an article
provided by the teacher. I had a presentation on it as well, so I have that information stored well.
It talked about how important it is for the student to develop a well-rounded question in order to
have a smoother journey when writing my paper. I could also reinterpret this information as the
idea that I need a solid foundation to have the best product. This idea is nice because it can be
applied to several aspects of life, not just tied to a research paper.
For the 2nd question, I have discovered multiple perspectives that I didn’t think would
come from a simple English class. First off cultural, as we know there is a Hispanic nature that
men do the laborious work or get the education, and women don’t, they take care of household
issues and the children. As the years progress that is going away, and I am working hard to my
degree to run away from that stigma. Discovering the fact that I can empower myself with an
education has lit a fire of motivation that won’t be going out any time soon. As for disciplinary,
the assignment that really challenged me this semester, was the argumentative research paper.
Although I wrote a research paper last semester, I had more trouble this time around, I think
because it was more argumentative. When I was writing it, it pushed me to challenge my
discipline, I wanted to stop and keep taking breaks because my brain was feeling scrambled and
overwhelmed. However, I kept going and I am happy with the product I created, and I’m proud
to say that I was able to create this all by myself even though it was a hurdle for me.