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Iliana Acosta

Trishia Briones

ENGL 1301- 162

12 September 2023

Reflection Essay

I really was confused about how this class defined genre. In past classes, genre

has been described as categorial, such as poetry or non-fiction. However, I was able to

apply my past knowledge of the genre and shift my mindset. I learned that rhetorical

situation affects the writer, audience, and context. Rhetorical situation can be defined

simply as who, what, where, and how. Who will be reading this, what will be the context,

where would this essay apply, and how is this subject presented? These concepts of genre

and rhetorical situation can help me in my other academic courses by developing a deeper

understanding of what others are writing. Asking who, what, where, and how when

reading will help me understand correctly what the context of the writing is.

During the drafting process, I learned that you're bound to make mistakes. You

have to write and then rewrite over and over to achieve your end goal. However, revising

your draft isn't just about fixing spelling errors or comma splices, it involves critical

thinking. For example, I had to go back to my thesis statement and reevaluate if my main

points were concise and clear. Reviewing my peer's essay also helped me. Reading

someone's draft allowed me to look for mistakes in my own essay that I fixed in theirs.

Brainstorming and prewriting were key for me with this essay. It helped me narrow my

ideas down and create a solid foundation for the essay. Drafting my essay took a while as

I started with a completely different topic. When I was unhappy with my first draft I went
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back to my brainstorming paper and picked a different topic entirely. The revision

process opened my eyes to mistakes I didn't even notice. This process of writing,

rewriting, and editing can help me by allowing me to thoroughly review and edit my

work. Taking the time to review any academic work will help me grow and achieve my

goals.

Receiving feedback from my instructor helped me improve my essay by

providing valuable suggestions and constructive criticism. One element I changed was

the format as I had my MLA wrong. I also went back and removed unnecessary words.

For example, I had “a quiet emphasis” which I removed “quiet” which allowed the

emphasis to stand on without extra words. I also wrote my essay on Microsoft Word to

ensure the margins aligned properly.

Peer reviewing with my classmates helped me improve my essay by editing my

filler sentences to make them sound more informal. I was also told my format was wrong

so I went back and changed it to MLA. The feedback was mostly fixing up minor

mistakes but allowed me to get another perspective on my essay.

Editing and proofreading my essay helped me recognize missing connections by

making sure the main topic in each paragraph stemmed directly from the thesis statement.

I was also able to remove irrelevant information by reading my essay from bottom to top.

I changed my format and removed unnecessary words. Becoming aware of missing

elements in my writing helped me prepare for future writing assignments by making sure

I don't repeat the same mistakes. In the future, I will focus on the format and not add

unnecessary words.
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The most challenging part of this assignment was finding a topic that was

interesting to me because not all the things I was drawn to had a written text. I had

brainstormed multiple times to come up with a topic that met the requirements but also

that I was interested in. I spoke with my peers to help me come up with ideas and rethink.

Recognizing that I need a topic I am interested in but also meets the requirements allows

me to prepare for future writing assignments by making sure I brainstorm multiple ideas

and draft different topics to pick the best one.

The least challenging part of this assignment was editing my second draft. My

second draft opened my eyes to minor mistakes and allowed me to find a solution

quickly. The edits I received made it easy to go back into my essay and fix my mistakes. I

also had my roommate review and edit my essay which helped me greatly. Editing my

second draft was easy for me because I had all my ideas on the page I just needed to go

back and refine it.