Luis Santa Cruz

Briones T.

ENGL 1301-123

September 27th, 2023

Reflection On My First Essay

My first college English essay was a totally different experience than I thought it would

be. However, I gained more knowledge on how to do my essays from now on. Since this was my

first one, I know I will be able to improve my writing.

I learned about genre and the rhetorical situation of the prompt is how they use certain

words and phrases to attract a certain audience. This can help me in future writing situations by

me using keywords for certain audiences. For example, if I’m in charge of making rhetoric for a

basketball tournament, I would use words such as “Prize”, “Tournament”, “Basketball” and

teams. In addition, use phrases such as “five on five”.

In addition, this essay has also taught me about the revision process. The revision process

made me realize that doing prewrites, brainstorming, and outlines can help my paper look more

professional. For example, on my next essay I will do the revision part of my essay more

thoroughly to make my paper complete and professional.

Conferencing with my instructor helped my essay out a lot. For example, it realized the

minor grammar errors I had which were misplaced periods and wrong usage of words. Also, it

helped fix the margins of my essay to be the one-inch-wide requirement.

 The peer reviews made me realize a ton of major mistakes I had made in my essay. One

of my major mistakes was not going more in depth in my paragraph topic and made me go into

more detail of my thesis. In addition, it also helped me realize how many sentences were

repeated but worded differently.

However, the most difficult part of this essay was the word count and the research behind

the rhetoric piece my prompt was on. The seven hundred-to-nine-hundred-word count for a

singular pamphlet was hard including the research. However, I was able to overcome this by

reading from other sources and writing from my own experience because I am a regular at the

market that was presented in my essay.

The least challenging part of this essay assignment was the topic. Because I was familiar

and experienced with that event. So, I was able to elaborate why and how the rhetoric was used.

The familiarity made it uncomplicated.

In conclusion, for my first college essay it was a different experience than I was not

expecting. This process has taught me a lot and will help me in the future. The experience I

gained will help improve my future essays and make them more professional.