Rivera 1

Andres Rivera

Mr. Powers

English 1302

December 4, 2023

Final Reflection Essay

Throughout English 1302 with Mr. Powers, I have learned so much about the writing

aspects that I could’ve never even thought of before entering his class. As a learning writer, I

have grown so much throughout this whole course. English 1302 with Mr. Powers has been such

a growing experience and it has made me dedicate myself so much to learning the course

material to better my writing abilities, while also enjoying the class as Mr. Powers has been one

of the best professors, I have had from being understanding to also being very funny and easy to

understand. Throughout the course, I learned about research, how to construct a annotated

bibliography, how to create a position paper, build a research analysis, analyze arguments, create

strong arguments, grammar, rhetorical analysis, audience, rhetorical devices, citations, MLA

format, reflections, paraphrasing, making drafts, and peer review. Mr. Powers assigned us a book

called “Everyone’s an Author” by Andrea Lundsford that helped the class navigate through the

sub-topics and gave us an understanding of the work we were going to be completing. We had a

series of three essays that followed with three drafts each and built them up in a fast-paced

manner.

A crucial piece to any type of research or writing assignment is the citations. This is

where you give credit to the authors where you got information from them. In academic writing,

this is a requirement because not only is it out of respect, but it is also to give credit, and help
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add sources. Citing is a factor that Mr. Powers went into deep instruction towards, he showed us

examples, explanations as to why we should cite, and reasonings as to why it is structured the

way it is in MLA format. For example, within our assignment “Analyzing the features of the

Research Essay Genre” (Homework) I received feedback that stated that my page range should

be in lower case letter, was missing a hanging indention, and works cited should be centered

(Powers). This was an insight from the beginning of the course that Mr. Powers helped me with.

It taught me some of the rule of thumb rules for citing in MLA format which aided me in my

future writings. Within citing, he also showed the class how to do in-text citations which are

even more important as they show where the author’s ideas were used along the text and help get

rid of confusion towards their audience. With this being said, learning more about citations has

impacted my writing skills on all my classes. Every course that I have taken has required me to

do writing, even algebra! A great example of when learning how to properly cite is for my

American State Government class, I had to construct an essay about Roe V. Wade so within this

essay I had to do research which I then had to cite my sources properly. Within my paper, I got

no points taken off my works cited so it felt good being able to see how my learning experience

has helped outside of English 1302. Mr. Powers teaching us how citations work and how to

properly utilize them will impact my future writings as I can now be a confident citation

machine!

English 1302 showed me that when doing a research or paper in general you must be

knowledgeable and have credible sources that can be backed up. It showed me that

argumentative essays have a whole process that must pass through before having an academic

research paper. It all started with creating an Annotated Bibliography in order for us to have

done our research in order to be knowledgeable about our argument, from there we got to doing
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the research analysis paper which is where I presented the information that helped us get started

on our arguments. Finally, I completed my position paper where my argument was presented

overall, and my evidence and research were all put to place. Throughout this writing process

what really aided my writing had to be the in-class lectures we had with Mr. Powers. He helped

explain my assignments and helped answer the questions I had about my work. Most

importantly, the writing process has changed my view drastically by showing me how much

better a paper can be when the backbone of the paper is done.

My drafts were full of roller coasters and having peer review and instructor feedback

helped me realize my mistakes. One example was when I started my first draft for the research

analysis essay (Major Essay). Originally, I had gotten confused and believed that it was my

position paper instead of my research analysis and when the day of peer review came along, as I

was reading my classmates essays, I realized that most likely I made a mistake and chose the

wrong prompt. This extremely helped me because if it wasn’t for attending the peer review that

day, I would’ve continued writing the wrong prompt! Another example where peer review aided

my essays, is when I wrote my second draft for my position paper, we had a peer review day and

my classmate Sarai Vargas, mentioned that within my introduction I didn’t mention what my

argument really was (Vargas). After reading my introduction I realized that I forgot this big step

that could’ve been bad if since my audience wouldn’t have even known what the writing was

about. I went ahead and added in specific what my argument was and my stance on it. Within the

same essay, Sarai Vargas also mentioned that although I had my arguments on my stance, I

didn’t explain the other side to the argument (Vargas). Realizing this was also very crucial, as

my audience needs to understand the whole situation that is going on and it is important, they are

aware of both sides. After this I went ahead and added to the other side of the argument and even
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went ahead and added a counterargument. Overall, peer-review was an important piece of my

writing, and my classmates impacted the overall quality of the essays.

One of the most challenging parts of revising my final essay is that I must go back to an

essay where I left off and try and perfect it in general. After viewing my instructor's feedback, I

realized I made many mistakes that could be easily corrected. One specific example is from our

major essay “Annotated Bibliography” (Major Essay). Mr. Powers commented how I had been

hanging indentations, wrong header font, not doing alphabetical citations, not having lower case

page ranges and including unnecessary subtitles (Powers). After reading this instructor’s

feedback, I realized how these mistakes affected my grade and could’ve been easily corrected.

Once I corrected these mistakes, I made sure to re-read my essay and made sure that I didn’t

have any leftover mistakes. Revising these mistakes though made me realize some of the

mistakes I never realized I was making. Which is super important considering that in future

reference it will no longer happen, and I will be more aware of the mistakes I have already made.

Which is why this is an important lesson to take in. This class is meant to teach me how to

properly write and with these revisions, it has allowed me to see how I can improve.

Within my website, I made accommodations for my audience to be able to have access to

all my links and made sure that it was all easily accessible. While constructing my website, I

decided it was best to add some quotes, background images, and introduce myself to give my

audience background. I labeled each assignment, essay and section. My website was generated to

be easily accessible and legible. I also added photos added design to it such as a space

background and a mountain road which both are a sign of a journey which is what English 1302

felt like. A journey full of learning and being able to progressively get better as a writer!
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The most challenging aspect of this course had to be the time frames between work, for

example, position essay draft 2 (Major Essay) was due then two days later the position essay

final draft (Major Essay) was due and with no instructor feedback it was a difficult process.

Another correlating factor was having to work late then wake up 4 hours later to go into class.

Although this was the case, showing up to class was very important to me as Mr. Powers lectures

really did help. The challenge I faced during the research was that there were so many great

articles that could’ve been used but weren’t peer-reviewed so it was a shame but nonetheless, I

still found other great articles. Some other factor that made me struggle was that many articles

didn’t have concrete evidence or direct quotes that could’ve been used, nonetheless after plenty

of research I was able to obtain many sources of information. Another example is that much of

what I was covering, which is prison rehabilitation, is still under research so there isn’t much

evidence in general, since it is a long-term research goal. While writing my essays I discovered

that one of my strengths is to brainstorm all my ideas and get them down then from there. I

usually had a strong start to most of my essays which helped process my ideas throughout the

course. Overall, I faced many challenges throughout the course but being able to be better

academically and being able to better myself all seems worth the effort.

After completing this course, my confidence levels to write research articles have now

exceptionally changed. From taking this course, I can now complete a research assignment and

be confident that I am doing it properly. Before this course, I made many mistakes and

throughout the class has enlightened me on how much better I can make writings. From knowing

where to find articles, properly cite, proper grammar, and most importantly the great tactics Mr.

Powers implemented during his lectures. Now whenever I have a paper for another class that

requires research, I will have the experience and proper knowledge to do so.
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Overall, this course has certainly changed my writing. It has boosted my knowledge and

confidence when writing essays. With the help of Mr. Powers and my colleagues, it has been a

great journey taking this class. Although difficult, Mr. Powers always made sure to make it

interesting and fun. Furthermore, I vastly enjoyed this English 1302 course. After all this being

said, I cannot fathom how much of an impact English 1302 has made to my writing journey. I’ve

realized how much more there is to write than I could’ve ever imagined. The whole class and

experience were intense and difficult but keeping my time management was key to getting

through the class. After finishing this class, I can say that not only my knowledge of English has

gotten better, but so have my writing. They are now more well organized, correctly structured,

properly cited, and correct grammar. I am so glad to have been able to achieve this knowledge as

now I feel better about my writing capabilities.

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Works Cited

Rivera, Andres “Research Analysis 1st Draft.” English 1302 101: Texas A&M International

University, 2023

Rivera, Andres “Research Analysis Final Draft.” English 1302 101: Texas A&M International

University, 2023

Rivera, Andres “Position Essay 2nd Draft.” English 1302 101: Texas A&M International

University, 2023

Rivera, Andres “Position Essay Final Draft.” English 1302 101: Texas A&M International

University, 2023

Rivera, Andres “Analyzing the features of the Research Essay Genre.” English 1302 101: Texas

A&M International University, 2023

Powers Keaton. “Analyzing the features of the Research Essay Genre.” Professor Comment,

English 1302 101: Texas A&M International University, 2023, Laredo Tx, 10/2/2023

Powers Keaton. “Essay 3 Final Draft Analysis.” Professor Comment, English 1302 101: Texas

A&M International University, 2023, Laredo Tx, 9/24/2023

Sarai Vargas. “Position Paper Second Draft” Peer Comment English 1302 101: Texas A&M

International University, 2023, Laredo Tx, 11/16/2023