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Danica Solis

Ms. Castro

English 1301-161

10 December 2023
Final Essay

As the semester comes to an end, there is that feeling that will never go away. It's almost a

cold, bitter feeling at the bottom of my chest. There were many struggles that I went through this

semester, but I slowly overcame them with time. At the beginning of the semester, I turned over

a new leaf and entered TAMIU, excited and thinking only positively about all the endless

opportunities I was given. Slowly, that spark died like a candle when it was blown out. But life

still keeps going, so the only thing to do is keep pushing forward and continuing on. Entering

English made me nervous as it has always been a subject that is not my favorite and has been my

weak spot since I was little. These three essays have made me realize that I still have a long way

to go to improve my writing skills, but they have shown me what I need to work on and what I

have to do to accomplish my goals.

What I learned about the writing process is that you need to know your materials and prompt

topic to understand your central thesis and be able to understand what you're writing. I came into

the class knowing only some strategies. Although I found myself using brainstorming and

drafting, it helped me revise my essays. It helped me understand some careless mistakes I was

making. I better understood what I wanted to come across to the audience. In addition, I also

understand how to cite in MLA format correctly. Knowing that I would keep using it for the rest

of the three essays helped me understand how to use it. Since I had done it wrong once, I knew I

wouldn't make the same mistake twice and do it correctly on future college papers. The activity

that genuinely helped me during the class was the peer review that was done after each essay. It
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helped me visualize a different perspective of the essay I originally wrote. It helped me find the

mistakes I had pointed out by fellow peers. It gave me an insight into my mistakes and gave me a

clear view of who my primary audience was. Something else that helped me was when we'd have

one-on-one meetings with my teacher. This helped me clear up any confusion that I had and gave

me a better understanding of the topic and strategies that would help me keep writing. Not only

has this helped me in my English class, but it has benefited me in other classes as well. For

example, in my Univ1201 class, I was able to write an effective paper in which I used strategies

that I had learned from my English Class, such as correctly formatting and being able to break

down and fully understand the prompt.

Writing the genre analysis essay helped me realize that I shouldn't just start drafting by

writing what came to mind and not giving it any attention. It taught me that in order to

understand it, you have to break it down. It gave me a different perspective when writing the

essay because I was able to use its own components to create a whole other piece of work. I've

expanded my knowledge of analysis by understanding and analyzing rhetoric. Since it was used

in all three essays, it was important to me that I fully understood it so that I wouldn't struggle

while writing my essays. In the beginning, it was a bit difficult for me to comprehend all the

different rhetorical devices, but I was able to get it with time. What really helped me understand

was the peer reviews. It helped me read how other people would analyze their topic, and I was

able to see how I could also effectively do the same with the prompt. What I learned was that the

more peer reviews are done, the more experience you can get, which will help you become a

better writer because they can point out things that might have slipped when writing it. Learning

from my peers and Professor helped me have a clearer thought process and will help me further
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in the future to be a better writer. This knowledge will help me with research papers in the future

and will give me an easier time discovering what makes them rhetorical.

I think the process of revision was probably the easiest in my own opinion due to the peer

reviews and feedback given by my Professor. For example, in my second essay, I was able to

realize that some of the phrases I was using were awkward and didn't fit. This led me to fix my

mistakes and understand what I did wrong so that I can carry that knowledge to my next work. I

learned that there's a lot more to the writing process than I expected. I used to just worry about

grammatical errors, but I've realized that there can be many more, such as going off-topic. I was

able to make corrections after my work was revised. The feedback helped me improve my essay

and make it clearer for the audience to see the message I was trying to convey. The peer reviews

were really what helped me throughout the semester. Getting feedback from my peers was a big

step in my revision process since I was able to receive someone else's perspective.

Most of my essays were written about something that interested me so that I would at least

know a little more about what I was writing about. For example, in the first essay, I chose a

concert program of The Laredo Philharmonic Orchestra Spring Concert In memorial of Brendan

Townsend. This essay was interesting for me to write about because I had to break down the

concert program and write about it. I was able to gain information and background on the late

Mr. Townsend and was able to turn it into a whole different perspective. In addition, my second

essay was about a movie poster I chose for the visual analysis. However, I picked that specific

poster from the movie Book Of Life because I enjoyed that movie. I had a hard time trying to

find what was hidden in the eye. Which gave me a hard time, but I was still excited to write

about it. Lastly, my third essay was about the mental health of musicians. I chose this topic

because it is something that is important to me as a musician. Reading the article opened

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my eyes to all the different situations out there and interested me in writing more about it. Using

rhetorical analysis was the main focus of my first three essays, which involved a concert

program, a movie poster, and an article. I had a hard time analyzing them but I was able to pull

some information out of sources and make it make sense. Since I used sources I was familiar

with, it helped the audience understand the genre of analysis. For example, Logos was used

throughout the third essay as it gave logical answers and gave data that supported its information.

As well as where I analyzed the rhetoric of a movie poster in essay two. I had a lot to research,

but the hard part was trying to find the hidden part and try to make that my thesis. What I pulled

from the research made it so that the story and message were clear to the audience.

The most challenging parts of this course were the prompts and how to start. I would find

myself on a stump, not knowing how to start my essay because I didn't know how to clearly

convey the message to the audience, and I was confused about how some of the words were

being worded. Which confused me on what exactly they were asking for.

In conclusion, this semester has taught me many things and I'm grateful that I was able to

engage and learn from my teacher and my peers. As I grow I will continue to keep writing and

get better so I can be able to expand my knowledge more.