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Kaitlyn Mata

T. Briones

English 1302.261

10 April 2024

Reflection Essay #3

Academic research helps form the building blocks of a good argument. By using peer

reviewed scholarly articles, you are creating a sense of trust and reassurance with readers. This

appeals to the Ethos method of persuasion. Using the TAMIU database to find articles is

definitely an asset that will not only help me in this course, but in my other ones as well. For

example, my government class has us write essays explaining the history and processes of

certain parts of our government system. Using reliable and informed sources helps me write

concise and well developed essays. Also, including more than one source can help broaden your

point of view on your essay, and gives you prospects you might not have even thought of.

Thankfully, we were allowed to use as much as our previous essay as we could, under the

condition that we make it have a clear stance on our subject. This gave me the foundation of

what became my research essay. I ended up changing one of my sources, and it coincidentally

ended up being a response to another article I had cited. I got rid of one of the other sources and

replaced it with the new one. The new one had more evidence to support my stance on the matter

I wrote about. I also had to categorize my sources and determine if the evidence was from a

study, questionnaire, or a simple verbal argument. This helped me have a sense of organization.

Creating this researched position essay was a great starting point for writing similar

essays in the future. I needed to be able to take a clear stance, and try to change the neutrality of

the literature review I had previously written. Looking back at my sources, I had to carefully pick
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evidence that supported my argument, while also not removing statements out of context. This

helps me gain a better understanding on writing opinionated essays for my other classes

I received feedback from my professor on this essay. The edits I needed to make were

minimal. I needed to fix some of the formatting of my in-text citations, fixing a comma here and

there. I also added citations where they were needed.

My peer review was really insightful as well. I learned which parts of my essay were too

repetitive or needed to be more interesting. I added a whole extra paragraph due to the feedback I

got here, which added more information to back up my thesis. I also added some word changes

to avoid being repetitive.

The most challenging part of writing this essay was finding the best part of my scholarly

articles to include in my arguments. I also had to figure out which parts of my literature review I

needed to omit. Additionally, I needed to look back at which of my statements could be seen as

neutral, and make them biased so there would be no mistake of where I stand. I also made

paragraphs that originally showed evidence against my stance into counter arguments, and

backed them up with my own proof and information towards my stance. I also had a hard time

reaching the word count, as I did not want my arguments to sound repetitive.

The easiest part was summarizing what my sources had said. It is necessary to have a

quick information dump on your sources before you get into the opinionated portions. The

easiest part was also the editing portion of the parts of my first draft that I kept.

Overall, this essay was a great stepping stone into writing longer, and more divisive

opinionated articles. I learned that it is important to read all your sources, and be prepared with

counter arguments so you broaden your perspective.