Martel 1

Nina Martel

Ms.Mendoza

ENGL 1302-112

25 March 2024

Reflection of : Taylor Swift: Business Reinvention Through Marketing

Being able to write about one of my personal favorite artists was immensely

informative.Normally when looking up an artist the most basic information is found, like where

they were born, their famous friends and surface level information.

Writing is one of the most beautiful things one can do, as it takes creativity to produce

what we think “quality” essays are.From writing this essay I have learned to value the knowledge

carried by others.After the tedious research done with articles through peer review the thing they

had in common was that they all carried different aspects on the artist, they managed to remain

credible through the presentation of facts.In the article about symbolism author Paul (Stapelton

169) first presents his information then cross checks it with other articles that correlate with his

information to show a sense of “proof”, I also encountered other articles that did not offer

citations with additional articles, and i immediately felt less “trust” as there weren’t efforts used

to prove a sense of credibility, so i learned the importance of citing in my own writings which

could be used in my future english classes.

One thing I learned that was extremely important from the annotated bibliography was

the selection of article length, there were a few articles i chose because there was limited

amounts on certain websites.Before I explored other websites I came across articles that featured

a much less amount of information but wanted to include it in the bibliography (Martel 2)

because it still provided a certain amount of information, but when having to write about it i
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found myself coming in contact with a lot of blocks as i had to expand on unnecessary

information to fill in the blanks, in turn oversimplifying topics that didn't need to be.When

choosing my articles for my literature review, I learned to look at the length before hand and

decided to make a list of at least 2-3 subtopics of information the article covered to ensure there

was variety to be talked about.In forcing myself to expand websites to not repeat what happened

with the bibliography, to find more articles, I found some like (Theburge 42) that were lengthy

and made far more than 3 points, and made it comfortable for me to write about.

In creating the literature review, the many readings that i did added to the bigger picture

of artists in general and not just Taylor Swift.During the writing, i realized that most of the things

involved weren’t just situations female artist encountered.In one paragraph, I mentioned how

artists majority of the time create side businesses as a sort of revenue, and did not include this in

my article but benefited my own research as I did a deeper dive into the tactics artists used to

market their own products based on their audience age.Creating the Literature review helps my

writing as i practiced how to tie in sources with writing repetitively, including citations relevant

to the story and not just a checkbox to fill in.This literature review will help me in future essays

as in every future english class that i take, i am sure to have to write at least one essay,after

writing the literature review i can now efficiently apply external articles in my writing in the

proper format.

Conferencing with my teacher was one of the most helpful things that happened in the

development in my essay.When I discussed my essay with my instructor, she gave excellent

feedback in going over confusing parts of my essay (Martel 1).The professor also answered any

questions I had with the writing style I used, for example, at the start of my essay I introduced

artist from the far past, 1950’s and wasn't sure if they were too distinct to correlate with my
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article, but the instructor gave reassuring feedback by letting me know that it was actually

interesting to contrast the past with the future, so I decided to keep it but change a singular artist

that had more relevance.The second was my repetition, I hadn’t noticed the many times i would

say the same thing in but just in different words. After consulting with the professor, she pointed

to the sentences that needed a conjunction to connect them, and ended up helping me make

stronger sentences that sounded confident.The third one was the indentation of my citations,

while it may not sound like much, it was something i struggled with so i asked if it was done

right and she corrected it but not without instructing me on how to do it so I don't forget, so when

I got home i went back to mess it up and fixed it again so that it would stay in my head how to

indent properly.

When I was doing the peer paper for my partner, once completed I checked it with my

own and found errors within my own writing.When i read what my partners response it

confirmed my suspicions of the things that needed fixing.An excellent point my peer pointed out

on my essay was how it lacked transitional words, and because she pinpointed on where they

were missing, I was able to insert them where it was needed, along with other introductions.The

second thing my peer helped me with was pointing out certain paragraphs that needed more

revision, she also made comments on some, stating what it lacked , like more details, so i went

back and added more information found on additional articles.

The toughest challenge I had was probably coming up with my 3 main topics that I had to

choose at the beginning .The first and second reason i didn’t have too much trouble with as they

were obvious key points that had to be discussed, and also were predicted from the annotated bib

(Martel 3).The third reason was tricky because majority of the ideas fell under the same category

that the first and second presented so the basic ones wouldn't leave much room to be talked
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about.I managed to overcome this challenge by making a diagram with possible 3rd “reasons”,

then after assorted them into groups with the ones that had the most similarities.From there I

chose between the two strongest options and was ultimately able to get my final answer.The least

challenging part was finding my articles, but that was thanks to my annotated bibliography that

already presented my possible options.

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Citations

Martel, Nina. “Reflection Essay” 24 Feb. 2024. English 1301, Texas A&M International

University, student paper.

Martel, Nina. “Taylor Swift: Business Reinvention Through Marketing” 9 March 2024. English

1301, Texas A&M International University, student paper.

Martel, Nina. “Taylor Swift: The Art of Storytelling Through Melodies and Business” 9 March

2024. English 1301, Texas A&M International University, student paper.

Stapelton, paul. “Autobiography and invention: Towards a critical understanding of identity,

dialogue and resistance in improvised music.” Contemporary Music Review, vol. 32, no.

2–03, 15 May 2013, pp. 165–174.

Théberge, Paul. “Love and Business: Taylor Swift as Celebrity, Businesswoman, and Advocate.”

Contemporary Music Review, vol. 40, no. 1, 2 Jan. 2021, pp. 41–59.