Syverson 1

Lauren Syverson
Dr. Kendra Parker
English 113-03
23 April 2015
Introductory Reflective Essay
At the beginning of the semester, I was very excited to take an English course at
Hope College. In high school, I had been in accelerated English courses and have done
well with my analytical essays. When entering this course, I had high expectations to do
well and for writing to come naturally as it always has. Unfortunately, I was wrong. This
course was difficult for me and was no walk in the park. I found my self many times
struggling with the material presented, and confused about my writing ability. This course
pushed my knowledge of writing past anything that I could imagine before. Reflecting on
the course, The Wonderful World of Disney, I found it both wonderful and it created
learning opportunities for knowledge of my future writing.
In the course, The Wonderful World of Disney, I feel I did very well to critically
analyze the material, edit my peers essays and think creatively in my writing. To begin,
In watching the films in this course, I loved to depict different sign, signals, and
significantss. I especially am proud of my final essay written on the presents of
metaphorical signs of sexual assault in The Little Mermaid. My thesis states, After
watching the Disney classic, The Little Mermaid, I saw similar aspects of the movie that
can be a metaphor for different elements of sexual assault. I felt after the first time
watching the movie that I depicted the elements of sexual assault well and gave the topic
the credit it calls for. In contrast, I feel that I could have improved on paying attention to

Syverson 2
even smaller detail while analyzing the films to better understand and depict the signs.
Secondly, I enjoyed editing my peers essays for grammatical errors and sentence
structure. I feel I performed well to identify improper use of commonly confused used
words like affect v effect and there, their, and theyre. My peers have commented
that I have done well at this and am happy I could help them through their essays. Lastly,
I think I was very creative in my writing this semester. I feel I wrote a lot of very in depth
and critical essays that have taken much thought and time to properly evaluate the films
for different signs and metaphors. For instance, for each essay, my peers commented on
how my signs were very in depth and how they would have never have thought of it. Alex
writes on Essay 2, Good job Lauren! I think your ideas are super interesting and
unique! Overall, I feel positive of my overall experience and feel I did well in these
areas of the course.
In this course, I also feel that the material presented gave me learning
opportunities for knowledge of my future writing. I believe the most interesting thing I
learned about my writing was that I tend to struggle finding deeper meaning and
significant values to my signs that I depict from the material. I found it difficult to create
different meanings to different signs within the same thesis sentence. For example, in
Essay 2, I originally wrote the essay about the use of flowers in Mulan and used that as
my thesis. As I dug deeper into finding meaning and analyzing the material, I struggled to
find enough information to depict. My peers evaluated my essay on flowers and overall,
they felt that it was not a strong enough thesis to continue with. I feel that the most useful
information I learned through this course was to not give up on difficult prompts and to
ask questions when I need direction. My professor did a very good job explaining in

Syverson 3
detail and guiding me with my confusion so I could learn and become a better writer. I
also learned to pay attention to small detail, like make sure my essays were in MLA
format. Many times this semester I did that wrong, as you can see in my peer-reviewed
essays.
Overall, I enjoyed this class and I think it challenged me to learn and become a
better writer. I feel I met my personal and course goals to accelerate my techniques and
learn a lot about my personal writing for my future in writing.