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Julah Hall
Professor Jackson Joseph
ENGL 1302
04 May 2017
Reflective Essay

Prior to taking this course, I had predicted how this class would function, in terms of

homework, test, quizzes, and essays. At first I envisioned to have homework in this class every

night with never ending vocabulary quizzes and learning different types of literary devices to use

when analyzing a historical document. Most of my predictions of this class turned out to be

overestimated. The concept that I learned in this class that is the most beneficial is

communication because by learning more about communication, I was able use communication

in my writing to connect with the audience.

When I began writing my rhetorical analysis essay, it was difficult for me to brainstorm

on what I wanted to analyze from the document. For my rhetorical analysis essay, out of the

variety of options that the class was given, I chose to write my rhetorical analysis essay on

President Barack Obamas transcript for Remarks by the President in State of the Union

Address. I chose to do my rhetorical analysis essay on the Remarks by the President in State of

the Union Address because I thought it would be an interesting topic to write about. Working on

this essay for a two-week period allowed me to discover my personal strengths and weaknesses

as a writer.

Getting critiques from my peers during the writing process gave me both positive and

negative feedback on how to improve my writing. Surprisingly, the feedback that I had received

for my thesis statement was positive from everyone who critiqued the rough draft of my essay.
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The positive feedback for rough draft turned out to weigh more than the negative feedback that I

received, which included grammar mistakes, the use of unnecessary contractions, and sentence

fragments. The most difficult part of the writing process for me was meeting the deadlines

because most of the time I would either put off writing my rough draft or making a final draft at

the last minute, and over time, as a writer I learned that not putting off writing assignments until

the last minute is not beneficial because it hurts my capabilities to reach my full potential.

My progress of writing from before I took English 1302 until now has improved because

from doing the rhetorical analysis essay, I learned how to identify specific elements in a

document and analyzing the text in a way that others may not have seen at first. Using my

English textbook Everyones An Author, I used the rhetorical analysis readings as a guide of

how I was expected to write my rhetorical analysis essay. Compared to last year when I took an

AP Language and Composition course, I was not as good as analyzing documents as I am

currently. By reading the chapter on rhetorical analysis and engaging in the lectures in class I

learned that the way rhetoric relates with communication is by setting a tone.

Overall, the English 1302 course that I took for the spring semester this year has

improved my writing since my first rhetorical analysis essay from junior year. Attempting to not

procrastinate until the last minute and having grammatical errors are the factors that I need to

improve on, but mostly I have received positive feedback for my writing. This course has not

only given me an opportunity to receive college credit early, but it helped me become a better. If

I had not taken the class, my writing skills would not have improved drastically.