Reflective Essay

7/17/2019 Reflective Essay

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Reflective Essay

(Name Deleted)

English145.13

Introduction

!uccess is the sum of small efforts" re#eated day in and day out.$ %his &uotation fromauthor Ro'ert ollier encouraged me that my daily or* in English 145.13 did in fact

hel# me to succeed. %his reflective essay ill give me the chance to loo* 'ac* u#on all

the assignments" documents and #ro+ects I have accom#lished in English 145.13(,anguage - om#osition II /riting in 0usiness and overnment 2rgs) this fall

semester. %his #a#er ill shocase my e6#ectations of the course" #ro'lems I faced"

strategies I folloed" and the many things I7ve learned. 8dditionally" this reflective essayill include my thoughts and o#inions of the course" assignments" and instructor overall.

8nalysis%his section ill include all the im#ortant information I ish to share a'out my

#artici#ation in English 145.13 this fall semester.

9y E6#ectations/ith any ne course" there ill 'e certain e6#ectations one ill have. :eo#le can either

em'race the ne situation or act defensive to change. I didn7t *no hat to e6#ect froma technical riting English course" 'ut I as ready to em'race it.

8s I al*ed into the classroom the first day" I as delighted to see that it as a small

class setting here e each could or* on our on #ersonal com#uter. 8s the instructor 'egan to go over class #rocedures" I as e6cited to find out that there as an organi;ed

course e'site. %hat ould allo me to revie each assignment 'efore even or*ing on

it. 8dditionally" the fact that this course as a 'usiness riting course" I didn7t &uite*no hat to e6#ect. %hroughout the ma+ority of English courses I have ta*en" I have

'een a'le to follo a more free style< a'stract from of riting. /ith all of my #revious

English course e6#erience" I e6#ected to #artici#ate in activities such as

• /riting research #a#ers

• :eer editing others7 riting

• :re#aring s#eeches

• /riting essays

0efore +um#ing into any courseor*" I had a cou#le of &uestions as to hat I shoulde6#ect in this s#ecific course such as

• /hat ould my instructor 9r. 0o*or 'e li*e=

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• >o many #a#ers ould e 'e e6#ected to rite=

• /ould e 'e assigned a lot of homeor*=

• >o much ould e have to or* in grou#s=

8s my English 145.13 class too* off" my &uestions a'out hat I should e6#ect ere soonansered. 9y e6#ectations 'ecame clearer 'ecause I found out things such as

• 9y instructor 9r. 0o*or as very #re#ared and illing to hel# his students

• %he course folloed a schedule ith s#ecific num'er of assignments

• /e ould have significant amount of time to com#lete each #ro+ect

• /e could choose our on #eer grou# for editing #ur#oses

8s the course continued on" many of my e6#ectations of a normal English class eree6ceeded. %his technical riting class included much more than the normal essays"

re#orts" s#eeches and #eer editing. I *ne I as in for a challenge" 'ut I as ready for it.

:ro'lems I faced%he 'iggest #ro'lem I faced throughout the course as ta*ing each technical riting ti#

and incor#orating them into each document. I had to consciously remem'er to use hat Ilearned from one riting to the ne6t. 8t the 'eginning of the course I did e6#ect some

differences" 'ut our first document #roved there to 'e much difference. %he first

document e had to rite as the ,earning ontract. I faced some #ro'lems ith thats#ecific #iece such as

• reating the correct format

• Eliminating my ordiness

• !#acing out my thoughts

/hile I as or*ing on my rough draft of this #ro+ect I had to or* through all of these

#ro'lems. 8t first" I had to figure out hat ty#e of riting style and format I should

follo. I found out that 9r. 0o*or e6#ected us to use signposts hich give the reader aneasier layout to follo. I decided to 'rea* my ideas u# 'y utili;ing 'ullet #oints. I

usually find myself trying to e6#lain my thoughts using long sentences and too many

ords. /hen I received teacher comments on my first draft" I reali;ed my instructorthought so also. I sent in another draft after I fi6ed all the mista*es found ithin my

#a#er. I received an 8? on the overall #ro+ect and I as #leased ith that.

%he ne6t 'ig #ro+ect e had to con&uer as our Resume and over letter. I ould have

to say this as the #ro+ect that #osed the most difficulties for me. %his #ro+ect demanded

so many s#ecific riting styles. !ome ne things I had to learn to com#lete this #ro+ect

ere as follos

• level one" level to and level three headings

• #rofessional headings



• address em#loyers

• chun*ing my cover letter #aragra#hs

• filtering out im#ortant information for resume

I turned in my rough draft co#y to my #eer grou# and then to 9r. 0o*or. I received manycomments in regards to my format. I as also having trou'le deci#hering hatinformation to include in each #aragra#h for my cover letter. 9r. 0o*or taught me that

em#loyers li*e to follo an organi;ed document ith each #aragra#h including similar

information. @or e6am#le" one #aragra#h should include information a'out theeducation" one a'out #revious e6#erience and one containing +o' &ualifications. I revised

my drafts and turned them in a cou#le more times. 9r. 0o*or hel#ed me overcome all

the #ro'lems I as having in com#leting this documents.

%hroughout my English 145.13 course e learned ho to summari;e long documents

into short and to the #oint #aragra#hs. 8t first" I as having #ro'lems ith the

assignments referred to as E6ecutive summaries. /e ere instructed to read a documentand then condense the main #oint into a shorter document only 5A of the original. 8s I

stated 'efore" I have #ro'lems ith e6cessive ordiness so of course these assignments

ere a struggle. I e6#erienced trou'les such as

• #in #ointing the main ideas

• filtering out the unnecessary content

• summari;ing ithout missing #ertinent information

8fter discussing these concerns ith my #eer grou# and my instructor" I managed to

create a rough draft. I made sure that my document loo*ed only 5A as long as the

original one. 8fter receiving the feed'ac*" I as #leased to see that I had in factmastered the conce#t of creating a summary.

9y !trategies!ince this course as set u# so differently than all of my other English courses" I had toset u# strategies in order to *ee# u#. 8s discussed earlier" the learning contract as one

of our most im#ortant #ro+ects. /e ere as*ed to ma*e a list of strategies to follo

throughout the course. I thin* everyone enrolled in a ne course should set goals and liststrategies to hel# achieve them.

I e6#ected these strategies to hel# me stay focused. /hen I ould start to feel

overhelmed ith the courseor*" I ould thin* 'ac* to my strategies and a##ly them.%herefore" the strategies I used in English 145.13 include

• etting everything done as it is assigned and not #rocrastinate

• !taying organi;ed

• Reading through #eer revisions multi#le times

• 0rainstorming more thoroughly

• Revising documents multi#le times

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%he strategy that I focused the most on as staying organi;ed. %hroughout the course"

e had so many drafts to *ee# trac* of. Each document re&uired a first draft" #eer draft"

teacher draft and then final co#y. !ometimes it as difficult to *ee# everything alltogether" 'ut my organi;ational s*ills 'enefitted me. I used my strategy to revise my

documents multi#le times to ma*e sure each final co#y as com#letely correct. 8lso"

'rainstorming hel#ed me start each document off ith ease. %hese strategies aided in mysuccess throughout English 145.13 this semester.

%hings I ,earned@irst of all" I ould li*e to state that I have gron so much as a riter since the 'eginning

of this fall semester. I came into this course not *noing hat to e6#ect. I had toad+ust to the technical form of 'usiness riting re&uired in this ,anguage - om#osition

II /riting 0usiness - overnment 2rgs course. I learned something ne ith each

document I com#leted. I +um#ed into this ne style of riting as soon as the class 'egan.

/e ada#ted to ne ays of including items such as

•

!tyles• >eadings

• @ormats

• !#acing

• 8lignments

I had alays 'een used to a s#ecific style of riting in all of my other English courses.

8fter the first assignment" I reali;ed that 9r. 0o*or conducted his class differently. I as

comforta'le #lacing my headings on the left of the #age" 'ut 9r. 0o*or introduced a neay. >e taught us that centering the heading ma*es the document loo* more organi;ed

and #ut together. I as also used to dou'le s#acing everything" 'ut this courseor*

demanded a ne style. /e ere taught to chun* ideas using single s#aces. %he

documents re&uired more o'vious s#aces to se#arate each #aragra#hs. It seemed thatevery #ro+ect forced us to ada#t to a ne conce#t in riting. Each #ro+ect taught me the

folloing

• Learning Contract

%his #ro+ect taught me that contracts don7t have to loo* formal ith small #rint

and dou'le s#aces. I 'ecame familiar ith ho to use 'ullet #oints to convey my

thoughts.

• The resume and Cover letter

%hese documents taught me hat the #ro#er formats for these documents shouldloo* li*e. %he cover letter forced me to list im#ortant things a'out myself in 3?4

short #aragra#hs. 8long ith that" the resume document taught me hat

information should 'e included. %hese ill hel# me 'e #re#ared hen I need to

recreate these documents for the real or*force.

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• Executive Summaries

%hese short assignments taught me ho to &uic*ly find the main #oint of acondensed document. %hen I learned ho to convey this main #oint into a much

shorter document. I learned that the #ur#ose of riting summaries is to ma*e it

easy for 'usy readers to see the main #oint ithout having to read an entiredocument.

• Bi-Weekly Memos

8fter com#leting each one of these memos" I learned that thoughts are easilyconveyed using 'ullet #oints. I learned that ordiness is froned u#on es#ecially

hen the document is a short memo.

• Research Proect

%his #ro+ect taught me the im#ortance of through research. I learned a'out

necessary segments such as Revie of literature$ and 9ethods of research.$ I

as also introduced to the #ro#er ay to construct an introduction. ori" 0randonand I agreed to rite e&ual #ortions of the #a#er. 8fter revieing our first draft of

this #ro+ect" I reali;ed that this document loo*ed more com#lete after e

incor#orated #ictures along ith ca#tions. %he #eer editing as conducted in thesame manor as all the #receding #ro+ects. /e ere assigned another grou# to

e6change #ro+ects ith. Individually" e had to edit the other grou#7s entire draft.

%he feed'ac* our grou# received from our #eer grou# didn7t #rovide any nedirection for our #a#er to follo. %hey corrected a fe grammatical errors 'ut

nothing su'stantial. %herefore" I feel that e had to or* e6tra hard on self

editing our ne6t draft 'efore e had to turn it into our instructor. ori as a great

grou# mem'er and she alays made the necessary corrections to her #ortion of

the #a#er. 0randon did edit the #ortion he rote" 'ut sometimes it seemed asthough he didn7t do a through +o'. >oever" the final draft of our research

#ro+ect on drug traffic*ing turned out ell. 9r. 0o*or left us ith commentshich if folloed" could im#rove our #a#er even more.

I am glad that each assignment I com#leted for English145.13 taught me something ne.I feel that I have e6#anded my hori;ons and o#ened my eyes to ne riting techni&ues.

9y %houghts and 2#inionsEnglish 145.13 lasted an entire semester. I dedicated a lot of time to the courseor* and

assignments. !ince 9r. 9ichael 0o*or as very involved" I s#ent much &uality time

ith him. I have stated my thoughts and o#inions on the course itself" the assignments"my instructor and they are as follos

• Course

I li*e the ay this course as set u#. I as e6cited that 9r. 0o*or had a e' site

for the course. %he e' site as e6tremely organi;ed and it hel#ed me stay ontrac* during the course. I felt comforta'le ith the amount of time e s#ent

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going over the re&uirements for each assignments. I also feel that the si;e of the

class created a 'eneficial learning environment.

• !ssignments

Initially" I as 'eginning to feel overhelmed ith the many drafts that ere

re&uired for each document. Nonetheless" as the semester carried on I 'egan to

a##reciate all the #ractice e ould get 'efore e turned in the final co#y.!ometimes it is difficult for me 'egin a document" so the rough drafts ere a

struggle. I en+oyed or*ing in our #eer grou#s and editing each others7 #a#ers.

8s I stated #reviously" each assignment taught me something ne a'out riting.I didn7t thin* that any of the assignments e had in this course ere too

demanding. I also thin* that each assignment as significant in im#roving our

riting.

• "nstructor

9r. 9ichael B. 0o*or as a uni&ue instructor. >e #ortrayed a real interest for the

su'+ect matter as ell as his students. I a##reciated ho he al*ed around the

classroom and gave us advice on ho to im#rove our riting. >e made a real

im#act on me hen I learned ho much he as illing to hel# us succeed in hisclass. >e ould constantly encourage us to revise our drafts in order to receive a

'etter advisory grade. 9r. 0o*or as diligent in returning e?mails #rom#tly. >e

also alloed us to come into his office for e6tra hel# during his office hours. 9y #rofessor ould alays come to class ith a smile and great or* ethic. I am

than*ful that I e6#erienced this ne ty#e of English course ith such a great

teacher.

onclusion/hen this ,anguage - om#osition II /riting 0usiness - overnment 2rgs

course 'egan in the fall semester" I asn7t sure hat it ould include. >oever" as

soon as the course too* off" I *ne I as a'out to e6#erience a hole ne ritinge6#erience. I had &uestions a'out hat to e6#ect in this course. /ith any ne course"

certain #ro'lems and struggles ill arise. I learned to follo the strategies I set for

myself in order to gain as much from the course as I could. I feel that this course has

given me the confidence to engage in 'usiness and #rofessional style riting. I *no thatthe ne s*ills I learned in English 145.13 ill 'enefit me in future English courses. I am

than*ful that I have com#leted all the re&uired courseor* and I am ha##y a'out my

success in my English 145.13 course this fall semester.

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Reflective Essay