Hector Lopez

5/13/15
Advisory Reflection
I have learned so many new things during the second semester of 10th grade. Many
things have really helped me get through this semester. I believe that the most important thing I
have learned this school year is how to format an essay. Learning this has helped me do good
in my classes. How I write my essays has changed a lot since I began high school.
The person that has taught me the most about writing essays is Mr. Dewaele. He is
honestly my favorite teacher. I have learned so much from him and he is a great teacher. He
knows how to get the attention of his audience without getting off topic. He is a really good
writer. He knows how to properly format his writing and it all sounds great.
He taught me how to write my essays in MLA format. At the beginning of high school, I
used to begin my essays and paragraphs with questions. He taught me that it is not good to
start with a question. I learned that it is better to start with a general idea about what you will be
talking about in the further portion of the essay. This information should start to get the readers
attention on your topic. It gets them thinking and asking themselves questions about your topic.
My writing style changed drastically from the start of high school till now. When I
wrote my essays in 9th grade, I would just write down what I was thinking. This would result in
my ideas being unorganized and scattered. Now when Im writing, I write down my ideas and
organize them so they make sense and flow really good. I wrote my history thesis paper in MLA
format because that is the correct format to use when writing a thesis paper.
I learned how to conduct responsible and legitimate research. I learned that the best
websites to use for research are websites that end in .gov, .edu, and .org. These websites are
the best because they post true information and are not run but a random stranger on the
internet who can post false, useless information. Sometimes, finding good information on the
internet is hard.
We are currently writing a thesis paper in history class. My topic is the Mexican
Revolution and my thesis is Francisco Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata were the most
important people in the Mexican Revolution because of the impact they made. I have
completed my introduction and Mr. Dewaele said it was great. I tried to include general
information about my topic to get the reader wanting to learn more about Pancho Villa and
Zapata.
I have truly grown as a student because I have learned how to properly write an essay or
paper. I am able to present better work to my teachers and I am proud of my ability to do so.
Some of the teachers really help you out to be better.