Running head: MY WRITING EXPEDITION

My Writing Expedition
Manuela Lopez
Madonna University
ESL 4230-Reflection Paper (D2)
November 30, 2015

MY WRITING EXPEDITION

My Writing Expedition
I came to Madonna University running away from a false socialist revolution that had
done nothing, but to impoverish my country and rise criminality forcing my people to live with
scarcity and fear. Because of my parents struggle to offer us a peaceful and secure life, and good
quality education, my father encourages me to study hard, practice golf and improve my English
to increase my chances of been awarded an athletic and merit scholarship. He knew that due to
his political and economic situation he was not going to be able to afford sending me to a nice,
peaceful, and good quality school abroad. To be honest, I did not like the idea of leaving but I
knew It was the right thing to do. I worked hard along with my father who prepared me to take
the TOEFL and SAT exams and helped me with all the application process. He helped so that I
could be accepted in a good educational institution, such as Madonna, where I got a conditional
admission with an English placement test requirement. The possibility to study in a high quality
institution, in a peaceful country without restrictions of scarcity and fear of political violence will
greatly enhance my professional formation and my parents mental health.
The unwanted day finally came and many negative thoughts began to flood my head
making me doubt if I was going to be able to get through this completely new experience. I
arrived at Madonna on the fourteenth of August to train with my golf team. I knew I had to take
the English placement test the twenty-sixth. I was really scared because even though I studied in
a good school back in Venezuela, which provided me very good English lessons, I had never
taken a formal class in any other language, but Spanish. I had never written essays in English
apart from those of the TOEFL and SAT exams. The day of the placement test came, and just as
my mother said, I did pretty well and I was placed in the ESL 4230 course. At first I did not
know what ESL 4230 meant, but Betty Haddel told me that it was the last English course for
ESL students. It meant that I was going to be able to take other academic courses right away.

MY WRITING EXPEDITION
This good news made my parents very happy and proud, but I got terrified. I did not see
myself back then writing psychology essays, or attending an Economic class and being actually
able to understand it despite having struggled a lot at the beginning.
I started my ESL 4230 with a little anxiety and a lot of expectations. I knew it was a key
course in order to enhance my English skills required to succeed in all the other courses and to
maintain ongoing academic performance consistent with that used to determine my scholarship
award in order to keep it. As the course went on, I realized it was very beneficial for me. I
learned how to write paragraphs, how to take Cornell Notes, and how to organize my ideas to
further structure essays making outlines. I also learned how to research information using the
data base and how to incorporate the sources of that information in the body of the paper using
APA style. We were instructed about how to avoid plagiarism using paraphrasing and quotation
techniques and also using my own words and ideas. We were taught about the importance and
use of research proposals, informative, and argumentative papers. We got the opportunity to
write them with the wonderful help of the writing center, which have been an invaluable help in
my process of learning how to write proper research papers in English. I know now that my
parents were right, I had to come. Here in Madonna I am given the opportunity to learn more. I
can be prepared for a professional life in the future, for my own sake, for the sake of my family
and for the sake of my country, where I want to return one day hoping that in the near future we
could have back the peaceful and loving country we once had.
My biggest challenge in this class was improving my first draft of the argumentative
paper. After having achieving a one hundred percent in my informative paper, I was highly
optimistic on my argumentative paper review, even though I have found its structure much
harder to write. But it did not come as well as I expected and I was a little disappointed. For my
second draft, I tried to incorporate all the writing center suggestions and I made dramatic

MY WRITING EXPEDITION

changes on it in order to make it more readable and comprehensive. I think that one of my
challenges in writing this paper was that my topic is a very technical one with a lot of
biochemistry involved. This makes it hard for me to explain due to my lack of vocabulary and
experience. However, I feel very confident with draft two of my argumentative paper. I
understood the mistakes I made after asking Professor Kossel about them and the comments
from the writing center were very positive. They told me that my thesis statement, topic
sentences and the use of transitions to connect the paragraphs were great. They also said that I
have incorporated the supporting and the counter argument with rebuttal paragraphs in an
organized way making my paper more understandable than my first attempt.
In summary, ESL 4230 taught me how to choose a topic, research information, organize
my ideas and the information researched in a coherent way, and how to complete the paper in a
perfect APA style avoiding plagiarism. I never thought that in such a short period of time I would
have been writing research papers with the confidence I do now. I think that in my experience the
ESL 4230 course have fulfill its purpose. It has made me a better essay and research paper writer
and I enjoyed every part of the process. Even though I do not see myself as a writer or novelist in
the future, because I do not think I have the required sensitivity and skills to be one; this course
has taught me to open my mind and to leave the door open to new literary experiences that might
well appear in my life as I complete my dream of graduating in a wonderful university such as
Madonna. I would like to end up my reflection paper with my gratitude to the ESL 4230 teachers
and the Writing Center Staff.