Soto, Areli

Professor McClure
Writing 39B
November 7th, 2015
Mid-Term Reflection Essay
Throughout the writing process of my Rhetorical Analysis essay, I had a difficult,
stressful, and tiresome experience, but at the same time gained a vast amount of
knowledge and skills that helped me improve my writing along the way. The entire
process to construct my Rhetorical Analysis Essay was definitely not what I had
envisioned, and what I first had in mind for my essay, was definitely not what my end
product was, but in a positive way. Throughout the entire writing process from the
writing exercises to the actual construction of my essay, I was able to gain confidence as
well as skills to slowly improve my essay along the way. The obstacle of constructing a
strong and specific assertion as I was writing my essay, ended up being the strongest skill
I gained and what I believe was what truly made my essay a coherent and strong
argumentative essay. Overall, after all the obstacles, revisions, and research, I was able to
grasp all of the knowledge that I gained from these past weeks and reflect them into my
final draft of my Rhetorical Analysis Essay.
The paper as a whole definitely was not what I had envisioned in the first place, and I
was able to see how drastically my portrayal and message of the novel, I Am Legend, had
changed throughout my revision process. At first I had a strong message that I believed
was true, and not too generic. However as I continued to read additional sources, I kept
changing my perspective towards the message that I wanted to express in my thesis

statement. Finally, once I had grasped all of the needed sources and evidence to support
my assertion on the novel, I was finally able to constitute my introduction and thesis
statement, which I believe is always the hardest part to accomplish. However, as I
continued to revise my paper with my professor, I noticed how my assertion for the thesis
statement continued to be too broad and universal to actually be argumentative for my
essay. On the other hand, the search for my supporting resources for my essay seemed to
be not the easiest, but the smoothest process in my essay as it actually allowed me to
constitute my final, specific assertion for my argument. Overall, I believe that the largest
struggle that I had to face was to connect my overall evidence and arguments in my essay
so that my thoughts do not simply scatter all over my essay and instead present a
smoother transition for my readers.
Likewise, after acknowledging the several mistakes that I had made throughout my
essay construction, I believe that there would be several of structural changes that I
would make as I continue my process of drafting and writing my essay. For example, I
had tried to write all of my topic sentences first before I even began to write my
paragraphs, however, I later noticed how much of an obstacle this turned out to be as I
began to write my paragraphs. I would introduce and embed all of my sources with the
main argument of my paragraph, and then as I continued with my explanations and
conclusion of my paragraphs with my thesis statement, I would look back and see the
drastic difference between my topic sentences and my actual paragraphs. Then, what
would result in my topic sentences differing from my actual paragraphs would be a
scattering of different thoughts and ideas that would not correlate with the previous ideas
of the paragraphs, and would hardly correlate back to my thesis statement. Therefore, I

believe that if I could improve my overall process of constructing my essay, I would

definitely just draft a full run through of my paragraphs. Then in the end, I would
construct my topic sentences for each paragraph and in the end polish up all my
paragraphs to construct a smooth transition and correlation with all of my other
argumentative elements of my essay.
Then as I continued my drafting process of my essay, I faced a point in the course
where the class had to peer review each others papers for revision. At first I definitely
did not like the idea of having someone else critique and read my paper because I was
insecure about my writing and was afraid that my essay would turn out to be something
that would not be legible. However, as we began the peer review process, I noticed how
helpful it was for me, not just for the feedback that I would receive from my classmates,
but the knowledge that I would gain from peer reviewing my classmates papers. The
guidelines for the peer review definitely directed me on how exactly I should format my
essay, so while I was peer reviewing one of my classmates essays, I was also reflecting
on my own writing as well. As in matter of fact, as I would continue to draft my
Rhetorical Analysis essay, I would often review the peer review guidelines to make sure I
would be on track as I write my essay. Overall, the peer review process was very helpful
and insightful although at first it definitely seemed highly intimidating for me.
Overall, I strongly believe that the greatest improvement that I gained from my
essay was how I learned how to vividly and deeply analyze what an author is really trying
to project to their audience, and how I can, as a writer, interpret that in my essays. As I
began the drafting process of my thesis statement, my professor commented right away
how my assertion seemed too broad and universal. Then, as I began to rewrite and revise

my thesis statement, I resent my assertion to my professor towards the end of my drafting

process. Then, I was quickly frightened as I read the email from my professor stating that
my assertion was still too general. The contents of the email definitely frightened me
because he was not just criticizing any other sentence, but the most important sentence
that my entire essay revolved around. Right after however, I was able to spend the rest of
my spare of time to rewrite and deeply analyze my essay and its contents. Lastly, I
believe that my improvement did not simply reflect itself in my thesis statement, but in
my conclusion since I was able to tie my entire essay together, and to expand my
assertion one step further by leaving my readers with a deep intellectual thought in mind
about not just my essay, but the novel as a whole.
Likewise, I believe that the vast amount of knowledge that I learned throughout
the writing process for my Rhetorical Analysis essay will definitely benefit me in my
future papers, especially my skill of deeply analyzing a piece of writing. By learning how
to analyze beyond the surfaced message in a piece of writing, like how a person can be
their very own monster, I can expand my essays by looking beyond beneath the surface
and depicting new messages from a piece of text that one might not catch at first glance.
Likewise, by being highly specific when stating a direct message from a passage, I
learned that it becomes much more clear on what exactly I should be writing and looking
for in a piece of writing. I also highly believe that this new skill will definitely help me
with my future Writing 39C as I begin to constitute research papers. In a research paper, I
will be able to perhaps narrow down a specific, direct message in my essay as well as to
narrow down was specific research I would have to constitute.