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Jacqueline Chora
Professor Adler
STACC English 100 #72051
14 December 2015
Mirror of my Thoughts
The English course for this semester was difficult due to different type of essays we
wrote. In this course I wrote papers that I have not written before, which was difficult because I
was unsure of the format for these essays. Since this is my first English class in college I was
nervous because I doubted my writing skills. However, the long difficult process of this class
helped me in a way that I now know how to write a literacy narrative, a literature analysis, and
how to write a coherent research essay, but neither were easy to complete. The helpful resources
that provided me with assistance during this process was the writing reference book, peer
revisions, the Norton book, and examples of pass students. The resources that were provided
gave me a more simple approach on essays; however, I still struggled, but I know that every step
I took will lead me to become a better writer.
The first essay we wrote was a literacy narrative about our education in English classes,
which was difficult because we had to write about ourselves. Prior to this, I never have written a
literacy narrative nonetheless, written an in-class essay. The thought of writing an in-class essay
made me anxious because I was unsure if my writing skills were college level. Even though we
were given a chance to organize a day before which I did, but a few of the things I wrote made
no sense and I know I could have explained it more thoroughly. As I reread I noticed that I
frequently changed topics within paragraphs and I think this is because I do not explain clearly
enough my main topic that I shift in order to expand my paper more. But, I learned that the

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quantity is not as important as the quality of my work. Which is why my biggest mistake on this
paper is organization. As a result, it lead to my ideas being irrational. Thus, before I write an
essay I need to make sure I have a concrete organization of my ideas and make sure they are
explained as thorough as possible, in order to prevent another messy paper.
Vivid Details were one part of the literacy narrative that I misused, due to not knowing
how to incorporate them. My greatest fear was that my essay would sound to clichs. Before, my
professor reviewed vivid details and provided us with examples I used my writing reference
book to inform myself on how to prevent from using clichs. The book provided examples of
misuse of vivid details, which helped me avoid them. This gave me an overview of what not to
write on my paper. Once we had the description and discussion of vivid details and how to
incorporate them the process became easier. This was actually the one requirement of the
assignment that I felt confident about. I think my use of vivid details was smart, in a way it made
my paper more interesting from what it was before. After fixing the minor mistakes from my inclass essay I thought my second draft would be better; however, that was not the case.
The second draft was no better than the first, which was frustrating because I thought I
finally implied the correct factors that would improve my essay. Peer revisions was one of the
many methods that improved my literacy narrative. At first, my thoughts of peer revisions where
that it would not help me in any way. In fact, peer revisions were actually very helpful, not only
did it provide helpful feedback, but also my peers would provide me with ideas to include. With
peer revision, I was able to fix the parts that were confusing or that need more empathy. After
realizing that most of my interpretations were very broad I tried to be as specific as I possible. I
decided to focus on connecting the requirements for this essay to myself to prevent the essay
from turning into an academic essay. By doing so I was hoping my literacy narrative would

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sound more natural. I believe that this was the hardest part of the essay, making the requirements
be incorporated naturally. The part I struggled most with was making my essay flow like a
narrative should.
After writing in first person, our next essay required to be written in third person to
portray our ideas effectively. Once again I never written a literary analysis before. This was
easily noticeable because my literary analysis first draft was a summary of the chapter rather
than a critical analysis. In fact, before Professor Adler explained the assignment in depth I had no
idea how to begin. However, once we discussed a literary essay and examples were provide I
started to get an idea of how a literary analysis should be written. During the process of writing
the essay I struggled with interpretation because I never critically analyzed another authors
work. A few of the quotes were easier to comprehend, while others were more complicated. After
rereading the chapter numerous of times I got frustrated because I could not come up with an
interpretation. I kept having to change my ideas and finding new evidence because I felt like my
interpretations were weak. For example, in my second paragraph my interpretation of nature was
too obvious, so I tried to come up with my own logical interpretation, which was not elaborated
well. As a result, I ended up contradicting myself, which lead to a disaster. This was the main
thing I was trying to avoid, sometimes over evaluating a quote can lead me into writing
confusing interpretations. Even though this paper was not my best I know now that I must
critically interpret the quote and play around with it before I include it in the essay.
The introduction and conclusion is where I portrayed my ideas effectively. The thesis was
one part of the essay that I found was specific. This is due to the discussion and outlines that my
professor provided for us. Through this process, I learned that a thesis should be specific, clearly
stating my argument, and debatable with these three points I can create a well-written thesis for

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my papers in the future. Also, being informed that a thesis can be longer than a sentence makes
creating a thesis easier. Since, in high school I was constantly told a thesis should be one
sentence I was stuck with that mindset, which caused my thesis to be very broad. However, that
changed because I learned a new method. Not only was this the easiest part of the essay, which
surprised me because it is usually the most complicated. I am now aware of how to write a
literary analysis thesis.
The one essay I struggled immensely with was the research essay. My topic focused on
racial disparity in the criminal justice system focusing on Hispanics, but I think I over
complicated my essay. I did not like my ideas, which I changed constantly; however, the essay
was not as clear as it could have been. My mistake was not using my resources such as the
writing center. The goal for next semester is to take advantage of these resources. Although, I
used my writing reference to look at examples I think my essay could have been more effective if
I had someone evaluate it before. As a reread my essay I noticed that I had a lot of fallacies, this
occurred when I stated society and everyone believes a certain thing. My problem is that I write
in general and have no support. This is where my essay becomes unreasonable. I cannot mention
something like this without proof. My intent was to give my point of view of the topic, when I
actually was writing fact after fact after fact. The essay was not flowing like I would have hoped.
Another part in which I messed up was evaluating my subtopics. The main topics are
extremely important because it is what makes my topic rational and worth arguing for. The
subtopic of language for instance was way too broad. I did not have concrete evidence that
supported my view point. At first I thought I did, but as I read my evidence it was weak. I need to
work on finding evidence that support everything I state. Also, I think by including the Miranda
Rights in that paragraph it could have provided more support. I think it would have made the

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subtopic a little bit more reasonable. These mistakes that I made were avoidable, but I
completely blanked. I was too focused on making my essay coherent that I made it confusing.
For future references I plan on thoroughly thinking about the topic and thoroughly observing my
evidence. I have to make sure that wherever I include my quote it will be relevant and not be
simply shoved in a paragraph. From all my essays the research essay was the worst I have
written. I believe that this essay was the weakest from the overall work I did.
I thought that starting from English 100 meant that I was a horrible writer and that my
English level was low, on the contrary it means I just have to be remind of certain rules and ways
of how to write certain type of essay and there is nothing wrong with that. Overall I
underestimated this class because as the semester comes to an end I have learned a lot and I feel
like my writing as improved. I have learned new techniques such as the 3- step quotation
integration and the three requirements for a well-written thesis. However, I still have to continue
trying my best and submitting assignments to the best of my ability. I may make mistakes, but
these mistakes are for me to avoid committing them again. Either way this class prepared me and
has remind me of certain things I forget to do in essays. I may not turn in perfect papers, but
slowly as I advance in English classs maybe I will.