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Dora Cervantes

Professor Batty

English 102

12 December 2019

Reflective Essay

Throughout the past semesters that I have taken English in college, there is always

something new to learn each time. When many students barely enter college or university, many

are afraid to take both English and math. Ever since high school I always had struggled with the

English subject since I was never really good when trying to write essays and learning new ways

to write. My first English class here in Loa Angeles valley College helped me become a better

writer and make the class more likable. When Starting English 102 at first I was scared since it

sounds more advanced. Overall this class has been both challenging and helpful when it comes to

improving our overall performance in essay writing and critical thinking.

Over time there were lot of things that we learn in our English 102 class, helping us

become better writers and readers. For me, writing an essay has always been a struggle but

throughout the semester we learned some new ways in which we could write an essay.

Something that I really struggled with in the beginning of the semester is trying to include quotes

in a essay. Learned how to integrate quotes using different formats for example putting the quote

in the middle of the explanation, try to begin with the quote then explain it, and/or begin with

explanation the insert the quote. Many people might see this as a minor struggle but over time it

made it harder for me to write my essays.

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Throughout the semester I realized the many weaknesses and strengths that I have when

trying to write my essays. One of the strengths that I have is when it comes to structuring an

essay, it is easier for me to know how I am going to place my paragraphs. It is easier to know the

order in which the story is set up, since after you just get the main point of the story and just

place them in the order in which makes more sense. My weakness when writing an essay has

stayed the same for the past few years, I always tend to struggle on expressing what I am trying

to say. When writing an essay I usually end up getting a lower grade than expected because I do

not explain well my ideas on my paper. Usually when I write an essay I tend to have all these

ideas in my mind but at the end it does not end up being on paper. One of the assignments that

help me realize what I am missing is the portfolio because even though it is late in the semester I

go over my essays and I realize new and better ways in which can add what I need.

Learning how to improve all of my mistakes is something that I need to do because my

future career has something to do with it. I would like to major in Elementary Education, and for

me to this I need to be a well educated teacher in which can actually help the students. As a

teacher I need to be able to write a well thought out essay but this is a problem because I need to

better my writing. If I am trying to help students learn to write I need to learn the concept myself.

But thanks to many of the assignments that we did in English 102 this semester I know that I can

use them to help me become a better teacher. One of the assignments that I would really like to

use in the near future would probably be the Graphic Novel. This assignment challenged my

thinking and also made me realized that there are different ways in which we can tell a story.

Throughout the semester it has been very challenging both physically and mentally when

it comes to keeping up with my classes. This English class has been a little challenging this
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semester due to challenging essays that we did. Many of the assignments were not hard, it was

the challenges that I had when try to write the essays. This class has challenged our critical t

thinking in many ways and has helped us become better writers and readers. When it comes to

this class it has been overall both challenging and helpful when it comes to improving our overall

performance in essay writing and critical thinking.