Santos 1

Ettore Santos
Professor L. Hamalian
ENGL 115
11 December 2014
A Review
The mark of a master is a constant drive to improve. This is especially true of writers. I
feel that through the Fall 2014 semester I have kept this drive, but only improved in my abilities
of writing analysis, and not improved my skill at writing much. I have found input from others to
reflect the same: improved analysis, stagnant writing. I have found it quite frustrating.
On this site you will find a few of my past essays. Upon review I noticed that while my
analysis of different sources and themes became deeper and more developed as the semester
pressed on, my writing itself remained largely the same. I will accept any improvement, of
course, however, I can't help but feel that I have made little overall progress in my writing
because technical and composition skills have hardly improved. This may be due to my own
stubbornness.
With each essay the peer reviews and instructor reviews said the same thing: make it
longer. Apart from some clarification issues this was the most glaring critique of my papers, with
most peer reviews focusing solely on the length while stating that everything else was well done.
I was (and still am) offended by this. The great hero of English literature, William Shakespeare,
once said, Brevity is the soul of wit, and I put great effort into condensing my writing, to
capturing large ideas and conveying them briefly and clearly. I am locked in to a way of thinking
that excludes and condemns fluffy filler and I can not bring myself to stuff my essays with it.

Santos 2
When I have forced myself to press filler into my essays it ends up terribly. This can be
seen in the middle paragraphs of my analysis of Blackfish which were added much later. This
semester I have only heard advice to add words for the sake of adding words. Perhaps the
addition of filler is itself an art, but I fail to see it that way. My philosophy is that just because
your pen is empty, doesn't mean it was useful.
With regards to my growth, I feel that my analysis skills have grown greatly. Through
interacting with other class members and hearing their opinions I have found that I can more
objectively pick apart media. I can see underlying issues and manipulations of language more
easily. By recognizing these defects I have tried to critically examine my own writing in the
same way to make more solid arguments. This is an approach to writing that I can carry with me
for the rest of my life.
Although it may not be true, I feel that I have improved very little aside from learning to
analyze media. I hope to continue improving all my writing skill and that I will one day look
back at the essays on this site and be able to see many problems with them. Once I can see the
issues with my own writing, I can fix them and begin to master the skill of writing.