Davalos 1

Alondra Davalos
Professor Bieber
English 115 HON
8 December 2015
Reflective Essay
Reflecting back to the beginning of the term I can say that my writing skills were not at
college level. There definitely was improvement that had to be made in order to be at college
level. The portfolio that I have put together makes the improvement in my writing clear and
evident. Over the course of the semester, with clarity of purpose, organization, and diction I have
been able to express my ideas and convey information in my writing using logical reasoning and
competent factual support.
This course is an excellent model of what a good college education means. I learned to
communicate effectively, think critically, develop analytical reasoning skills and be creative.
Coming into this course I definitely had trouble expressing my ideas and conveying information.
While I had the ideas in my mind I was having a hard time transferring them onto paper. In
progression one it is evident that the research I had was just surface research and not so much in
depth as it shouldve been. I was certainly having trouble meeting page requirement because of
the broadness knowledge I had on my topic. The final product of progression one was broad,
unorganized, and unclear. My points were not compelling and I was not getting my point across
to my audience. However in progression two and three the improvement is obvious, my research
was more integrated creating a clear, well-organized paper. My writing has shifted from broad to
clear, convincing, interesting, and readable. My portfolio also tells me that I now have stronger
working thesis statements. A thesis statement is fundamental for an essay to be good and is the

Davalos 2
foundation that holds the essay together. My work would be pointless if I did not have a strong
thesis statement to introduce my topic and position. Lastly my portfolio has made it evident that
organization in my papers have improved. There is such a better flow to my papers when my
ideas are well organized.
The skills that I have learned throughout this course are skills that are essential in
everyday life. In just about any paper I will be required to have a thesis statement,
counterargument, genre awareness, analysis, organization, transitions, quotes, purpose, and
research. All which I have learned and have grasped the concept of. I can utilize the writing
strategies that I have gained for the rest of my academic career, as well as post-graduation.
Research papers are surly not exclusive to this English course. As a sociologist major I will be
required to do research papers constantly and fortunately I have taken away a lot from this
course, skills that will later be useful in my career path.
With all of this being said there is always room for improvement in my writing. I have
not fully mastered all the concepts of good writing. Next in my writing, I need to learn proper
MLA citing. Although therere many online resources that can help me cite I want to be able to
cite without having to recourse to them. As well I still need help with staying on topic.
Sometimes an idea leads me to another and then that idea leads me to another and I just start to
get off track. It is very easy to do this especially when you have to meet a page requirement. If I
dont fix this then my essays will just be nonsense and unorganized.
Moreover, I am proud with the product of my hard work and proud of myself for putting
in the time to become a better writer. The skills that I have learned are essential in creating a
proper college-level essay. After the completion of this course I can say that I learned how to be
a mini-expert in my area of research.