Carlos Barajas

ENG 102
Ms. Kardell
Post-Course Reflection
This semester and the final semester of my Freshman year in college was great. I was
having a tough time adjusting to the busy schedule that unknowingly made. English 102 was the
class that helped me to overcome this semester’s obstacle, which was time management. From
this course I learned many things, such as new writing skills, organization, and to believe in
myself more. Furthermore, within the course I was able to develop more of my writing skills and
a new mindset for writing.
When I found out that we would be focusing on human rights all semester, I was a bit
worried. I do not follow any news on human right issues or other political things because I do not
feel directly impacted by any of those issues. This means that I have no interest on those topics
and I usually just follow the rules placed by higher authorities without any hesitation. I was
having a hard time deciding on a human right issue and if I want to pick one that is local, state,
national, or international level. Seeing that there are various, and the many issues has opened my
eyes to a new perspective that the world is full of issues. After some time and deep thinking, I
finally decided on a topic that was not talked about or relevant to most of the campaigns for more
laws to be changed. The topic that I wanted to discuss was the human rights on the internet. I
was clueless in the direction I wanted to go with it because of the low evidence and research on
the topic. It took some time to think of a subtopic for the first essay on my topic. This was the
case for every essay that followed.
After having this issue, I had to face another issue involving evidence and researches on
my topic. This issue arises because the internet is new in the terms of the age of society, so it
makes it difficult to decide on the subtopic I wanted. It made me change the subtopic of the essay
at least twice and this became frustrating. I then had to change the keywords on the library search
bar because it would give me results different from what I was seeking or did not have any
results.
When I got used to this issue and finally resolved it, I was feeling confident as I wrote my
papers. I was never fond of writing and still dislike to this day, but I feel a little less frustrated as
I write. I think this happened because I had a better understanding on the tools and forms of
writing. I would always get stuck on a process because I did not know what I was doing or failed
to get the proper evidence. After learning from this course, I am more confident as I write and it
takes me less time to plan the outline, do research, write the rough draft and make edits, and
finalizing the paper.
I am also thankful for the help that I received from my peers and friends. I always knew
that I could rely on my desk mate to give helpful feedback on the introductory paragraph,
especially my thesis. He showed me how I can structure a sentence, so it flowed well. This was
always an issue that I found throughout my papers. Somehow, I manage to ruin the flow of the
paper without knowing and I never notice it. My high school English teacher helped me resolve
this issue by reading it out loud. When I revise my essays, I read the essay in my head, which
prevents me from catching these slip-ups. From this recurring experience, I learned to read the
paper out loud so I can catch these minor mistakes. In my papers, I like to attempt to my grab my
readers’ attention in the introductory paragraph. With the help of another classmate, we both
decide on it together. This student has the same topic but focuses his attention on another region.
This helps us create many hooks for the introduction and decide what would best work for our
paper. From this experience I grew to like this class and began to walk out my comfort zone and
talk to other people.
Finally, I gained better skills at managing my time through organization. This class and
other things in life, they have a due date for every assignment. Managing this class and five
others was quite difficult, especially since three of my classes were session A. This meant that
three classes had fourteen weeks of class condensed into seven. I had a lot on my plate and my
writing course was going to take a good portion since writing is my weakest skill. However, in
this class we did things in pieces. We took steps to develop our papers and this made me pace
myself. Because of the experience in English 102 I was able to apply this skill in organization to
other parts in my life. After the first week of this semester, I was able to control the work load,
which meant that I was able to produce quality results rather than rushed ones. This made me
feel relaxed and happy that I am finishing my first year at Arizona State University (ASU).
Overall, my second semester ASU was a bit tricky to grasp in the beginning. However,
by determination and some practice I was able to handle the workload. I made schedules so that
each class got enough time to be studied and worked on. I was also able to get out of my comfort
zone and made some new friends. I look forward to writing more and making new friends as I go
through the course of my college career.