Relection Essay

Melisa Yeager

ENGL-100

Prof. Ford

April 20th, 2013

Looking Back: A Journey Of Growth

When I started this class back in January, I was overwhelmed by looking over the syllabus and wondered if I would be able to write well enough to pass the course. As I read the material each week there was clear instruction on how I should write each assignment. A lot seemed as if it would be easy to apply but in reality it was much harder than I had anticipated. One thing I noticed I had difficulty with was cutting out unnecessary wording throughout my papers. I think it might be a habit, but even when I read it out loud I struggle to hear or see what areas are redundant.

The first assignment was to write a Memoir. This was probably the easiest essay to write because it involved very little thought, seeing that it was about a personal event in our lives. I chose to write about the day my son died. This was a life changing event for me and my family. I really learned to view life differently. In some ways better and in others worse. For example, I can value the beauty of each day and the opportunity of every second we get to spend with our loved ones but then I also fear a lot of what my children do because I have lived a “worst case scenario” so I can see the bad things that could occur in any situation. The good news is, I have learned to control my fears and not let them ruin the “fun” out of everyday in my childrens life.  Where it may have been easy to write this essay because I already had all the details, it was a hard experience because I had to revisit the events of that night carefully as to be able to retell the story to someone who wasn’t there.

The second assignment was to write a Review. I chose to write a Movie review because it seemed like the one thing that would take the least amount of time in my busy schedule and I thought it would be a great excuse to be able to sit down for a couple of hours and watch a movie without any interruptions. I struggled with trying to give enough relevant details about the movie to help the reader decide if this was a movie worth their time. The essay was wordy and could’ve included more details that are specifically used in movie reviews. I think I lacked a tone for my paper as well.

The third assignment was our Research Paper. I chose to write about Obesity in children. This seems to be a problem that continues to rise over the years. I chose this topic because personally I don’t understand how exactly this comes to be. I think in my family we have high metabolism and weight is never an issue until we are older when it seems to slow down. I personally am not great at monitoring what and how much my children eat which is what drew me to this paper. I try and make sure there is healthy foods to choose from but they also indulge in unhealthy things like cookies, chips, things I was exposed to growing up. They do not have weight issues and this is why I have to believe that their are other factors that contribute to this epidemic. This was a very time consuming paper to write. Much time was dedicated to reading and sifting through material to try and find supporting information for my topic. I think it was hard to find new information that went along with my thesis but in the end I feel like I learned more about what we can do to try and avoid this.

For our last assignment we were to choose one of our papers that we would like to revise. I chose my movie review in hopes that I could eliminate the wordiness throughout the essay. I tried to think as someone who hasn’t seen the movie and try and add things that they would be looking for in a movie review. An example of something I added in my revision that I didn’t have in my original was the director. Sometimes just knowing the name of the director can give someone an idea of what to expect.

Overall this was a great experience and I feel like I am leaving with more writing skills than I started with. I was able to learn that it is important to take what type of reader you will have into consideration before starting your paper. It was interesting to learn about the different writing styles that apply to different genres. It was nice to be able to practice the many styles  in different assignments. I will definitely leave this course equipped to better write future papers that other classes may require of me. I have definitely seen my growth in awareness throughout the semester even though I may not always have been able to apply them correctly.