Luis Alvarez

Professor Lewis
English 113A
December 11, 2015
Reflective Preface
Dear Portfolio Reader,
Throughout the course of English 113A, I have learned many things within my writing,
outstanding and terrible. At first, the writing assignments seemed very simple and easy. The
essay prompts for our writing assignments were very straightforward, beginning with the
narrative essay. The narrative essay at first did not really seem as much of a challenge and I
wrote most of my paper with ease. However, writing this narrative essay made me realize how
much I have grown as a writer and made me value all the resources I have had that led me to
become a better writer. I began to see that I had been accustomed to writing higher level essays
in my last high school years, that writing this essay became a bit tough in the end. Revising my
essay helped me throughout the whole process of making my paper better and because of that, I
feel that my essay was much stronger and organized. The revision process of this essay was not
easy because I would sometimes catch small grammar errors due to the fact that I was getting
ahead of myself by rushing the essay, thinking it was just any other assignment. Once I began
reading my essay aloud, I would catch these errors and I had to continually fix them or I would
have to change words because they were of higher level vocabulary and they did not fit in my
essay since they would overcomplicate my statements on this general essay topic. I have been
accustomed to writing analytical essays on novels and poems that I was overthinking basic

information in the narrative essay. Overall, the narrative essay helped me review how a general
essay should be written.
Afterwards, I began seeing more of a challenge in the writing process of the ethnography
essay. I began to feel more in my comfort zone of writing because I was analyzing a restaurant
based on its cultural aspects. I began to feel more like myself in my writing since I was able to
use everything I knew about rhetoric and applying it to my theory of cultural aspects of a
restaurant. Writing this essay made me think critically and that is what I was expecting in my
writing college level writing courses. I was able to take everything in the restaurant and come up
with a very strong essay that dealt with analyzing every little item located in the restaurant and
apply it to cultural theories about society. The writing process I took with the essay helped me
develop a better sense of my writing skills and how I am able to write thoroughly and precise
when targeting the main objective.
Finally, approaching the last essay, I felt like I was writing an essay where my true
writing skills were put to the test. Writing a research paper and looking up information to back
up the main argument of my essay was a true stepping stone to my writing process in this
English course. I had to incorporate most of my best writing abilities in this essay because I was
not only analyzing the terrible effects social media apps provide in todays society on
communication skills, but I had to present a strong argument to my belief in an organized and
precise manner. Throughout my writing I had only written two research papers prior to this one
and I believe I tackled the assignment superbly and made a solid argument within my essay.
I have learned new things and old in this writing course and I believe that it will continue
to help me in my writing, not only in English and writing classes but also in other courses that
require writing with the basic layouts and argumentative skills I have incorporated throughout

the time in this course. Overall, I would say that I have adapted to a better understanding of how
college level writing will be throughout my time at CSUN.