Yessenia Narvaez

Professor Adler
English 1A #32474
May 4, 2016
Finale
From the beginning of the semester I, like always, dreaded English class. This was
mainly because I highly disliked writing essays and I most definitely always will. However,
throughout the semester, I did seem to notice some changes. This was either whenever I read or
wrote something. I began to constantly analyze and question the authors words when reading. I
began to ask why or provide my own interpretation of what they meant. When it came to
reading I also started to subconsciously annotate every paragraph by either asking questions,
summarizing it, or defining words I did not comprehend. I then slowly began to evolve and
added these changes into my essays to bring about a more complex, but well written essay
altogether. I have chosen three essays I have previously written and I will reflect upon each and
opinionate any strengths and weaknesses they may attain.
The first essay I am going to be discussing is the first one written in the term which was
the in class essay. A weakness I can identify was that I may have not properly organized it. Also,
I presume that I possibly repeated myself constantly. Another weakness I can indicate is that my
thesis was not all that strong. I believe this is because I didnt really plan out beforehand so I
strictly just went with whatever came to mind in the moment. For instance, I wrote, I believe the
reason behind our desire to write is for ourselves (1). This could have been further explained in
heavier detail to express a more substantial thesis. But, particularly, I believe that this essay itself

is one of my best. A strength that I can point out is that I managed to have a specific point and
integrate both a quotation and my own words together to revolve around my argument. For
example, I integrated a quote that said, Good writing connects people to one another, to other
living creatures, to stories and ideas in which I responded with, she explains how writing
can connect to others because there can be times where someone else has gone through a
similar experience (2). With this I infer that I managed to combine both my understanding of
the quotation and include my own words to support it. Altogether even though I feel as if I still
need slight improvement in this, I do consider this it be an overall exceptional essay.
The next essay I am going to be reviewing will be the second essay written. This essay
was about Bacas poetry and our analyzation of it. This essay, in my honest opinion, is probably
one of my best as well. I declare that my thesis is extraordinary. To illustrate, I wrote, In the
poems, Looking and The Rusting Sky, Baca writes using a dark tone to express a positive
outcome using both hidden messages and somber images to bring about how writing changes his
life (1). The reason I am proud of this thesis, specifically, is because it was very specific and
complex at the same time. A strength I believe that I have conveyed is that I was highly
analytical. To illustrate, I commented in a poem, This pours out a bleak imageThe dead hand
on bloody drugged knuckles (28) can be seen as his gloomy past (2). I was very interpretive of
the poem and used abstract words as well. But, I also recognize a weakness in this essay. This
was that I ended it weakly when I had started out strong. For example, I inscribed, In the end
there are still numerous ways to portray Bacas poems. There is no wrong answer for there is
never just one meaning (2). To me, this sounds too straightforward and dull. I feel as if
shouldve been more detailed. Lastly, this essay can have minor improvements but it is certainly
a satisfactory essay.

The last essay I will examine will be the second in class essay that was to discuss about
either language, education or community. For this essay, I feel strongly when I added a quotation
and gave my own opinion about is. For example, I wrote Paulo Freireaddresses that,
Instead of communicating, the teacher issues communiques and makes deposits which the
students patiently receive, memorize and repeat (3) and replied to this with, Freire is clearly
stating how students are not expanding their knowledge because they are not communicating
with teachersStudents are then obtaining information than actually understanding it (3). I
clearly interpret what I believe the author is saying by expressing my own opinion on it. Another
efficiently thing I did in this essay is that I ended the conclusion nicely. I ended it by having a
Call to action. For instance, I said, a student will dread school if they are seemingly made
to follow what theyre told. Instead, students should be able to openly express their thoughts
without being told theyre wrong. There should be open discussions (3). With this, I provide a
solution or ideas to be able to bring out my main argument. All in all, this essay turned out pretty
well. I focused on what I had to have in it and successfully accomplished that.
To end, I observed that my essays were slowly getting stronger and stronger throughout
the time. A big part that I feel that helped me out during the term was peer review. With the help
of peer review, I was able to focus on certain mistakes I was doing. Had it not been for this, my
essays may not have been as good as I believe they were. Also, peer review helped make me
more observant of my work and make my writing stronger since I was getting the opinions of
others and I began to figure out what was important and what was not and whether or not I was
adding useless information. To compare my essays from the previous ones written before this
certain term, I definitely see an improvement of my essays. There is a change in ways that I have
now added more detailed and complex words to make my essays appear exceptional. Another

grand help for me was freewriting. I think this helped me out a lot because I was able to freely
explore and express my thoughts and incorporate that into my essays. I began to collectively add
more ideas. Finally, I think that all these essays were superb altogether, but there will always be
some improvements that would need to be made.