Connor Hedges

Ms. Sanchez

ERWC Period 4

22 May 2017

Reflection Letter

For my reflection letter, I have chosen the Bullying essay, Juvenile Justice essay, and

Good Food/Bad Food presentation. In addition to the essays, I chose three prep-work

assignments, my Into the Wild dialectical journals, Brave New World quotes, and Debate

Argument Template. From this work, I will reflect on what I learned about the works cited page,

annotating text, finding evidence to support claims, properly citing the evidence, and integrating

quotes to support the claim. My strengths include finding evidence and properly using MLA

format, and my weaknesses consist of topic sentences and commentary. Skills that I developed

during the course of the year was after finishing the Juvenile Justice Essay, I really solidified all

aspects of a Works Cited Page. All sources were in alphabetical order and in correct format.

Some areas I need improvement in are eliminating the use of dead words. I tend to use good,

bad, and a lot quite frequently and need to avoid the use of these words in all forms of writing.

My goals are to improve on my writing skills, to where I can write with more developed

vocabulary and be able to easily structure an essay from beginning to end.

The three essays that I chose for my reflection letter were the Bullying essay, Juvenile

Justice essay, and Good Food/Bad Food presentation. The Bullying essay was a research paper

from early in the second semester. I researched the main problems coming from bullying, arising

from those with different ethnic backgrounds, those with disabilities, and people with different

sexuality preferences to name a few. At any age level, Racial harassment can damage self-
esteem, self-efficiency and control and lead to feelings of helplessness, frustration and

depression, as well as challenging behavior and lowering academic performances (Rasminsky).

It is very crucial for the parents to teach their children lessons from an early age. Next, I wrote

my Juvenile Justice essay, in which was an argumentative essay that was also written in the

second semester. I chose to go with the Supreme Courts decision that juveniles shouldnt be

sentenced into prison without parole due to the lack of brain development and the sought out

opportunities of an improved way of life. Due to the brains of teens not being fully developed,

the legal system should classify them not as adults (Thompson). Depending on the severity of the

crime itself, its a very tough decision for the prosecutor to ultimately change the juveniles life

for the better or for the worse. Lastly, I chose the Good Food/Bad Food presentation, in which

was a group project from the end of the first semester. It was a proposal in which our group had

to decide what we need to do to change our food today. Changing the sources for food, and what

goes into our food, affects daily lives across America.

The three pieces of prep-work I chose were my Into the Wild dialectical journals, Brave

New World quotes, and Debate Argument Template. The dialectical journals helped me after I

chose my quotes, to sort them into columns for what body paragraph I wanted to use. It had a

separate column for the source, so that I wouldnt forget to add it after each quotation. It made

writing my essay much neater. Next, I chose the Brave New World Quotations from the very last

essay we wrote. The quotations were very advanced from Brave New World, which made my

essay seem at a higher level. Its very important to read the book itself, and pay attention to what

I was reading, so the essay goes parallel with the concrete details and commentary making the

essay flow. Lastly, I chose the Debate Argument Template from the in-class debate on if juveniles

should be tried as adults if convicted of murder. My evidence I used was due to the brains of
teens not being fully developed, the legal/court system should classify them still as juveniles

instead of adults, and not being developed til the age of 25 (Thompson). I then backed up this

evidence during the in-class debate, along with debating with the opposing side. Overall, these

three pieces of prep-work helped guide me in the writing process. They easily led me to a

properly structured essay.

Through the duration of the year, I have developed many writing skills, as well as

improved on skills tremendously. The first skill I solidified, as creating a Works Cited page.

When I got back my Juveniles Justice essay, my Works Cited page had no markings on it. I

properly alphabetized each entry from top to bottom, and indenting after the to line of each entry.

Then, also for the Bullying essay, there were many passages we had to annotate. While reading

through the text, I took notes, and put facts on the left margins and opinions on the right. I also

underlined key points in the text while attaching comments to them, so when I revisited later, I

knew what I had read. Next, properly citing evidence was a key skill I gained during the course

of the year. For example, in the Juvenile Justice essay, the quote I used was, The court system

has finally acknowledged the fact that children shouldnt be dying in prison without being

handed an opportunity to see release possibly due to good behavior (Garinger). Garinger, the

author of the passage, was properly cited at the end of the quote in parenthese. The next skill I

got down was finding evidence support your claim. For example, in the Bullying essay,

Coaches and school employees knew that alleged bully repeatedly attempted to touch their

students with their genitalia and call them homophobic slurs (Schmelzer). This evidence I used

was to support the claim of a bullying getting away with his horrific actions, and not receiving

any consequences. Lastly, integrating quotes to support a claim was a skill I learned from

freshman year. However, it was a skill that I completely advanced in this past year. For example,
in the bullying essay, Different ways of Bullying and harassment can have negative effects on

the development and mental health of LGBTQ students, such as extreme anxiety and depression,

relationship problems, low self-esteem, substance abuse, and thoughts of suicide(Reise). While

integrating this quote, I used words before the quote that made the whole sentence flow.

Throughout the duration of the year, I developed many new skills, as well as adding to previous

ones I had learned during the first three years of High School.

I strongly believe one of my strengths is MLA format. For all essays this past year, I have

nearly scored all points for the MLA portion on the rubric. Its very important to properly format,

so the essay is indeed laid out nicely. Finding evidence is also a key strength of mine. In order

for the essay to make sense, the evidence has to lineup with the commentary as well. On the

other hand, a big weakness of mine, is writing topic sentences. I hope to gain knowledge in

writing topic sentences. Its very important to have a strong topic sentence in order for the reader

to know what exactly theyre talking about. Lastly, another skill I wish to develop is stronger

commentary after the evidence given. It helps the essay overall flow, and helps the reader easily

go along with the prompt. After High school, and in college level english, I hope to master these

strengths and weaknesses in all aspects of writing.

At the beginning of the school year, I had trouble formatting the Works Cited correctly.

After completing the Juvenile Justice essay, I solidified all aspects of the Works Cited page, also

said in an earlier paragraph. All sources were in alphabetical order and in correct format, as being

indented after the first line of each entry. When reading an essay, the reader typically sees the

sources after each quotation, and can flip tho the last page of the essay, that being the Works

Cited page, and see what website or article the source is from. Its very important to know how to
properly lay out a Works Cited page for any type of essay. Ms. Sanchez didnt make a mark on

my Works Cited Pages for the last handful of essays handed back to me.

I strongly believe that I need to enhance my vocabulary used in all essays. In the Bullying

essay, on more than one occurrence, I had dead word marks and circles around all the commas

not needed in a sentence. The dead words that I tend to use quite frequently is good, bad, and a

lot. These words are all not descriptive, and can easily be replaced with more advanced

synonyms or other words. Also, I happen to use commas when theyre not needed, or in the

wrong place in the sentence. The last comma packet for fanboys commas and also the MUGS

that we used to do in class on every Monday, both helped me with the use of commas all around.

From the Bullying essay on, I improved on both of these skills that I was lacking.

The expectations of college level reading and writing were one that I didnt entirely

expect. Going into the course, I underestimated the amount of reading and writing that ended up

doing. However, all of the lessons helped me in one way or another. The reading and annotating

during the ERWC course translated over to American Government and Economics, with similar

types of passenges and readings in both classes. In American Government, we wrote a few

essays on the units we were learning at the time, where I immediately formatted it the same of an

ERWC essay. From what friends have told me that have taken the course and then transitioned

into college level english, the ERWC course helped tremendously. While placing into ERWC last

spring, it was clear I needed to improve my writing skills. If it werent for this course, my skills

wouldnt have improved as much as they did. Im very eager to see what Ms. Sanchez taught me,

be applied in my next step of schooling.