Alejandra Jimenez Gonzalez

H.Batty

English 28

Reflection Essay

At the start of the semester I was a little bitter that I was placed in English 28. I took my

placement test soon after graduating but I’ve been 2 years out of high school. I thought for sure I

would be placed in English 101 right away, I blame the testing format which was very confusing

to me, but either way, I’m thankful I got to take this class anyways. The last serious English class

I took was in the 11th grade and I can honestly say I was one of the weaker writers. It was an AP

English with only magnet students so I was pretty intimidated. That was in the 11th grade and so

It's been almost 3 years since that. Throughout this semester I learned a couple things about my

writing and critical thinking.

What I learned about myself as a writer was that I’m not as good as I thought I was. I often

give myself credit for being better than average, but after having Kim revise my first essay,

narrative, I realized there’s a lot of work to be done. I was forgetting commas here and there,

sometimes I get my words backward. I thought back on all the essay’s I revised for my sister

who also considered me to be a more adequate writer than her. Had I made mistakes in them as

well?

I found most of the class to be easy because It was centered around subjects that I am most

passionate about. Firstly, the narrative essay, everyone loves talking about themselves. I found

this one especially easy because I keep a diary and I regularly write in a narrative form about my

problems. Second the argumentative essay. I plan to double major in Chicano studies and in
Linguistics, so what better prompt than bilingualism and identity? It had my name written all

over it. I pretty much revolve my studies around these topics so I was very grateful, it almost felt

like I was cheating because I had a better understanding of it than others.

Lastly, the in-class essay is what I had the most trouble with. Mostly due to the fact that I

write better on a computer where I can regularly check for spelling mistakes and google any

questions I might have. This too, however, is where I felt I had a slight advantage because

Cecilia Munoz and I had almost the same experience in our path to being activists. The in-class

essay helped my critical thinking as well. It had been a while since I was timed on an essay I had

to hand write.

All group activities we did in class I wasn’t a fan of. I don’t work well in groups for the most

part. I try to lead when no one else is up for the task but when there's a difference in power

dynamic, individual attitudes, that’s when I fall short. The group presentation at the end went

surprisingly well. I think I got lucky with my group, they all were very serious and didn’t slack. I

don’t do terribly bad with public speaking anymore so I feel the presentation part went well.

What I learned from that work assignment was team building.

Overall this class helped me enjoy writing once again. I had stopped writing for my own

enjoyment since a while back and this class helped me get back into the groove of it. It was also

a major wake up call to check myself on punctuation. I look forward to what I will write in

English 101.