Haylie Garrity

English Course Reflection

Before taking this class, I knew how to create an outline, peer edit, and write an essay.

Although writing is not my strongest subject, I have written many essays throughout my life. I

have done informative and argumentative essays in my past, but the solution paper was a brand

new theme to me. When writing my essays, I always start off by brainstorming what I want to

write about in each paragraph and then create an outline. After I have my entire essay layed out, I

find sources to use for evidence in each paragraph. I find what parts of the source I want to quote

or paraphrase and put it in my outline. Once I have a rough outline, I begin my draft by writing

the introduction and pasting all of my evidence. I go back and include my own commentary in

about two sentences or more after each source. Once all of my body paragraphs are done, I write

the conclusion and add my reference page. I think my writing style is very beneficial to organize

my thoughts and I believe challenging myself this semester has made me a stronger writer.

Although I think I have become a stronger writer in this class, there are still some

things I need to improve on. I used APA formatting for the first time in this class, so I struggled a

little getting every part of the format correct. I also think I could improve on incorporating more

of my own words into my essays rather than just relying on sources for information. The sources

I used for my essays were all related to the benefits of vaccines or the reasons why people

oppose them. I think a majority of my sources were very helpful and I would use them again if I

ever write a paper on this topic again in the future. I think finishing the final papers were the

most satisfying because once I had completed ideas, I felt like my essays had a strong message.

Some parts of writing the paper were frustrating as well. I think the hardest part for me was
creating my outline and first draft because I found that I had to find new sources a lot and it took

up and huge chunk of time. I like to finish my essays completely in the first draft, so it is

frustrating to me that it is so time consuming and takes a lot of thinking.

My goals for this semester were to do well on my writing projects and receive an “A” in

the class. I exceeded these goals and even have an “A+” in the class. I am proud of the work I

have done throughout this semester and I think it reveals how determined I am to succeed and

work hard for what I want to achieve. My writing from the first project until now has changed a

lot. The last writing project was definitely the most difficult for me and I think I have grown a lot

from the first essay. I challenged myself in the last essay and I think that I grew as a writer form

each writing project. My work was a lot more organized and detailed at the end, and I was able

to incorporate all 15 sources and reach the word count.

I think my work was a lot different than the others in my class. I felt like the way I set up

my essays was unique compared to what I saw from my other classmates. I learned a certain way

of formatting in the 8th grade and I want people to see that I organize my essays to follow a

specific pattern. I think that if someone else was looking at my work, they would learn that I am

interested in the medical field and that I am very organized. One thing I would like to improve

on is trying to be more creative when writing my essays rather than just sticking to the one style I

have been doing since 8th grade. I want to get out of my comfort zone and see what kind of

essay I can make without following the strict guidelines I am used to. I think I would try to

improve my last essay if I could take this class again. I think the essay itself was very strong and

met all the criteria, but I want to go back and incorporate different sources and set it up a little

differently.
 Overall, I think that I improved a lot as a writer in this class and I liked the challenges I

had to overcome. In the future, I would like to try to switch up my essay formatting and get out

of my comfort zone. There are also some things that I would like to improve on more, such as

including more of my own commentary in my essays without making it repetitive and working

on APA formatting. I hope to keep improving as a writer, whether it is English or not, and to

continue to challenge myself.