Running Head: REFLECTION- EXPLANATORY ESSAY

Reflection- Explanatory Essay

ENG 102

Carlos Barajas

Professor Kardell

February 13, 2019

Running Head: REFLECTION- EXPLANATORY ESSAY
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Reflection- Explanatory ESSAY

This explanatory essay was a bit more difficult compared to any explanatory essays I

have written before. I was more willing to create a mind-map. First, I decided to make a mind-

map of relevant social issues that people around the world face every day. After some time

researching, I had fifth-teen social issues on the mind-map and from those, I narrowed it down to

three social issues that I found to be most appealing to me. The social issues that I chose were

cyber security, deforestation, and prostitution. I wanted to stay away from gun control and

abortion because those topics seemed complex and difficult for me to write an explanatory essay

without sounding bias. After some debate, I decided that I wanted to write about cyber security

since it is the most relevant and affects me every day because I use the internet every day. Then,

I made another mind-map for subtopics of the main topic for example, security issues, identity

thieves, or data brokers. Again, once I narrowed down my list of subtopics, I knew how to

structure my paper. Finally, I was ready to write my draft for the explanatory essay.

I decided that I wanted to first introduce the issues of cyber security and how people

become victims to these issues, then provide some methods to prevent becoming victims. In the

first body paragraph, I discussed that websites have monitoring systems, who uses them and

what purpose they serve. Then, in the second paragraph, I discussed the hazards of not knowing

the risks of inputting personal information on websites. Finally, I provided methods to prevent

people from becoming victims to cyber security issues. I chose this structure because I wanted to

people to easily follow the source of the problem with cyber securities and their effects, which

makes people liable to becoming victims. Then, by mentioning preventive methods, the readers

can be informed on how to protect themselves when they enter their personal information only,

and it can possibly spark an interest in further their knowledge on cyber security.
Running Head: REFLECTION- EXPLANATORY ESSAY
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When I finished the draft, I was not too confident of my work. I had Adrian, my English

102 peer, read my draft. He assured me that the essay was focused, and the topic was interesting

to read. He also suggested that I revisit the introduction, specifically the thesis. The hook and

informational background would not flow well into the thesis. I was lost and did not know how

to fix my working thesis. After talking with the professor of the class, I now knew what to do so

the working thesis can be finalized. I was also informed that I was using quotes incorrectly. I

found that it should be used to emphasize a point, so I had to revisit the quotes in my essay and

paraphrase most of them. I am grateful that I had the assistance of my peers and the professor. I

would not have finished the explanatory essay that I am proud of. It also has made me open to

asking for assistance when I need it.