Taylor Sengphanlaya

Professor Collins
ENGL 1302
16 August 2016
Reflective Essay
When I first started taking English 1302 I thought I had refined my writing skills because
of all the experience and knowledge I gained from high school. When I first started college I
took another course of English called English 1301. I assumed that my writing skills were
excellent and required little improvement but enrolling in English 1302 taught me that I have
more to learn. Throughout the course of English 1302 I learned how to improve my writing skills
of grammar, diction, and organization through the utilization of different tools.
In order to improve my writing skills of grammar I used the tools of peer reviewing,
ratiocination, and sentence felonies. During peer reviewing fellow classmate would analyze my
paper to check for correct grammar. My grammatical errors seems to be less frequent as the class
progress and it continues to improve as each paper is written. After peer reviewing I would edit
my paper for be verbs, dead words, if the beginning of sentences varied, pronouns, and if
sentence length varied. I noticed that I utilized numerous be verbs which are the following
words: be, been, being, am, are is, were, and was. I had numerous commas/comma splices and
sentence felonies. I learned how to minimize the be verbs and comma errors because of the
slideshow of ratiocination and the handout of sentence felonies. It refined my writings skills and
expanded my knowledge of common grammatical errors. I developed my grammatical writing
skills through various ways whether it be peer reviewing, ratiocination, or handouts that were
provided in the course.

I developed my wording and organization of my papers using tools provided by Professor

Collins. I enhanced my diction by applying the information on the handouts of the emotional
wheel and word choices. In the first drafts of my essays I used common words like very tired
or very hungry but then I was educated to elevate common words changing very tired or
very hungry to words like famished or exhausted. The handouts provided information on
various verbiage for a single word. Throughout my essays my wording improved and I make an
effort to constantly develop it. Professor Collins produced an idea that help maintain order when
it came to writing essays. It is called the MEAL plan which stands for Main idea, Evidence,
Analysis, and Link back to thesis. This tool made it easier to write body paragraphs of essays. It
was a simple tool to use and I found it to help further develop my essays. Within the MEAL plan
I learned how to do in text citation for the Evidence section. For the in text citation I could use
direct quotes, paraphrase, or summarization to assist organizing my evidence in body paragraphs.
Professor Collins assisted me with the various in text citation by providing me examples and
letting me write my own. Over time I advanced on how to in text cite because of Professor
Collins and the Hacker textbook. The tools, MEAL plan and the handouts, helped evolve my
wording and organization of my essays.
Contemplating on my writing skills in the beginning of the course to now I would say my
skills have vastly improved, but could still have room for improvement. The progress I made
could not have been done without Professor Collins and the materials she provided plus the
Hacker and Lunsford textbook. Both the textbooks and Professor Collins taught me how to
enhanced and sharpen my skills to create essays with ease.