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Reese Jovellanos

Eng 115

Professor Beadle

8 December 2020

Learning, Growing and Reflecting on My Journey as a Writer

From kindergarten to highschool, I have explored writing in almost all its forms, from

expository and descriptive, to narrative and persuasive. This is why within this semester of

English, I found the tasks assigned to me fairly straightforward; I was already familiar with

paragraph structure, formulating a thesis for an argument, and how to format an academic

paper. Though the task of writing my first college-level essay was daunting, I was confident

that I could fall back on the skills I have developed throughout highschool to guide me

through the process. Despite that, this course has opened my eyes to new discoveries on how

further develop and expand on my current skill set. From this semester alone, I was able to

improve on my ability to adapt to a new writing format, write counterarguments and

rebuttals, and carry out a more sustained analysis of a specific set of quotes.

One of the things I struggled with the most was formatting. To me, despite having

previous knowledge of how academic essays are structured, the MLA 8th edition referencing

style was like an entirely different language. Though I had done my research on it, I was still

prone to making errors here and there. For instance, in my Project Space and Text essays, I

did not include a title, wrote the order of the date incorrectly, italicized words that should not

have been italicized, and formatted my works cited page imprecisely. Though these errors

seem minor in comparison to the thesis statement or analytical paragraphs, after comparing

my Project Space to my Project Media, I found that following the proper formatting style can

be just as important. In comparison to my Project Space, which did not have a title, the title
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of my Project Media essay was “Ambiguous Evil and Bigotry in V for Vendetta.” This is a

clear improvement from my previous essay, as I have not only caught the attention of the

reader, but I have also identified the main themes found in my argument. Thus, I learned that

titles are important because it allows me to further articulate my thesis to the reader in a clear

and precise manner. Paying special attention to the title made me realize that they are just as

important as the thesis in providing a strong foundation for the argument of my essay.

Looking back at my Project Media essay, which contains the appropriate formatting

elements, I can see that I have improved as incorporating the right title, works cited page

entries and date made my paper looks that much more consistent and professional.

Another way I have developed my writing is by including counterarguments and

rebuttals. In my first essay, I was skeptical of putting one in because I feared that by

expressing a view that opposed my thesis, I would risk weakening my argument. However,

after being required to implement a counterargument and rebuttal in my Project Text and

Media essays, I finally saw its value. For example, in my essay on V for Vendetta, despite my

thesis stating that there is no real hero in the comic, I also argued that “opposite could also be

said” and instead of it being counterproductive, I found that it ended up adding a persuasive

element to my essay. This is because by comparing my Project Space, Text, and Media

essays altogether, I learned that acknowledging other opinions, when done right, can be a

strong appeal to ethos and logos – this is something I also learned in my research for my

Project Space essay. This is because by bringing up an opposing opinion, I found that it gives

me the perfect opportunity to refute it and reclaim why my position is stronger. I have taken

these thoughts to heart because for my revised Project Space essay, I made sure to

incorporate a counterargument, and to also reformulate an existing paragraph to act as the

rebuttal. Similarly, I made sure to further develop my refutation in my Project Text essay, as

not only was this one of the critiques I received, but also something that weakened my
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argument overall because an undeveloped refutation strengthened the opposing position’s

point of view. In this way, I have grown as a writer because I have discovered another way to

improve my appeals to ethos and logos, as it would allow me to be seen as fairer and more

objective.

In addition to improving my ethical and logical appeals, I have also improved in quote

selection and providing a more sustained analysis of these specific quotes. This was one of

the critiques for my Project Text essay, and this was especially true for my fourth paragraph

in which I used quotes that did not sufficiently support my claims, and in my first paragraph

in which I used too many different quotes from both primary and secondary sources.

However, for my Project Media essay, I took this into consideration and made sure to select

specific panels that were impactful and meaningful to my thesis, whilst making sure not to

jump from page to page. I also made sure to do a more sustained analysis of the evidence I

have collected, even if the evidence spoke for itself at times. For my revised Project Text

essay, I took this experience and improved it by choosing a more appropriate quote that

suited my topic sentence, and by paying special attention to the specific words used in this

quote for my analysis. From this, I was able to improve as a writer as I am now better at

thinking critically and deeply about the evidence I am presenting, which in turn has helped

improve my ability to be more focused and concise in my writing.

Overall, this semester had surprised me because I learned many new things I had

previously thought I had a solid foundation in. For instance, I improved my ability to adapt to

a new formatting style, found another way to sound more persuasive and convincing by

including counterarguments and rebuttals, and I also enhanced my ability to select quotes and

perform a more sustained analysis. However, this was only possible due to the help I received

from the LRC lab, peers, and my professor, as their feedback were instrumental in my

improvement and growth as a writer. Though there is still room for improvement, I am proud
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of what I have achieved and learned thus far in this semester, and I look forward to expanding

on what I have improved on so far in the near and distant future.