Reflection essay

This semester I have learned a lot about how to be a better writer. At the start of this class I had a hard time being organized and sometimes my essays would wonder away from the main point. By practicing different types of writing and getting feedback from my classmates I have improved my essay structure and analysis skills. This essay explains how I grew this semester especially in staying on topic and finding better research sources. When I look back at my rhetorical analysis project, I can see that I have moved from just repeating facts to explaining what they mean in a professional way.

One big thing I improved this semester was learning how to stop getting off topic and instead use my evidence to explain a bigger idea. In my first drafts I used to include information that really didn’t belong just because I thought it was interesting. However, by the time I wrote my rhetorical analysis I learned how to pick the best evidence to support my point. For example, I wrote, “this information connects back to Camus’s ideas because it shows that our modern people who feel like they are pushing a heavy rock up a mountain every single day just to try to feel okay.” This sentence shows my growth because I didn’t just list statistics about mental health. Instead, I used a story to show the analysis skill I learned in class. By connecting the data to a bigger idea, I kept my writing focused and made it more interesting for the reader.

Another area where I improved was in my basic research skills and learning how to find high quality information. At first, I just looked for any article that seemed okay but this semester I learned how to use EBSCO better to find better resources. I learned how to navigate the search tools and more importantly how to tell the difference between a regular article and a real research paper. For example, for my rhetorical analysis I found a paper by Lovell and Webber (2024) about student mental health. I knew this was a good source because it was a formal reach study not just someone’s opinion on a website. Learning this skill helped me follow the academic writing guidelines because it made my own essay much more professional and trustworthy.

Overall, this English course has helped me grow3 from a student who was unsure about writing into a much more confident researcher. By focusing on my “essay structure” and learning how to use database like EBSCO I am now able to writer papers that are clear, organized, and backed up by good evidence. I am proud of the connection I have made between modern statistics and Camus’s ideas as it shows I can think deeply about what I read. These skills will not only help me in future collage classes but also in any professional work I do later on.