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Moises Hernandez

Dr. Nelson

English 1301

1 December 2022

The Final Reflection

Almost at the end of the finish line, but still a way to go. When I first stepped into the

class of English 1301, I was filled with a slight anxiety but a drive to succeed. Although English

1301 was in some ways difficult, the course and the professor taught me many lessons that I will

hold onto even after I graduate from college. Through the failures and the successes that I’ve

received throughout this course, I came into the realization that I will not make it through this

course nor college as a whole if I don’t give it my all in everything that comes my way. This

course allowed me to acknowledge the fact that I am not a high school student anymore, but a

adult attending college.

Although my 3 essays were all strong in their own unique way, each essay had its own

shortcoming that prevented it from reaching its maximum potential. In order to reach the

potential held within each essay, I had to expose all of my mistakes by rhetorically revising each

essay. Starting with essay 1, my biggest shortcoming with this essay was that I didn’t strictly stay

on task of the prompt. My essay was based on a UFC promotional poster and how it is

effectively used in social media. Instead of staying on task and talking about the effectiveness

about the poster, I instead talked about the fighters themselves and important the fight is. For

example, I brought up the fighting background of both of the fighters involved. On top of that,

when I did bring up topics that were related towards my prompt, I would briefly explain them

instead of elaborating to the fullest extent. As I revised this essay, I made sure to highlight all of
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the parts that I had to change. Some of the things that I highlighted include the fighting

background of the fighters involved, the topics that I didn’t elaborate on, and the “fluff” that was

didn’t do anything for my essay. Even though I spoke too much about background of the

fighters, I do believe that it was necessary to talk about it as it would be essential for the

audience to have an idea as to who the promotional poster was primarily focused on. As a result,

I kept the background but I shortened it so that it wouldn’t be the main focus of the essay.

Another revision that I made was elaborating on the importance of the promotional poster and its

purpose of bringing eyes to the promotion. The last revision that I made in this essay was

deleting any fluff that wasn’t necessary towards my essay. I deleted extra information about the

UFC promotion, the fighters and the importance about the fight itself. My essay two visual

analysis paper was in my opinion the best essay out of the 3 essays I did. Although my essay two

was very good, its biggest shortcoming was the third body paragraph. The third body paragraph

was primarily focused on the characters in the album and their role in inducing manipulation and

corruption. This paragraph contained so much information that ended up making it unorganized.

My ideas were all over the place and it unfortunately made this paragraph the weakest part about

essay two. While revising, I wrote down all of the ideas and their purpose in a separate sheet of

paper. After gathering my thoughts, I took out the information that didn’t make sense and I

combined the information that belonged together. After doing this revision I do believe that this

essay’s weak point has completely disappeared, therefore making it even better than it already

was. Out of the three essays that I had to write throughout this semester, the hardest essay was by

far the third essay. This essay caused me to get out of my comfort zone and overall took the

longest time out of all my essays to finish. Even though this essay was hard, I still did decent

enough to get a passing grade. The biggest issues with this essay were that I didn’t properly
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quote my evidence in the most impactful examples used, I also had fluff in my introduction, and

I had errors in my works cited page. While revising, I deleted the extra fluff found in my

introduction as it wasn’t important nor needed. I also revised my first body paragraph by adding

in more information while also citing my source making the paragraph even better. Finally, I

fixed my works cited page by uppercasing the words that needed to be uppercased, italicizing the

name of the article, and rearranging the database to where it belonged.

The website for my portfolio contains all of the most important assignments and essays

that I have ever completed throughout this 2022 fall semester. Because this is the first time that I

have ever created a website, I wanted to try to keep everything as simple as possible. Starting off

with my homepage, I inserted short summary about myself and what the website is about while

also inserting a picture of myself with my little sister on the day I graduated from high school.

After that I have 4 accessible tabs titled Essay 1, Essay 2, Essay 3, and Final Reflective Essay. In

all of my essay tabs I included the three drafts that I were part of the writing essay. On top of that

I also included the final revisions of each essay and lastly, I included a short summary of

feedback that I received from my peers for each essay. Finally, in the Final Reflective Essay tab,

I included My Reflective essay along with the content reflective essay. That is everything that

can be found in my website.

I was able to make my revisions as effective as they were thanks to the many homework

assignments and activities that I had to complete during this 2022 fall semester. Some of the

most influential homework assignments that helped me make the revisions that I did include the

writing worksheets, working with peer reviewed feedback, and the Rhetorical Analysis Activity.

The writing worksheets primarily helped me by allowing me to gather my thoughts which helped

me in making a plan as to how I’m going to lay out my essay, what my essay will be focused on,
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and the different topics that I can use to solidify my essay. Working with peer reviewed feedback

also helped me in many ways. One of the primary ways that this activity helped me was by

giving me the opportunity to receive criticism that will inevitably improve my essay. This

activity allows me to work with partners, to which they can voice their opinion on what works

and what doesn’t work in my essay. The last activity, being the Rhetorical Analysis Activity,

greatly helped me in the final essay that was based on the Rhetorical Analysis of a Peer-

Reviewed Article. Coming into English 1301, although I knew of the rhetorical tools, Pathos,

Ethos, Logos, I wasn’t at the level where I could immediately identify each specified rhetorical

tool. While doing this activity, I was able to learn how I could identify each tool and how I could

effectively use that tool for my own benefit. This was especially a huge help for the peer-

reviewed article that I was basing my essay on as I was easily able to identify Ethos, Pathos, and

Logos in the text which, as a result, overall helped me in finishing and passing the essay.

There are many things that I will be able to carry into other courses thanks to English

1301. One tool that I will be able to use in other courses is the knowledge that I now have in

identifying rhetorical tools such as Pathos, Ethos, and Logos. By being able to identify these

rhetorical tools, I can get a better understanding about what I am reading through analyzing the

purpose of the tools used. Another strategy that I can implement into other courses that I learned

from English 1301 by using the reading strategy of being an active reader. Actively reading will

allow me to further understand what I’m reading, which will allow me to accurately and

descriptively answer any questions given to me regarding what I’m reading. Lastly the most

important lesson that English 1301 taught me that I will be able to carry on into other courses is

the ability to manage my word count. Because each essay that I completed this semester had a

specific word count, I was able to learn how to manage my words so that I can talk about
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everything that I need to talk about while going within the word count limit. This is applicable

into other courses as it will prevent me from cutting off the potential of my papers because of a

word count limit.

Even though there were many lessons from English 1301 that I will in other courses,

there are many other lessons that I will regrettably not be able to use in other courses. The

biggest skill that I learned from English 1301 that I may unfortunately not be able to apply into

other courses is mastering MLA format. Because all three essays and all three reflective essays

were required to be in MLA format, I managed to master the format completely. Although it is a

good skill to have, it may not be applicable to other courses because every course has a different

default format such as APA, which is found in social sciences and Chicago format, found in

history.

Throughout this semester of taking English 1301, I have picked up many new strengths

while evolving the same strengths I’ve already had. Some of the strengths that have been

improved include MLA format and elaborating in the topics that I am writing about. Some of the

new strengths that I have picked up thanks to this course include word count management and

active reading. Even though I now have two new skills that have been added to my arsenal and

will allow me to get closer into eventually reaching my full potential, I still have to acknowledge

my weaknesses. The biggest weakness that I came across while taking this course is

procrastination. This weakness affected me throughout this semester by stopping me from

completing assignments and adding unnecessary stress to the writing process of my essays.

Procrastination is a weakness that I will have to overcome in order for me to be successful in not

only college, but life after college.

many challenges that made the process difficult and even frustrating. The most challenging part

about the website was getting the grasp of creating pages and sub-pages. I found this part

challenging mainly because of the many different formats that unfortunately made everything

confusing. After figuring out the basics however, creating and editing the website has become a

lot simpler and even relaxing. The least challenging part about this website is inserting all of my

essays into the tabs as it doesn’t require a lot of brain power of effort.

This course has been able to positively change me as not only a writer but also as a

person because of the many lessons and challenges that I had to overcome. While in high school,

I would always put only the minimum amount of effort into my English courses as I never found

high school difficult. Luckily for me, English 1301 is a college level course so it naturally made

me give it my all. This course has made me realize that I am now a college student who will have

to put in 110% of effort into everything that I do or else I will undoubtably fail. This course has

given me the opportunity grow and mature into the adult that I know am. I thank not only this

course but the professor teaching the course for allowing me to learn and grow as a writer and as

a person.
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Works Cited

Hernandez Moises, Genre Analysis on “Ultimate Fighting Championship”. 20

September, 2022. ENG 1301, Texas A&M International University, student paper.

Hernandez Moises, Visual Analysis on “Iron Maiden’s The Number of The Beast”. 13 October

2022. English 1301, Texas A&M International University, Student Paper.

Hernandez Moises, Rhetorical Analysis on “The Analysis of Mental Health and Exercise” Final

Draft. 10 November 2022. English 1301, Texas A&M International University, Student

Paper.