1
Ciara Villarreal
ENGL 1302-231
Sharity Nelson
10 March 2024
Working on a Literature Review: A Reflection Essay
In this second writing assignment, I learned that a literature review helps a writer gain a
better perspective on a topic by analyzing and studying existing research or articles. This method
of writing can be used in any of my other courses. A literature review is helpful as it can be
about any topic, such as scientific or humanitarian research. For example, for my Botany class,
our professor allows you to submit an extra credit academic paper on whatever you want. With
my knowledge of Literature Reviews, I can compile various articles on a topic I want to study
and analyze how different articles take on the topic. Creating a Literature Review also taught me
how to process and read articles; this includes finding information and reading the data/results
throughout the article.
Throughout this process, Dr. Nelson gave various assignments, such as the article
analysis worksheet and the synthesis worksheet and outline. These worksheets allowed us to
gather information from our sources and Annotated Bibliography and compare and contrast the
research and perspectives in the articles. The article's analysis helped us gather each source's
background, materials, arguments, and methods. The worksheet guided us in using that
information to compare and compile our information while building sentences that can be used in
the literature review. Lastly, the outline gave us a template to build the literature review with our
newly gained writing and information from past assignments. This process allowed me to
understand better how to develop and slowly construct a well-written literature review.
2
Creating a research analysis essay helps me gather information from various articles
studying the same topic. The different perspectives from the articles broadened the range of my
research and gave credibility to my research and claims. Different articles also allow me to
identify where the articles conflict in arguments and where they have gaps that other articles
might fill. In my writing, the research analysis essay allows me to efficiently collect and analyze
relevant articles in my field of study. It also helps when summarizing large amounts of writing
into a shorter summary of informed knowledge. The research analysis essay will help me
conduct better research for future writing tasks. The essay has also taught me how to quote and
cite, comprehend different/similar articles, and compile details from articles. All the skills gained
from this essay will be crucial for my future writing tasks.
Conferencing and receiving feedback from Dr. Nelson allowed me to understand the
issues and how my writing looked. I was unsure at the beginning of the drafting process since the
meaning of a literature review was still vague. Dr. Nelsons' feedback on my introduction helped
me realize that some of the information I included was not meant for the introduction. To fix this
issue, I removed the sentences and put them aside in a separate document to be used later in my
paper. I used the sample sentence Dr. Nelson formulated for me to replace the sentences and
adjusted it to my introduction. As I read and changed my body paragraphs, I added the sentences
I removed to their respective body paragraphs. Dr. Nelson also suggested I clear up what type of
adoption my review was on. To clarify the vagueness in the introduction, I added “animal” after
“Adoption.”
Peer review with a classmate helped me improve my research analysis essay by editing
my writing to meet and fulfill the literature review expectations. My classmate mostly
complimented my writing, which I hoped was the opposite, so I could gain someone else's
3
perspective to adjust and revise my writing. One of the main things they mentioned was the word
count. With the word count in mind, I reread my body paragraphs and realized that there were
some gaps in my writing that I could fill with more information from the articles. I also rewrote
some parts that needed to flow with the rest of the writing. As I was revising and editing, I also
changed the order of my thesis statement to match the order of my body paragraphs.
The most challenging aspect of this writing assignment was understanding what writing a
literature review meant. At first, I thought I understood what it meant, but as I was writing my
literature review, I questioned whether or not what I was producing met the expectations. To
clarify my confusion, I attended a conference with Dr. Nelson to see what she had to say on what
I had written. For the most part, Dr. Nelson thought I was on the right track, so I kept writing
how I already was. The student examples and the peer review assignment helped me write a
literature review to meet Dr. Nelson's expectations. The least challenging aspect of this writing
assignment was gathering the needed information for each article. This was due to the
worksheets and outlines assigned by Dr. Nelson.
4
Works Cited
Nelson, Sharity. “Articles Analysis Worksheet” 21 February 2024 ENGL 1302, Texas A&M
International University, homework assignment.
Nelson, Sharity. “Conference time” 1 March 2024 ENGL 1302, Texas A&M International
University, in-class activity.
Nelson, Sharity. “Synthesis Worksheet” 23 February 2024 ENGL 1302, Texas A&M
International University, homework assignment.
Nelson, Sharity. “Synthesis Worksheet Outline” 26 February 2024 ENGL 1302, Texas A&M
International University, homework assignment.
Villarreal, Ciara. “Adoption: Its Effects on Animals and Society: Draft 1.” 1 March 2024. ENGL
1302, Texas A&M International University, homework assignment.
Villarreal, Ciara. “Adoption: Its Effects on Animals and Society: Draft 2, Peer Review” 6 March
2024. ENGL 1302, Texas A&M International University, In-class activity.
Villarreal, Ciara. “Adoption: Its Effects on Animals and Society: Final Draft 1.” 8 March 2024.
ENGL 1302, Texas A&M International University.
