Jose Duran

Professor Ditch

English 115

6 December 2017

A Year of Ups and Downs

When I first started college, I was far from a prestigious scholarly reader and writer. My

essays were mediocre and my reading skills were diminishing. Taking the English 115 class has

helped me rediscover an appreciation for literature and also helped me improve my writing

skills. From start to finish, the semester had a series of ups and downs but I believe that I

finished strong. Through the semester I have learned how to use my sources appropriately, create

a valid works cited page and an insightful essay proposal. With all the tools that I have gained in

this class, I gradually became a better writer and reader.

Some of my biggest problems in writing was using my sources to the fullest extent. In my

past essays, I lacked incorporating enough evidence in my paragraphs. After my revision, I

significantly added more textual evidence to my work. This is shown in my Project Space essay

on page 3. I am adding a direct quote from Aaron Devor to help back up my argument that men

use competition and aggression to exhibit their dominance and thirst for power. Without the use

of this evidence, this paragraph would be pure conjecture. I made the same mistake in my Project

Text essay. I made a claim and did not use enough textual evidence from my sources to back it

up. I corrected my mistake by further adding another quote from Devors Becoming Members of

Society. I connected the quote to both of the characters that I was analyzing and was able to unite

the whole paragraph with a central claim. This paragraph was a mix of quotes from the novel,

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and my claim that one of the characters in
that novel, Juliet Ashton, was radical to her prescribed gender role. I made the same mistake

again further into the Project Text essay by continually making claims and not backing them up

with enough evidence to support me. When talking about Juliet Ashton conforming to her

prescribed gender role, I used an outside source that later used in the essay and moved it to the

middle of this one so I could improve my argument. By doing this, I removed an awkward claim

towards the end of my essay and moved it to a more appropriate spot where it could back up the

stand alone claims that I had made previously.

Another major problem that I had with my literary writing was connecting all of my

paragraphs and statements back to my main point of the essay. In my Project Space essay, it is

made apparent that I did not relate my claims back to my main point so after revising I made my

claims more personal so I can better answer the prompt. Towards the end of my essay is when I

start to really connect my claims to my main point and make good use of textual evidence to

support my argument. Now that I have added more information throughout my essay, I am able

to walk a reader through each part of my essay without confusing them on what my main point

is. After realizing my mistakes with this essay, I made an effort in my Project Text essay to

correct this and try connecting my claims back to my argument more frequently. I was more

successful in this than the last essay but still lacked major components in its entirety. In my

Project Media essay I greatly improved my essay writing skills. I was able to connect every

claim that I made back to my central argument and use textual evidence throughout the entire

essay. I was able to fully communicate my thesis and my back it up with evidence from the

movie and evidence from my sources. While this was not one of the essays included in my

portfolio, it still is apart of the writing I did throughout the year and I argue that the end result

has greatly improved from what I start with.

within my writing. For my first essay, I didn't even know how to properly cite my sources or

even create a valid works cited page. I remember double-checking my MLA format just to make

sure that I was doing it correctly. While writing is not new to me, writing on the collegiate scale

is drastically different than writing high school essays. Looking back on how I used to write, my

progress has come a long way. Although I still make mistakes in my writing, I know that I am

greatly improving the more I continue to write.

While the classroom was essential in teaching me how to write, the Learning Resource

Center was also invaluable to me. The people at the LRC helped me immensely in touching up

my final project and giving me pointers and tips on how I could improve my writing overall.

Having another person look over my writing can help me in a lot of ways. They can spot minor

errors with my grammar and structure, or they can also help point me in the right direction if I

dont know what to do next.

My greatest tool that I learned was the ability to revise and revision my work. Being able

to spot mistakes in your own work is crucial as a writer in order to be successful. While looking

at your work from a different perspective may be hard, it is worth the effort to truly see your

work for what it is. I believe that I have improved as a writer overall since my attendance in the

English 115 class because of the many tools that I have gained. As I continue to write, I know I

am bound to improve and succeed.