Dakota Bray
English 1213
Professor Hammett
Reflective Essay
December 10, 2023
Word Count: 500
Reflective Essay
Taking this course has opened my eyes to many topics and ideas that I didn’t know had so much influence on my everyday life. Being able to convey my thoughts and emotions properly through writing is a skill that I didn’t know I desperately needed. My writing and comprehension skills were put to the challenge throughout all of our work, and I learned a lot about the world of literature and myself while researching and writing for them.
During our argumentative essay, I challenged myself with the topic of distracted driving and how we should educate the youth of today about the ongoing issue with the hope of preventing future fatalities and keeping the road a safer place. Having to research the information for this essay was very eye-opening, and I learned how to find valid sources and how to incorporate them into my essays more easily and more efficiently. There was a lot of trial and error to find the right websites that held up to the standard of education and level that was needed in our assignments, but I now know what is credible and what is not. After completing this course, I plan to use my newly developed research skills and the many attachments and videos for all writing assignments that will be assigned to me in the future.
The rhetorical essay was one of the most challenging and interesting writing assignments that I have been assigned since my college journey began. I really enjoyed tapping into the mindset of Frank Bedekind and using his play Spring Awakening to support his beliefs on the importance of educating people before it is too late. Analyzing his words to understand him better as a person was a great experience, and was amusing to see the similarities between his ideas and my very own. No one will ever truly know how the artists of the past would weigh in on these modern issues, but their work is a great tool to help us recognize their ideologies to better understand how they might have felt about the topic. I can use this skill of understanding people in my daily life to understand their way of thinking and inform them of my beliefs. The rhetorical essay showed me how our beliefs can interfere with our work and gave me a glimpse of the writer's mind. Although we may not all agree, the best we can do is try to understand where they are coming from.
Throughout this entire course, I’ve learned new writing techniques and developed a new appreciation for the subject of English. I was taught new methods of research and brainstorming skills that use both my own thoughts and hard-hitting facts when they need to be mentioned. Analyzing the work of Frank Bedekind allowed me to be empathic and better understand the message he was trying to convey in his text. I personally see an improvement in my writing abilities, and I hope to continue to become a stronger writer.
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