Reflection Paper Outline

Emily Sefcik

Jenifer Zukowski

English 121

Reflection Paper Outline

1.     What goals did you have at the beginning of the semester?

To practice my writing capabilities.

2.     Which goals did you accomplish, and which do you still need to work on?

Accomplished the ‘practice writing’ bit. I need to work on proper citation.

3.     What surprises did you discover while researching your topic? Have you discovered new information? Any facts you didn’t know? Any sources you never knew existed?

I didn’t know how high fructose corn syrup was processed, the fact that it is processed differently in your body, and how much sugared drinks increases obesity rates.

Learning about the school’s library database was incredibly helpful with it’s impressive amount of scholarly research.

4.     Write about what the best parts of your paper are. What elements of your writing are you most proud of?

The parts that describe a scene with sensational words and terminology.

5.     How do you feel about how you’ve honed your computer/web skills?

There has been a definite improvement. Before this class I rarely glimpsed at a blog, let alone write one. I also know now that word document provides a program that cites your sources in MLA format. Still have to know how to properly cite however. That program tends to need double checking and polishing.

6.     Write about the research process. What do you enjoy? What do you dislike? What is easy or difficult for you? Are you finding what you need? How much time per week have you been spending on research? Is this too much or not enough time? How do you think you can make some adjustments?

I enjoyed learning more about the subject I pursued. Dislike having to cite all my sources. It is relatively easy to write paragraphs about my topic. I spend about fifteen hours total on research, which I consider to be enough as far as writing a paper about it.  Adjustments would probably be focused around doing the paper in certain amounts of time throughout the week instead of doing it in one go.

7.     What are some useful/helpful research hints you’ve discovered about the research process that might be good for other ENG 122 students to know? What would you like help with to make research quicker or simpler?

Go to the library to find good resources and help.

Outline:

Intro/Thesis: Over a semester, I have been immersed in a world of blogs, citations and the wonderful delights of writing out one's thoughts and opinions on topics of my choice. While in this world I've learned how to cite in MLA format,  new places to find valuable research materials, and how to judge whether sources found on websites have good, strong, and reliable foundations or not. I can raise my head  ever so slightly a little bit higher knowing that I achieved my goals and contain advice for future students who might be in need for a little push in the direction like I did. 

I: Goals, accomplishments, and surprising discoveries

a)    Goal: Improve writing capabilities.

b)   Accomplishments: writing skills have improved along with proper MLA citation.

c)    Surprising discoveries: School databases

II: Writing elements I am proud of and computer skills

a)    I enjoy describing the scenario with sensational words and am proud of the parts that have such description

b)   I now know how to post blogs on a website

III: Research Process

a)    It was fun deciding the topic I was going to explore

b)   Disliked having to properly cite all the sources I used to form an opinion and obtain facts about it.

c)    Research process typically took about half a day total which I think is enough for the most part.

IV: Useful, helpful hints to future students

a)    Go to the library to get help or answers to questions as well as good reference materials and depend on the internet when the library isn’t an option.

Conclusion: Overall, it has been a successful semester with a significant improvement in formatting formal essays and being able to find reliable sources of information. It was not an easy breeze of a learning experience but it's left me very grateful to have made it through with the knowledge I now possess thanks to its constructive criticism.

Reflective Essay Rough Draft

Sabastian Stevens

Jenn Zukowski

ENG 121: Composition 1

12/03/2015

Reflective Essay

At the beginning of the semester my main goal was admittedly just passing the class. I knew that I would learn a lot about writing essays correctly, but at the time I figured it didn’t matter much since I would rarely use this information. While this is still true, I found the material to be more interesting than I thought and so I’m rather glad I gained the knowledge. While I don’t know whether I accomplished my main goal or not (although my optimistic prediction is that I did!), I know that I ended up with more than I thought I would when I first entered this class, which is a good goal achievement in itself.

When I first started the research of my topic, part of me thought I knew very little about the inner psychology of relationships and that this was going to be a very new learning experience. As I read through the sources used through my paper however, I realized that through personal experience that I already knew or resonated with a lot of the points made by these sources. However, I still gained many statistics that I could use for my paper and was surprised by the number of scholarly database articles that I found. From these articles I managed to learn about some interesting theories, such as the one about opposite gender parents fostering stronger relationships in their children.

In the final draft of my research essay I feel like I pulled off a lot of important aspects successfully, on top of improving problems from my previous essay. The biggest problem in my rough draft that I think I refined the best was the logical flow between my thesis and the rest of my essay. I noticed that in my rough draft that the thesis referred to friendships and the rest of the paper focused more on relationships in general. Thus, I changed the thesis and the other parts of my paper that referenced “friendships” when they should have referenced “relationships”. Another thing I think I did well on in my final draft was using the correct amount of pathos, logos and ethos. This was another aspect of my paper that was severely flawed in my rough draft but was patched in my final draft. Considering that my instructor made those particular criticisms clearly on my rough draft, I’m sure she will appreciate those parts of my paper the most, as well as the well-done citations that she usually loves to see.

As far as my computer skills go, I already had a high level of proficiency with computers at the beginning of the semester. That and the fact that this class was mainly focused on word processing and blog posts means that at best, I honed what I already knew. I also knew a lot about the basic research process since it was shoved down my throat during my high school and middle school years. However, I honed my abilities in this area a LOT. I came to realize that a basic understanding of the research process did not equip me well for writing great essays. I needed to learn the inner workings of MLA formatting and using good sources, which I eventually came to learn right around when the research essay final draft rolled around. I still feel like I could make improvements in almost every area (especially the research department), but for now, my current knowledge should be satisfactory.

There are many aspects of the research process that are absolutely critical for students to master, such as correctly citing sources and using informative and relevant sources to make a paper more interesting and credible. I do like the satisfaction of implementing all of the important aspects of a paper using the research process, as well as reading the final creation. However, I do not enjoy the research process for the most part. Looking through large articles for relevant and powerful information is a tedious task and citing other people’s work is needlessly complicated. Fortunately, I felt like I got enough time to effectively create my paper and there were many useful assignments to facilitate our learning. Overall, though, I think the research process needs to be less complicated so that there doesn’t need to be so much resource devotion to making a “correct” essay.