Reflection Essay

I started this course as a concurrent student in my final year of high school, and I have learned a lot about writing and formatting as a whole. Additionally, learned not only writing skills, but also more about the homeless epidemic, poverty, housing crisis, and absurd fiction. Before this class, I had never researched these subjects unless I had a reason to, but I have found that I am greatly interested in learning more about these topics. This course has allowed me to better understand my shortcomings in writing, and has developed my writing skills significantly since last semester.

Most of the issues I have when writing essays are APA and formatting issues, which I still struggle with, but are much better than my first writing assignments in this class. For example, my literary analysis of The Plague shows that I did not know how to quote or cite when this class started. With recent assignments including essays, I feel as though my skills have greatly improved, and I can cite and quote better, albeit I still have some formatting errors. 

This is my first course that has used APA format, so I had a learning curve at the beginning, but I have since gotten a better understanding of APA formatting. As a comparison, Pr. 1 Essay’s critics were many; however, after reading the feedback, it helped me gather a better understanding of what a college essay should be, and my second attempt was much better than the first, per feedback stating “Excellent content! Well done on following the thesis and addressing all concerns. Great job on grammar skills. The only issue is the direct quotes--it is just informational, not academic research, without the direct quotes within the paragraphs to prove the claims. It's the only step left to making it an academic research essay”  (Prof. Hammett’s Feedback in Blackboard).

Overall, I believe that this course has helped me improve my writing skills, especially when it comes to formatting, quoting, and citing. Before this course, I was ignorant of APA formatting and structure, but I have gained more knowledge in this style of writing. I gained an appreciation for learning more about social epidemics and absurd fiction. Not only am I a better writer, but I also have more world knowledge and a new genre of fiction to watch or read in my free time.