Reflection

by Jorell Vuthivicha-Mor

This semester I am in my second semester of my freshman year. I took English Composition I with Professor Hammett last semester. Prior to that, I have not had to write any essays in years. I took quite a bit of time off between high school and college. I essentially had to relearn everything I knew from years ago. This class has taught me a few things, and it has also refreshed my memory on some topics I had forgotten. 

The social epidemic I chose this semester was zombies. After reviewing the writing prompts, I was worried if I could write a paper that was good enough. A zombie apocalypse is not an epidemic that has ever happened before. I had to go off of prediction and assumption. I used a lot of my own knowledge for the topic as well as provided claims from scholarly resources. The PEE format was something that I improved on during this class. Aside from English Composition I, I hadn’t taken an English or writing course in years. Even in those classes, PEE format and other formats were not focused well. I felt that I could write an essay better by following this format.

Before I began my second project, I reviewed the critiques from my first project to prevent making any similar mistakes. Block quotes were something I had forgotten about since I was a little rusty on my paper writing. The professor made sure to provide clear corrections on my mistakes such as not providing a block quote properly. This helped me learn what I was doing wrong, and I did my best to show that I had learned from it in my second project, rhetorical analysis. 

My research and prior knowledge of zombies helped me write my second project, rhetorical analysis. In the rhetorical analysis, I chose Kurt Vonnegut as my novelist. I made a connection from his work to zombies. I was worried when I first made this choice because Kurt Vonnegut has never written about zombies before. I looked back on my slide I made about him and the novel provided in class. I learned more about his theme, and his theme was how I made a connection to what his view of zombies would be. 

There were many skills I learned this semester, and there were some that this class helped refresh me on. PEE format was something I was not taught well prior to English Composition I and II. Block quotes and other citation skills were something that I needed refreshed on. The knowledge I learned from writing my first project, the work provided in class, and the professor’s criticism were able to help me grow and help me write my second project.