Reflection Essay

I took Composition 1 with Professor Hammett in my first semester of senior year and passed it with flying colors. Going into my second semester taking Composition 2 with Professor Hammett, I believed I was going to pass with no struggles. I was blinded by my foolishness and naivety. I struggled with certain things like picking a topic that I did not know much about and the differences between formats but the course helped me realize that I am more than capable of writing a paper at the college level. 

      I came into this course having a good understanding of what a college level paper should look like but certain things like the formats tripped me up. MLA and APA citations messed me up on a bunch of occasions but I finally learned the differences between the two. The most notable difference being the titles of the reference pages. In the MLA format, you have a works cited page and in the APA format you have the references page. The in-text citations are very similar to each other but there is one key difference, which is the publication date. MLA in-text citations include the author’s name and page number whilst the APA in-text citations include both the author’s name, page number, and the publication year. I have learned a lot about the formats and the differences between them. In the future, I will be able to write a paper in either format with no confusion or hardships. 

       For one of my essays, I chose native american teen suicide as my topic. Going into the paper, I felt pretty good about writing about it considering I have some knowledge about it. I soon realized that I did not know about the topic as much as I thought I did. While halfway into the essay, it occurred to me that I may have chosen the wrong topic. My other choice was over sport concussions, which I have way more knowledge on. I play sports and have gotten my fair share of concussions so picking sport concussions to write about would have been a much better choice. Writing about something you do not have much knowledge about can be a good thing. It opened my eyes to how native american teen suicide is a big problem and there are ways to prevent it. Not knowing much about a topic can make you want to learn more about it and get a better understanding of it.

       In the end, I have learned so much from this course. I have learned how to write a good college level essay, overcome my struggles in writing, and understand the social epidemics going on in our world. It was challenging but I have transformed into an excellent writer and would take this class again if given the chance. 

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