Briana Castaneda

Professor Spitler-Lawson
English 113B
May 11,2016
Reflection Essay
Word Count:546
Reflection Essay
Growing up I always had a hard time speaking fluent English because Spanish was my
first language. Both of my parents were born in the United States but unfortunately my mother
was the only one to receive a better education than my father, who was raised in a small town in
Mexico. Although my mother attended school in the U.S the way her education was taught has
changed over the years. When I first started school i always had trouble pronouncing words
correctly, my grammar was horrible and my English wasn't so great. But over the years many
English teachers that i had never seemed to give up on my potential and always pushed me to do
better. In my Elementary days I was apart of many spelling bees and would always win tickets to
free basketball games for reading the most chapter books in my whole class. Many teachers have
noticed many different things about me such as when I read I have a tendency to read outloud to
myself in order to understand what I am reading which has been an issue. It has always been
hard for me to read to myself in my head because i begin to distract myself in other things.
Overall, i still have trouble with some things in English i know i have improved over the years.
My first semester of CSUN I was put in English 113A which was all about the
progressions and my second semester i was placed in English 113B which was all about Projects
Web, Space and Text. During my first year in English at CSUN i feel like i have progressed in

my reading and writing. I have learned different techniques in order to write a good paper. I had
an amazing professor who took time out of her own to answer any questions we had about one of
our essays. I had an amazing SI leader who went over our essay and helped us correct some
things as well as explained hot to improve it. The hardest thing for me was having to create an
annotated bibliography. I learned that in essays it's best to incorporate many sources to back up
your response. In Project Space i wrote about an Authentic mexican restaurant called El
Abuelo and explained in great detail about all the surroundings and how the restaurant appeals
to being cultural. On my Project Text essay I wrote about several sources that were compared to
the book The Giver by Lois Lowry such as Adoption, Divorce, Arranged Marriage and Women's
Rights. I have always been so unsure how to find sources to back up my information because i
felt as if i wasn't citing them correctly, but after this first year i feel more sure about doing it.
Overall, this year has been an amazing experience because it has helped me a lot and has
made me more confident about my writing. I feel very accomplished of reading a book in the
class as well. I highly believe that all the techniques I learned will help me on further essays. I
am very thankful to have had 2 great English Professors and 3 great SI leaders. I have become a
confident writer who is ready to learn more.