Tristan Hughart

Professor Granillo

English 103

30 May 2019

On Writing

My SMART Goal of this class was​ that I wanted to improve upon my analysis and

writing skills. As we come to the end of the semester, I feel that I have accomplished this goal.

I'm now able to better analyze a piece of work, whether it be a TV show, movie, or song, I now

know understand how to better understand the deeper meaning. I also feel that my thesis

developing skills are much better, and I'm able to incorporate more components into my thesis to

better explain what the essay is going to be about. I also learned a lot on researching, and how to

make my arguments stronger and more credible due to the incorporation of primary and

secondary sources. After the readings and discussion posts, I feel that I have developed into a

much stronger writer than what I previously was.

Prior to English 103 the highest level English class was AP Lang in high school. For the

first semester, I had to write a 20 page term paper on John Steinbeck's life and analyzing three of

his literary works. Although I learned how to develop my thoughts and arguments coherently, I

didn't learn how to analyze literature in any other way other than rhetorically. I've become, in my

opinion, a strong writer in rhetorical analysis because that's what I have the most experience

doing, so being introduced to new concepts was hard for me to adjust to.

One of the techniques I’ve learned that’s made writing easier for me is the research

portion of writing. Before, I only used whatever was given for my essays, but after taking this
class I’ve learned how to broaden my horizons to not only articles and books, but to public

spaces and music as well. Another technique that I think that’s helped my writing is outlining.

Before taking this class, I never really outlined unless it was assigned to do,and I just wrote

whatever came to my mind. Now that I’ve been outlining; however, it helps me get the main

focus onto paper and allows me to build off of that idea, and it gives me a more holistic idea of

what the essay will look and sound like.

The thing I still struggle with is page count. For me, I was always taught that it doesn’t

take a lot to say a lot, and to get the main idea onto paper and that was the only thing that really

mattered. I found it difficult to incorporate more analysis without seeming repetitive, and I still

struggle with adding more to the paper that is actually meaningful and not just fluff.

I can take the research and outlining skills that I’ve learned in this class and apply it to

other classes that I’ll be taking. Also, I can incorporate the numerous lenses that we learned in

English 103 to any other english classes I may take in the future, and make it a stronger, more in

depth analysis of whatever the assignment is. Even if I don’t take another English class, I can

still take the ideas and theories and apply them to everyday life to better understand the world

around me.