Reflective Essay Outline

By Sarah Moore

First Paragraph: What goals I set in the beginning, what I accomplished, best part of my paper/elements I’m most proud of, parts instructor will like:

Over the course of five months, I learned how to set necessary goals for writing a successful paper, such as making my support bits clearer and more distinguishable, formatting my works cited page correctly, and overall constructing a paper that was informative but still enjoyable to read. However, probably the biggest goal I accomplished was learning to write in a way that incorporated my individual style, and wasn’t completely restrictive or technical.

At the beginning of the year, one of my goals was to improve my ability in getting my point across, as well as make my arguments more concise and clear. For English as a whole, I wanted to master the technical and analytical side of writing because it was something I have always struggled with. With the help of feedback from both my professor and peers on multiple writing assignments, it gradually became easier to locate my arguments, expand on my opinions, and be direct with my conclusions. I have not fully tackled the ability to write technically, but I have discovered ways in which to combine technicality and creativity to ultimately produce work I am proud of.

Second Paragraph: Research process,: enjoy, disliked, did I find what I needed, adjustments, computer/web skills:

The most challenging paper we had to write in English 121 was the research paper, partly because of the requirements (5-7 pages, 5 sources minimum), but for me individually, picking the topic independently. Granted, one of the biggest tasks with the research paper was finding credible sources, especially on the scholarly sites that our professor recommended. The website EBSCO, had hardly articles on the topics I searched, and though I had better luck finding articles on google, the whole process was very time consuming.

Third Paragraph: Useful tips/hints about the research process, advice for other students, make research simpler, conclusion: found the class helpful:

However, after some exploring, I was able to get to my best sources from checking the reference page on articles I found on google; they often directed me to scholarly articles that hadn’t previously been listed on EBSCO. Lastly came choosing the topic, and staying content with it. I was very fortunate that personality traits, specifically introverts, extroverts, and ambiverts, had already been researched and written about, so I was able to find a variety of helpful facts and information. It wasn’t the easiest paper to write, with making sure that the credible sources coincided with my points nicely, and citing each one correctly, but I wound up very pleased with the result for my very first research paper in college.