Reflective Essay

Sarah Daly

English 121

                When I first enrolled in English 121 I felt very confident about my abilities in writing and composing essays. But when I started the class I felt very differently. My number one goal for this class was to complete the class, and I am almost there. My number two goal was to better understand and be able to use in-text citations. This was one of the most intimidating things to learn and implement into my writing. I feel like I now have a firm understanding of citations and great resources to reference if I need help.

                When I was researching my topic of the Sasquatch, I learned about other cultures’ sightings and stories of the Sasquatch. There was a surprisingly great website that talked about all the Sasquatches around the world, and the legends and stories surrounding them. I learned that there have been sightings of these creatures for hundreds of years. There is an organization called the Bigfoot Researchers Organization. They go all over the country to investigate Sasquatch sightings and evaluate physical evidence that others have collected.

                I think the best part of my paper is my thesis. It was fun to write this paper about something that is lightheartedly controversial. It was interesting to research and find so many studies and articles about this topic. I am proud of all of the effort that I put into this paper, and especially the editing and refining of it. I think that my instructor will enjoy my thesis as well as see some of the improvements in my writing.

I have learned a lot about scholarly sources and databases.  I learned how to access them and how to find the most effective sources for one’s topic.  I also learned how to create a blog, create blog posts and read other blog posts. I feel much more comfortable using this resource than before I took this class.

                I have mixed feelings on the research process. I enjoyed learning new facts and searching through helpful information. I dislike the time that it takes to go through all of the unhelpful information. The research process took me a lot of time. I struggled to find sources that contained the information that I was looking for. I feel like if I had been researching a topic with more hard evidence, the process would have been easier and could have been done it more efficiently. If I were to give advice to a new English 121 student I would tell them that if they want to spend less time searching through scholarly journals and more time writing, they should pick a topic that has been well researched and frequently written about.  This would make the researching process simpler.