Jenaya McGee

Professor Hughes
English 1102
11 May 2015
Final Reflection
The purpose of composing a final reflection is to enable me to express my thoughts and
feelings that were helpful during my writing process. It allows me to start at the finish line of a
completed task and look back into the struggles I have gone through to compose a successful
piece of writing or any sort of accomplishment that has brought me where I stand in the present.
I believe that writing a final reflection is a great way to understand yourself as not only a writer
or composer, but also as the reader or audience. By portraying both of these roles, I was able to
fulfill each task and activity in my English 1102 course and compose my final portfolio.
On the first day of this class, I was shown a syllabus that explained the basic guidelines
and major assignments for this course. My instructor said that she is going to be flexible with us
and let us compose our writing projects on a self-chosen topic. I was quite surprised that day
because majority of my other English courses have not given me this type of flexibility for any
writing assignment. However, this concept helped me generate new ideas that I probably would
never have even thought of due to an assigned rubric that is handed out during all other courses.
During the first couple of weeks of class, we began to observe our writers identity and
the key points of how to analyze a position on controversial issues and maneuver that into our
mid-term portfolios. This was possible through assigned readings from the book or articles, and

class discussions of each topic. By creating a discussion, we slowly moved toward the phase of
selecting a topic for the mediation paper.
After deciding on our topics, we began the research and writing process through multiple
different aspects of the research process. This was possible through assignments such as the
writings Mediation: Annotated Bibliography and Mediation: Synthesis. Each of these
assignments was discussed in peer groups to gain feedback on the strengths and weaknesses of
our individual writing processes. I think that the peer review sessions were the most important
concept of learning how to become a better writer, because without feedback, one cannot
understand what to revise and edit and for what purpose they are doing it.
My topic focused on the effects of alcohol advertising and if it should be legal or not. I
went through many readings to make connections in my actual mediation essay. The readings
include Alcohol Advertising: What Makes It Attractive to Youth, by Chen, Meng-Jinn, Joel W.
Grube, Melina Bersamin, Elizabeth Waiters, and Deborah B. Keefe, Television Alcohol
Advertising: Do Children Really Mean What They Say? by Nash, Avril S., Karen J. Pine, and
David J. Messer, Does Alcohol Advertising Promote Adolescent Drinking? Results from a
Longitudinal Assessment, by Ellickson, Phyllis L., Rebecca L. Collins, Katrin
Hambarsoomians, and Daniel F. Mccaffrey and How to Reduce Alcohol-related Problems in
Adolescents: What Can Parents Do and What Can the Government Do? by Sellman, J. D.,
Jennie L. Connor, and Peter R. Joyce. These readings led me to generate ideas for my mediation
essay and come up with strong evidence that was backed up using the statements provided in my
readings.
After this process was done, we started working on our final portfolios. This was not as
difficult for me because I had recently completed the mid-term portfolio and got used to using

Weebly. Once again, we got into our peer groups to direct and assist one another who might be
having difficulties and to clear up any confusion so that everyone was on the same page. By
doing this, I was easily able to create the base format of my portfolio and later populate it with
documents that were significant and important for this course.
Overall, my experience in English 1102 has been wonderful. This was possible because
this course took a different approach at the writing process by adhering flexibility that was not
given to me in any other English course. I believe it is this flexibility that helped me compose a
stronger paper on my mediation paper and my electronic portfolio on Weebly.