Ibeth Ochoa

Adler, STACC English 1A

May 4, 2016
Reflection Essay
In the beginning of this semester I was excited to further my English writing skills as I
entered English STACC 1A. This reflection is based on my journey as reader, writer, and learner.
With my reflection I will note and critically analyze pieces of writing Ive done throughout the
course. Through out this essay I will also use my class writing and our courses texts and authors
concepts. This English course and the subjects we learned and books we read helped me be more
confident in my writing.
My attitude towards reading, writing, and learning was to grow as a person and writer.
It has not changed but it has created a motivation to continue taking more English courses. We
are taught and expected to utilize our English skills to reach our full academic potential. These
skills involve me engaging in critical thinking, analyzing literature, analyzing career-related and
other informational materials, as well as composing college level writing assignments.
The writing assignment I completed and am most proud of is Essay number three,
Discourse Community Ethnography. I focused my paper on addressing why the teaching
profession should be classified as a discourse community. Although I did receive a letter grade of
C+, it was a paper I was proud of just as much as the ones that I had done very good in. As I
revised my Discourse Community research paper one last time the over all focus and flow of my
essay never got of topic. I properly introduced the authors, there work, and I included quotations.
The reason this is a assignment I am most proud of is because it required me to revise many
times, get peer review, interview with a teacher, it required me to do more than just write. I

observed a teacher, took written notes, and it all contributed to finishing a well-written final draft
on time. What helped me develop this paper was creating an outline, which I detailed to better
help myself write out my paragraphs. One thing I struggle with in almost every paper assigned in
this class was creating a proper formatted work cited page and developing my ideas in an
organized way. Through out this semester this course definitely focused on writing and those
specific areas, which helped me develop and improve in those things I struggled with.
This term I struggled most with writing my in class essays. It is never a good idea to be
unprepared for in class essays. Although I had the materials necessary to put an essay together
within the given time, it was nerve racking to know I had not prepared or worked on gathering
the proper quotes, notes, and ideas together ahead of time.
From the work done in this class I learned a lot from the authors we read books by and
was inspired to develop as writer. Two of the authors I found interesting where Jimmy Santiago
Baca and Mary Pipher. Bacas poems are a collection of simply his thoughts and dreams. As a
student I am encouraged to write because writers feel the need and desire to tell a story, or a
memory. Writing can help us see why our stories matter, and why we feel a sense of urgency to
tell them (Pipher43). That is a quote that I have gained a lot of encouragement to continue
writing. What I have learned about myself as a learner from our reading and written work in
class is that if I manage my time, revise my papers, create outlines, I can better improve in my
writing that will benefit me in more than just receiving a good letter grade on an assignment.
Writing and learning in this class have both contributed to my career goal, which is to
become a Probation Officer. With such job profession it requires that one to put together reports,
having heavy workloads, and lots of deadlines. A lot of writing is always involved. Writing and
communication skills are essential skills needed to work within this profession. And I did and in

such manner was I able to explore my deepest fears and most nave assumptions and improve not
only my mind and my imagination but also my writing, (Baca page XI). And this course has
applied and reinforced the necessary tools I needed to further my English writing skills to get to
where I want to be.
My goals for writing are to keep progressing and improving in areas I need improvement
on as well as to simply to keep writing. When it comes to writing you can apply Piphers idea
that Your goal is to find the form that allows you to use every one of your talents in the service
of what you consider to be your most important goals. A future writing goal is to be able to
write a well-written draft that is being asked of me, either to separate or put together two or more
different materials and incorporating my interpretations and understanding of the material and
how they show a connection with in the ideas and concepts.