Reflective Essay

This semester has allowed me to grow in many ways, not just as a writer but as a learner. When we were introduced with the question, “What does the Humanities mean to you,” I realized that a lot of times these classes are not appreciated enough for the freedom and wisdom they give you. Starting with the literacy narrative all the way to the research paper, I could not only explore myself in terms of language and how to interact with it, but I also got to expand my knowledge on subjects that I found interesting and important. Throughout the semester, I learned how to successfully draw in the audience I want to address, revised my writing carefully for grammatical errors, and express thoroughly what I wanted to convey. Class discussions allowed me to see the importance of rhetoric and how it’s used. In the last part of the semester, I got to choose a topic that I found important to write about and explore the different ways research and purpose can help successfully deliver the message that I wanted to give.

As a writer, my first instinct when beginning an essay or a paper was to go for the good old ‘introduction, three body paragraphs, and conclusion’ format. Although valid and very useful at times, when diving into genres of music or literacy analysis, this format becomes too simple and repetitive. When I wrote about topics in the art category, I realized that I had to format my writing in ways that would catch the attention of the audience and keep them attentive. In my writing, I knew I had to describe things such as paintings in ways that an artist or someone interested in visual arts would appreciate my words and would be intrigued by what I was saying. Paper after paper, I also learned to revised carefully my writing, so I wouldn’t overwrite on topics and leave grammatical errors.

In class discussions, I learned to see that the both sides of a story matter. Although I knew this from before as not presenting yourself as bias, with our class discussions, I learned to analyze situations and opinions about the same thing more in depth and make conclusions after reviewing the different scenarios. For example, when given the opportunity to learn about a music genre that interested me, I learned not to let my pass knowledge on the subject lead my paper. Trap music, the genre that I wrote about, is one that I know inside and out. When writing the paper, I allowed myself to learn even more about it and ended up finding out a lot more.  The same can be said with my experience with research about my topic on DACA. I chose the topic because it is something that is being talked about constantly but it’s not being resolved. When I learned more about what it is and what stories it carries, it gave me a newer perspective of how it can be solved and the complications it carries. Although I am still not a perfect writer, especially in the grammar side, I’ve improved in my grammar over the last semester and have gained a great deal of knowledge in writing and the humanities.

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