Comp II: A Reflection

Taking English Composition this semester was one of the best decisions I could have made. As a high school senior, this class more than any other I have taken, has helped me prepare for collegiate level writing. Theming the course around social epidemics helped me focus on my one topic, and it made me more well-informed about some of the issues that people around me might experience. The first essay I wrote helped me learn how to research properly, and the second essay helped me learn to analyze. 

For my paper arguing the best way to solve illiteracy I had to dig deep into research. I did not know much about illiteracy and the problems that illiterate individuals face before I began, but I learned by studying different sources. There are many different opinions and studies done over how to eliminate illiteracy, and work at times could be confusing, but by learning about primary and secondary sources I had a better understanding of which sources to believe. This made actually writing my essay so much easier.

Along with valid sources came the problem of citations. I had never worked with APA citations before, and there were many times that I had my formatting wrong. However, working with something new made me more alert and conscious about what I was putting into my essay, which helped me focus on my writing. 

One of the most helpful skills from the class came from my second essay. In my rhetorical analysis essay I had to connect Franz Kafka and his work The Metamorphosis to the social epidemic of illiteracy. In dealing with literary analysis in the past, I used to write about what was surface level and obvious, but this essay made me dig deeper into the work. Kafka’s characters and their conflicts became very symbolic as I examined them closer. It encouraged me to explore the themes that I might have otherwise overlooked. I am so grateful that this course prepared me for my college classes next year.

Taking English Composition this semester helped me learn to research and analyze in ways that I had never learned before. Taking this class has certainly served me well, and I can only imagine it will keep serving me well into my future.