Self Reflective Essay Analysis

Metacognitive Essay 4

I have had to write many essays in all of my classes in the last year. My ethics paper in human services, self-reflection paper in psychology, and research paper in biology are the 3 that stood out the most to me. I used slightly different approaches for each of these essays since they were all different types of papers, but I did use a lot of similar tools and strategies to complete them, some in which I learned in my English classes.

The first essay I will address is Violet, Private Practice. This was an essay for my human services class where we had to watch a movie or Tv show where the main character is a professional in the human services field, then we had to write an essay analyzing there work. With this essay

I was required to analyze a show which was similar to assignments I had done in ENG 101 as well as ENG 102. Since I had already watched this TV show, I didn’t have to re-watch it, but I did go back into certain episodes that had good examples of who Violet was as a human service professional. I took notes, and jotted down episode numbers and the times of different scenes so I could cite the show properly. ENG 102 taught me how to properly cite a movie both in-text, and on the references page. That knowledge helped me a lot during this essay, I would have had no idea how to do it otherwise, I probably wouldn’t have even known it was necessary.
In my adolescent psychology class my term paper was to write about an experience or moment that happened in your life that influenced who you are today. I chose to write about how being an only child influenced my life for both the better and the worse (Pellegrino, 2017). In addition to the paper, we had to find 4 scholarly journal articles to include in the paper and cite in APA format. To find the scholarly journal articles regarding the research on being an only child, I used the library database that I learned how to use in my ENG 101 class last semester. Without going through the instructions to access scholarly articles multiple time like we did in that class, I would have had no idea how to find free journal articles. I also learned how to cite the articles that I did find properly in APA format in my ENG102 class.
Oil Spills Impact on Marine Animals was the term research paper I wrote for my marine biology class.

I started this essay after my ENG 102 research paper, so I was able to use the information I learned in ENG 102 to successfully complete this research paper. Without the skills I had gained in my two English classes this year I would have struggled to complete these research paper. Before this year I knew nothing about APA format and writing research papers. I'm glad that I learned what I did this year in English and was able to apply it to this other paper. I went through generally the same process for my biology paper as I did my research paper in ENG102. I started by picking three topics I liked, and created an abbreviated outline for each, the topic I was able to find the most information on is the one that I chose. I then fixed up that outline, researched a bit and added some references so I had a completed outline. I was able to find information on some of the biggest oil spills, how they were cleaned up, how much it cost, and how it impacted the marine life. I also wrote about how oil affects specific animals (Pellegrino, 2017). Once the outline was approved by my professor I started my rough draft by basically typing out every idea I had, and doing additional research to form a thesis and form my main points. After receiving feedback on my first draft I cleaned it up and turned it into a nearly finished research paper with everything it needed including references and in-text citations, this was my second draft. The final piece had only few differences from the second rough draft, which made the last step of finishing the paper, the easiest for me. Much of writing this paper was the same as in my English class, aside from the topic and the websites and articles I would refer

to.
I am sure that within the next 3 years in undergraduate school I will use a lot of the information that I learned in this year's English classes. I think it is very important to know how to research information as well as cite it properly to prevent a case of plagiarism. It is also important to be able to properly organize a paper depending on the format that is required. In highschool we were never properly taught anything about paper organization, or MLA/APA format. Coming into college I didn’t have much confidence in my writing, luckily my English professors taught just about everything we needed to know in depth, that will allow us to be successful writers. These are skills I will probably need for the rest of my life, not just in school. I want to become a psychologist, in that career it's very important to be able to write properly and have things done in a reasonable amount of time. It is necessary that psychologists write reports for each of their patients especially if they are being sent to a hospital, or somewhere else that needs to know there history. In this case it's important to be able to write an organized, clear, and to the point report for every patient that you work with. It is also important that a psychologist keeps up with recent studies, and scholarly articles. What I learned this year in my English classes has definitely began to prepare me for certain aspects of my future career.
Although I've improved my writing significantly in the past year, and learned a lot about formalities of writing different kinds of essays, there is still a lot of room to improve. I think my biggest weakness is how long it takes me to organize my ideas and write it down on paper. I have a hard time figuring out exactly what I want to write, and how I will say it in a way that makes sense. I've found that creating an outline is very helpful, but it still takes me a very long time to finish. Another weakness is coming up with a clear thesis statement, that is one part of writing that has always confused me for some reason. This is the first year a teacher has actually explained what a thesis statement is, and what the point of it is, so now I just need to become more familiar with writing them so I can create a clear and engaging thesis every time.
In conclusion, my writing has improved a lot over all after learning everything that I have in the past year. I've applied what I've learned in ENG101 and ENG102 to many of my other classes, these just being 3 examples. I also know that I will use these tools and strategies though college, and for the rest of my life. The more I work on writing, the better it will get as well, and my weaknesses with improve.
References