Isaiah Warren

Professor Hammett

Reflective Essay

08 May 2026

Word Count:515

 

Reflective Essay 3

Before starting Composition 2, I thought the course would be a breeze. I got by Composition 1 with very minimal effort, and I thought that would transition over to Composition 2. Very soon, I realized that this class was much more individualized and required more effort on my part. Before this class, my writing skills were very below average. I’ve always struggled with staying on topic and formatting, and this class revealed my lack of skill, and throughout the course, I’ve greatly improved on these skills. One of the major improvements I made in this class was the revision process. In the past, the revision process looked like fixing any grammar errors I had. Now the revision process looks much more in-depth to strengthen transitions, reorganize paragraphs to make sure my ideas have clarity, and allow others to read my work so that they can make suggestions to improve my writing. 

    The essay that I learned the most from was my rhetorical analysis essay. I’ve learned that writing at a college level requires much more research and preparation than I thought it would. My essay was over Kafka and the obesity epidemic, which are seemingly unrelated topics, so I knew coming into it that I would need to do extensive research to connect the two topics. I realized that Kafka's characters heavily reflect the idea that they have no control over the situations and environments around them. Obesity isn’t just caused by a lack of personal care, but often it’s caused by external factors. I used this to conclude that Kafka would likely agree that the obesity epidemic is caused by environmental factors. My Rhetorical analysis paper has helped me learn to become more prepared before writing an essay and helped me refine my writing skills during by revising my work more effectively.    

    Even though this class was more difficult for me than I thought it would I honestly think that this has been one of my favorite classes I’ve ever took. I loved the creative freedom we had in picking our own epidemic. This allowed me to learn about things that I was interested in and made me excited to learn more about my epidemic. I also found absurdism very interesting and loved learning about Franz Kafka and how his childhood affected his view on the world and how he wrote his characters.

Overall, this course was very beneficial for me. This course didn’t just help me grow as a student but also as a writer. I approach writing with much more confidence than before this semester because I know how to effectively plan, draft, and revise. The skills I learned in this class will be useful in my writing career going forward. Writing has never been my strong suit and even from a young age I struggled with properly articulating my thoughts and feelings and learning how to properly write has taught me how to become more articulate with my thoughts. I know that my writing skills have a long way to go, but I am looking forward to continually developing my skills.