Reflective Essay
Lauren Morris
English 1302
Professor Hammett
6 May 2023
Word Count: 530
Course Overview
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As a senior in high school near the end of the second semester, I have had my fair share of challenging English assignments. I have had very few English assignments that have genuinely encouraged me to develop my writing skills outside of the classroom and challenge me in a way that demands me to better myself. In this English course, our previous assignment, the rhetorical analysis, was the most challenging for me. This assignment demanded from me to be able to adequately interpret and analyze various texts and be able to evaluate its meaning. Throughout this course, my social epidemic was the coronavirus disease (COVID-19). For my rhetorical analysis, I chose to analyze how Albert Camus would perceive COVID-19.
As I researched Albert Camus’ philosophy on life, I quickly found it challenging to interpret it and apply it to my social epidemic. I utilized Camus’ novels as evidence to support my assertion that Camus would view finding a cure for COVID-19 as absurd. It was especially difficult for me to sufficiently analyze and evaluate the text with a new original thought on the subject. I overcame these challenges by pondering my own philosophical outlook on life. This course has encouraged me to take a step back and understand how I personally view life and how that affects my view on various things just as Albert Camus would view COVID-19. Because I took this approach to evaluate my own philosophical outlook, I developed better critical thinking skills. This skill can be applied to future English courses throughout college.
I also learned in this course to double-check my formatting and work cited. I had turned in my argument essay with citations on the work cited page that I did not even use. This mistake allowed me to realize that I need to slow down and understand that because of that mistake, my essay seemed as if it was lazy. I needed to take a minute to fully check my paper and make sure I have everything that is needed to make my paper appear professional. I believe that by taking that extra step to check my paper will especially help me in the future with getting the best grades possible.
Overall, I can say that I learned a lot from this class. Whether it is information regarding COVID-19, Albert Camus’ philosophy, or formatting issues. I now have a better understanding of my social epidemic along with being able to adequately interpret various texts. This course has greatly encouraged me to discover what my strength and weaknesses are and to challenge myself to improve. I plan to continue to better my writing skills and I can conclude that this course will help me in the future with college. I am grateful I had this opportunity to develop my formatting, and critical thinking skills, and learning to slow down every now and then. I thoroughly enjoyed this class and my favorite assignment was creating our WIX website, I loved the creative liberty we had to design it. I would absolutely take this class again because not once did I ever feel afraid to reach out to my peers or teacher if I had a question.