Gonzalez1

Delilah Gonzalez

Mr. Powers

English 1302

10 December 2023

My experiences in English 1302

This course taught me about academic research, borrowing practices, and the process,

which can be applied to other courses through activities and homework. This course taught me

through academic research to seek information through other trusted sources like, for example,

peer-reviewed references. This gave me truthful information, new ideas, and different

perspectives.

For example, one of the articles I have read, like an article from Kieran O'Neil, gave me

new ideas and perspectives on my topic. According to Kieran O'Neil, it stated that Alaska Native

groups that aren't the head of the North Slope Native leaders were concerned about the Willow

project happening for their "environmental and health" (6). Before I read that article, I assumed

that all Alaskan Native groups were in it for the Willow Project because of the job opportunities

and the economic benefits; however, it was not until after I read the article that I found out that it

wasn't true and that there were disagreements and different perspectives towards the Willow

Project.

Articles also gave me new ideas; for example, when I was trying to look for articles about

the struggles the Arctic have been going through because of global warming, I stumbled across

articles that were talking about the struggles of different regions going through, like the North

region and the South region. This gave me an idea because before, I thought I should look for

articles that were only talking about what is going on in the Arctic; however, these articles gave
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me new ideas about talking about the whole world, how it is affecting not only the community in

the Arctic but also other communities from different parts of the world because of global

warming. If I talk about the Arctic and the world, this would help the audience understand how

the Willow Project will be a big problem in the world and should be stopped immediately.

English 1302 provided valuable insights into the writing process, enhancing knowledge

and skills developed in other courses through activities and homework. For the writing process, I

learned that writing is always an improvement to make. Whenever I would go back and reread, I

would always find grammar, like run-on sentences or citations, that would need to be corrected

to improve my paragraph development, for example, controlling ideas that make a connection to

what I am trying to claim in paragraphs. Another example is audience awareness. I still have

trouble, but the process and practice helped me make minor improvements in audience

awareness. However, I should give less credit to the process, but the homework and activities

improved my writing, for example, analyzing academic arguments for the position paper. We had

two analyzing educational arguments activities. These activities gave me an idea of how to write

a position paper and helped me understand the writing for the position paper. For example, in

Analyzing Academic Arguments, one of the first two activities, we needed to read and write

about an article from Herman and Chomsky. In the first paragraph, my introduction was about

the motive of that article. In the next section, I examined how the report strategies of different

types of arguments help support the author's claim. One of the examples that I mentioned was

how "the article first focuses on the definition of the propaganda model." Another example I

noted was that the author used argument strategies, such as giving examples to support their

claim. This homework activity helped me understand that there are so many multiple strategies

of arguments that can keep your claim that we are not aware of.
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I have made plenty of revisions throughout this semester in English 1302. All my

research genre assignments, after the feedback from my instructors and from my peers in-class

activities that I have received, have helped me improve my writing and research skills. For the

annotated bibliography in my final draft, I have made specific revisions based on the feedback of

what one of my peers stated. The first peer who gave me feedback on my annotated bibliography

for my first draft said that I should check for indentations in each of the works cited and

paragraphs and suggested making the summary slightly shorter. The second peer who gave me

feedback on my annotated bibliography draft 2 indicated that "then" is used too often throughout

the paragraphs and that my last sentence in paragraph 3 is unclear at the end. This feedback made

me revise my annotated bibliography by going back and making my first revision to ensure that

my citations and paragraphs are all intended. My second revision was when I reread my

summary to see if there was any extra information I wouldn't need. My last modification was

ensuring that the sentence with "then" in it needs it.

For the research analysis essay in my final draft, I made specific revisions based on the

feedback from two of my peers during in-class activities. One suggested that I rewrite or edit the

introductory paragraph in my first draft. In my second draft, one of them suggested that I should

add page numbers in citations and rephrase a sentence. These suggestions are what I revised in

my final draft research analysis essay. What I revised was by first editing my introduction to be

more clear. The second revision I did was to add the page numbers in the citations because it is

essential to do them correctly. For example, O'Neil, Kieran and Cheruiyot, Susan J would need

page numbers in sources because their articles have page numbers. My last revision was

rephrased to sound more appropriate. For example, "and didn't ask the Alaskan Native groups

about if they support the willow project or not" (Gonzalez, "Should we let the Willow Project
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happen in the future or not?", first draft) to "and not ask the Alaskan Native groups about what

they thought about the Willow project" (Gonzalez, "Should we let the Willow Project happen in

the future or not?", final draft). Not only did I receive feedback from my peers but also from my

instructor. According to Keaton Powers, my analysis needed more development, with quotes that

were not correctly contextualized and connected to the main idea. Adding explicit connections

and explanations will enhance audience awareness. I worked on this and ensured the following

essay wouldn't have that problem again.

Based on the feedback from two of my peers' in-class activities, I have made specific

revisions to the position paper in my final draft. In my first draft, one of them suggested that they

point out that my introduction was too short and advised me to use topic titles in each paragraph.

For my second draft, one of them suggested that in my text citations, I should add a page number

instead of rewriting the authors' names and adding space between my last name and the page

number in the header. The revisions I made for my final position paper draft are elaborated more

in my introduction about why some approve of the Willow project and others don't. I then added

sub-topic titles in each of my paragraphs like "The Willow Project" for my first paragraph,

"Global Warming Effects on Different Regions" in my second paragraph, "Conflicts in Alaska

State" for my third paragraph (Gonzalez, "The Willow Project shouldn't be approved", final

draft). For the in-text citations, I changed, for example, "(O'Neil 4)" (Gonzalez, “The Willow

Project shouldn’t be approved”, draft 1) to "(4)" (Gonzalez, “The Willow Project shouldn’t be

approved”, final draft) because I already mentioned the author before. Not only did I receive

feedback from my peers but also from my instructor. According to Keaton Powers, the document

must be edited to remove contractions and references to the first person, proofread for run-on
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sentences, and close quotation marks before the parenthesis opens. This is something that I want

to keep in mind because it's something that should have been avoided easily.

The most challenging aspect of revising was in the research analysis essay, where I

needed to connect the paragraphs to whatever the topic was in the sections by using information

from peer-reviewed articles. For example, I was trying to connect Oil pipes or why it was a

significant problem for the community; however, I thought it was impossible to discuss the Oil

pipes because I believed they had nothing to do with the community of Alaska. Only then did I

find another article about why oil pipes disturb the community and why it is essential to throw

away leftover oil pipes. My least challenging aspect of revising is the in-text citations. I am being

honest; I was at first having trouble with quotations from the annotated bibliography because it

was my first time knowing about sources; however, I have gotten used to it, and I don't find it as

the most challenging aspect that I have encountered in research genre assignments.

On my website, each tab for the annotated bibliography, literature review, and researched

position was individual. They all had tabs and information like drafts, reflective essays,

feedback, and more for the three research genre assignments. To help the people unfamiliar with

what is going on in each of those tabs of the genres, I added a small introduction about what it is

about, what's the purpose for each of the information, and what's expected to have in those tabs.

The most challenging aspect of this course was, I would say, that since it was a short

semester because of the breaks, everything was rushed at the end. In the beginning, however, we

had so much time to get things done because not only did we have time to turn in the multiple

activities like annotated bibliographic entries 1-4, first draft, second draft, third draft, and final

draft, reflection essay, and the peer feedback but had multiple weeks to finish writing the

annotated bibliography. The other research genre assignments, like the position paper, only had
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the first draft, second draft, final draft, reflection essay, and peer feedback, which mainly were all

due the next day, making it a challenge to catch up with writing processes and researching

articles of what we will need. The least challenging aspect of this course was researching our

topics. It was nice to hunt for the information that you need. At first, I didn't know where to get

articles from, let alone know which sources I could use to be appropriate; however, I got better

and better daily by doing writing processes.

I would say overall, this course did help me improve my academic research skills like

how to write different types of argumentative essays like the rogerian arguments, toulmin

argument, classical argument, and many more, four types of claims like claims of fact/definiton,

claims of value, claims about cause and effect, and many more, what kind of argument strategies

can we use to support our argument like analogy, cause and effect, definition, examples,

classification, and many more, how to not only inform your audience about what is happening in

your topic, but why is it important for others to know or be aware, how to make citations in

MLA form and be aware that there is different types of source citations like APA, Chicago, and

many more that are a whole lot of different from one and another, how to do a in-text citations

currently because I learned there is right and wrong towards citations, and basically how to find

research articles that are trustful sources to use to support your claim, but I know I am not

prepared because I know that I still have a lot to grow since everything was being rushed because

of how short the semester is.

Work Cited

O'Neil, Kieran. "IN THE ROOM WHERE IT HAPPENS: HOW FEDERAL

APPROPRIATIONS LAW CAN ENFORCE TRIBAL CONSULTATION POLICIES

AND PROTECT NATIVE SUBSISTENCE RIGHTS IN ALASKA." Washington Law

Review, vol. 98, no. 2, 2023, pp. 659-731. ProQuest,

https://go.openathens.net/redirector/tamiu.edu?url=https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-j

ournals/room-where-happens-how-federal-appropriations-law/docview/2852767375/se-2.