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Tiffany Meza

English 1302

Mr. Powers

3 May 2023

Final Reflection Essay

To finish off my freshman college semester, My English 1302 class was formulated to create

a portfolio to showcase our latest and past works made throughout our class. The process of

creating these projects took a long time to construct and understand the main idea of the project.

In Essay one, my peers and I had to experiment on real life situations and make a survey of

observations based on your topic. The topic I decided to research was the meaning behind

happiness that people face every day. In this research I gathered a few people that I spoke to on

the daily and every day of the week I asked them simple questions like, “are you happy?” or

“what made you happy today?” the answers based on the responses gathered throughout the

week lead me to conclude the few categories that people named, having a reason to be happy.

The research conducted tally tables and charts that further explained the research into detail. In

Essay two, the introduction to Annotated bibliographies came into play after it was the first time

I had ever worked with annotated bibliographies. It was seen very difficult at first and took a few

more lessons to understand, but after more help from Professor Powers, it was much easier to

construct a paper with around 10 citations. In this paper I wrote on a controversial topic being on

the causes and effects of alcohol and substance abuse in adolescents. Like I said earlier this was a

much harder essay to create at first, but I learned to complete it and overthrow that fear I had

when I first began this project. The final paper was the easiest in my opinion (although it was

still hard to make) the position paper. This paper basically wrapped up all the knowledge you

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gained from the previous essay and created an argument that sustained a different perspective or

POV from the statement I made in essay two. A few more citations were needed for this essay,

but overall, it was not as challenging as the second essay because you already know what you are

going to argue about. These essays came together and almost in a way had a connection whereas

people’s lives are greatly affected by the things we can control. The views of family and friends

all combine in all three essays and lead us to the final proportion that introduces the anticipated

Final Portfolio.

After finishing the final essay, the cherry on top would have to be the finishing of your

portfolio. This portfolio will recap every moment you captured with every click through drafts,

reflections, and peer reviews from fellow classmates. The construction of this portfolio made me

realize that every bit of feedback received from both my professor and my classmates made the

biggest difference in my writing. Obviously, that’s how it works and why it is a method used

everywhere, but usually one would always assume they are right and refuse the help from others,

in this case that’s not what happens. Help is always appreciated whether it be the smallest lack of

detail that you might have missed, any little issue or error can greatly change your grade and hide

right under your nose. Peer reviews were faced in every essay and were taken place right after

our first drafts were submitted. At first it felt overwhelming having to read other people’s essays

as they sat right next to you as you were forced to critique and comment on their papers as they

did yours, but it felt much more better reading the comments that were left on your own paper.

This strategy improved the writing styles of many peers in my classes as I would see how they

took their notes and changed their entire essay in better and brighter forms. The final portfolio

will uphold drafts from first to final for all three essays and include any homework assignments,

extra credit papers and visitations from every ACE appointment or office hours to show how you

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participated in every way you could. The assignments that were attached onto these portfolios

can either be from research-based templates that Mr. Powers provided various times throughout

writing, and also homework assignments where articles had to be read and answered through

paragraphs refining them, as well as questions from our class textbook that exhibited various

techniques used throughout our class time. These key functions helped us as a class to invent

each one of our research papers and built a way for us to use the knowledge we get from these

assignments to later use them in our future writings. While peer reviews were taking place, you

would usually gather the information you received after trading papers and use these comments

to improve or change your paper, assuming that you would like the help from others and

consider their opinions. A request was made to change my title for one of my essays to make it

much clearer to read and understand and after a few names later, I reached an easier title. This

was me finding an easy-to-read title for my first essay “what makes you happy” to, “What is the

meaning of life”, so on the names changed and changed. After many changed, I came to the

final research title saying “where does happiness come from” this stated the idea of the essay

while still persuading the readers to question themselves where it really does come from and

encourages them to read more and partake in this survey of asking yourself why you feel happy.

All I want from these essays is to get the reader feeling like they have a part in a say for these

essays and have their own thoughts and opinions on these matters as they are a common

occurring theme in today’s time.

The skills that I had gained from all three essays can be varied against each topic. In essay 1 I

had learned to use proper grammar where it should go and learn to use it in the right areas and

right time in a story. In essay 2 my focus was on the construction and formatting of my essay.

Annotated bibliographies were the proper agenda listed to use in this essay. The formats on MLA

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were troubling for me to include onto the annotated bibliographies, but with more help from my

professor and peers from peer reviews I was guided to a more understandable view where I saw

what I was doing right and what I was doing wrong. Lastly in essay 3, I realized that I was

lacking a lot in evidential statements and thesis structures. I had citations messed up all around

my essay and I was quickly stopped in my tracks from peer reviews and feedback from my

professor. Peer reviews really kept you humble and on your toes I would admit. The courageous

feeling of curiosity when you watch someone review your paper is an unmatched feeling you get

in English 1302, I will say. A way that these skills can be used in other courses will vary against

the certain work that will be needed. I will definitely need to use more evidence in other classes

when stating situations and grammar needs to be sharply kept when transitioning to higher

classes. Growth is one thing that will always encourage you to be a better version of yourself. It

is always best to try to find the strengths and weaknesses in your personal live in everyday

activities. This will help you grow as a person and creates a happier and livid life that inspires

both you and those that you surround yourself with. Always striving for greatness will leave a

positive outlook for those that watch you closely without you even knowing. Having learned all

these skills, my upcoming classes won’t know what’s coming their way when I get the chance to

speak on the controversial topics such as adolescent rights and drug usages, even when the topics

of happiness and mind development gets throw around in conversations. It is always best to be

knowledgeable about different things all at once. Intelligence is an intriguing thing created by

only yourself, the more time you take to learn something new and invest in yourself, the more

you become a better you.

The most fun part of this portfolio was using my creativity and technology skills when

creating this website showcasing my work. The website used was Weebly and at first it seemed a

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bit complicated, but after messing around with the features and buttons it came clear on what I

had to do. It was fun adding pictures and customizing the whole website to meet your own

preferences and moods. The theme that I had gone with for this website was a very calming and

relaxing vibe that featured warm colors of green yellow and beige to leave a senseful feeling for

viewers that join this website. Like my essays come to be involving the use of emotional

rollercoasters and developmental views in how a mind grows and thinks, to straight up happiness

researched in essay 1. These additions lead me to complete an eye-catching scenery of captions

and images that do what I wanted them to do from the beginning, being that I wanted a warm

welcome from viewers once they open the site. It was hard at first to add each detail, but it was

all worth it at the end when it met my standard on how I envisioned it from the start.

To conclude this Final Reflection Essay Portfolio, I would like to state that this class helped

me so much in many ways. There were many ups and downs don’t get me wrong, but at the end

we were all blind entering this class not knowing what to expect from both our professor and his

course. I have nothing but good things to say about my experience in this class and I greatly

appreciated every moment that Mr. powers spent reevaluating each segment hoping that we

understood, even though we just nodded our heads. This sounds like an evaluation for the end of

the semester, but it’s not, these are my actual thoughts and opinions on how this course treated

me and I wouldn’t have asked for a better class to take for English. I learned so many things not

only from these three essays but from lectures in general. Ideas created by this course will be

extremely helpful in the future for both my writings and for trivial knowledge that not a lot of

other people would agree to know. I surely saw the growth in my writing and noticed the change

in my writing career, I will forever remember the sleepless nights I spent writing every final draft

essay even this one as we speak, it will always be for a good cause. With knowing what I know

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now, I know not to let procrastination get the best of me and always remember to submit

assignments on time and not wait for the last minute of things to get an assignment done and

submitted. Mr. Powers was a cool teacher and was very understanding on missed assignments or

honest mistakes that occurred during assignment processes, not a lot of professors are

understanding and cooperative as him. It is safe to say that the identity of each one of his

students has been changed with a little more knowledge leaving his classroom after the last

moments in class are done. I will surely be one of those lucky people that got to take this class

and experience the new realm of writing techniques and written statement organizations. I wish

the best for anyone reading this and for future students that attempt to take a course in English

1301 or 1302 with Mr. Powers. I now know the cause and effects of adolescent drug usage and

drinking rights, as well as what is the true meaning of happiness.

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Works cited

Meza, Tiffany “where does happiness come from.”15 February 2023. English 1302-219, Texas

A&M International University, student paper.

Meza, Tiffany “Alcohol and substance use in adolescents.”12 March 2023. English 1302-219,

Texas A&M International University, student paper.

Meza, Tiffany “Alcohol use in Adolescents.”17 April 2023. English 1302-219, Texas

A&M International University, student paper.