Reflection

Composition II was the second English class that I took in my senior year of high school, and while this class was faster paced than some of my previous English or writing classes that I have taken, I have learned just as much. I have learned more about the social epidemic topic that I chose to study, which is functional illiteracy in Oklahoma, and learned how to use APA formatting. I have also advanced my research skills as I scoured through the library database, my analysis skills of characters in novels, and my argumentative skills through my essays this semester. These are all skills and strategies that I will continue to use in both my university years and my professional life.

Throughout this writing class, I have composed several essays of varying topics that are mostly related to the social epidemic topic of functional illiteracy in Oklahoma. Some of these essays have turned out better than others, like my argument essay where I argued for a multifaceted solution to functional illiteracy in Oklahoma and my literary analysis essay over The Plague. While I received an equivalent grade to my previous essays, my rhetorical analysis, or project 2, essay was the most challenging essay that I have written this semester. In this essay, I related the absurdist author and philosopher Albert Camus to the social epidemic topic of functional illiteracy in Oklahoma.

            Out of all three essays written this semester, the rhetorical analysis essay was the most difficult to write; it also took me the longest to even complete an outline. I found this the case because Albert Camus is a person with many aspects to his personality and not all these traits or his opinions directly relate to my topic of illiteracy. Unlike my argument essay about the solution to illiteracy where all I had to do was research and make connections to my topic, the rhetorical analysis essay required me to think on a much deeper level on how Camus connects with illiteracy. I had to dive deeper into Camus’s opinions and find associations with my topic of the semester.

            In addition to being a hard essay to write, I also had the most feedback about my content from Professor Hammett in the rhetorical analysis. While I also received feedback in my argument essay about the solution to functional illiteracy, the feedback was mainly just about “cite and punctuation errors” and lack of dates on some of my sources; these mistakes were nothing that could not be fixed in a short time (Hammett, 2026). Alternatively, on my rhetorical analysis essay, I received some feedback from the professor that revealed aspects of where my essay’s argument could be potentially weak due to lack of citation or proof of my claim. This type of feedback is beneficial because as a writer, the stronger my claim is, the more likely I am to convince my audience. While I received important feedback from both my project 1 argument essay and my project 2 rhetorical analysis essay, I learned and benefited the most from Professor Hammett’s comments in the second essay.

            While my essay composition in the future will be more technical and less argumentative, I do not regret taking Composition II; this class was interesting. Because everything in this class had to be formatted according to APA, I now know how to use this style of formatting, which is important because this is the formatting I will be using when writing in the future. This class has also made a better writer through Professor Hammett’s feedback on my essays and a more well-rounded person through my study of the social epidemic of functional illiteracy in Oklahoma. There is no doubt that this class was a key part of my academic journey.

Reference

Hammett, B. (2026). Project 1 Essay Feedback.