Jennifer Guallpa

Professor Ewan

FIQWS

15 April 2019

Expository Essay Self-Reflection

While writing the expository essay I came across many bumps because I was not sure if I was doing it correct. There were many moments of writer’s block which was very frustrating but I think that once I was able to overcome it I knew the direction that I wanted to take with this paper. Before I started reading articles and writing the expository essay I picked the topic that I was most interested in writing about. I was really interested to see how a puppet was able to help children using puppetry. With this in mind I started on looking at articles and readings and later on began writing the essay.

Researching about puppetry in therapy was beyond what I learned in Professor Adams class because we did not really talk much about how puppetry has an impact on a field such as the medical field. At first I prioritize finding evidence in the database because in order to write a paper I had to have some strong evidence. While looking for articles to support the essay and a rebuttal, it was somewhat difficult because the article or readings did not really discuss about the use of puppetry in therapy. Looking through the searches in the database I was able to find sources for the essay and while on the database I realized that it was very easy to use. Since the database is organized and all you have to do is be more specific in the searching, I was able to find the my sources more easily and efficiently. I looked for sources that involved puppetry in therapy because it would go more into detail about how puppetry had its impact and if there were any changes towards the child.

Once I was able to sort all the sources I was going to use, I started to write the essay. I first planned the order of how I will be using the sources with some main points of each. Then I began to write the essay in an A to Z manner. While writing I face many writers block because I was not sure if I was doing it correctly and I was overthinking many things that did not need much thinking. While writing this expossitroy essay I really relied on the notes that I took in class about setting up the paragraphs, introduction, and conclusion. I also relied on the examples in the NFG to make sure that I was citing my sources correctly. Since I was not able to add my opinion on the topic that also made it a little hard to continue writing because I was trying my make sure that it was not biased. While writing the essay I was able to connect the evidence to my thesis in order to answer it and while writing the conclusion I recap the main points that helped me answer my thesis in the conclusion.

Writing this expository essay gave me information about writing in MLA form and it gives me a better understanding of it. I think that I am getting better writing in MLA form and understanding the aspects it has. In the expository in-text citation was used and I have to say that adapting to it was not as hard because it is similar to how I need to cite evidence for a paper at the highschool. Doing a full source intro/identification was somewhat confusing for me however when I was asking around for help in order to get a better understanding of it. I was finally able to understand it and continued one with the writing. While not writing the essay continuously I will have to say that I have spent a approximately a total of more than twenty hours while working on this essay. Throughout the assignment there were writers block and some planning to do before I was able to complete the expository essay.

Once I completed my paper I asked a peer of mine to check my essay since I was not able to exchange with someone within the class. However, I was still able to receive good suggestions and included them within my paper. They were able to help me coney my thesis better which was very helpful and gave me some advice to help me explain my reasoning much better. As well as I was able to, I proofread my expository essay and kept an open eye for any spelling and punctuation errors. Then I reread it once more to make sure if I don’t need to add any more changes to it. With the feedback my peer gave me me and with my process of proofreading I was able to make progress and changes for my second draft.

Overall, I think I was able to use my understanding of the MLA format and using the sources that I was able to find and reasoning to form the expository essay to my understanding. I was able to approach the beginning of my writing somewhat more differently than I usually will. Also, I was able to get a better understanding of the MLA format while also learning how to use the database in order to find sources. While writing the expository essay I was able to learn new things that I did not not know about and was able to learn more about the impacts of puppetry in the medical field specifically how it can impact children who are in therapy. I was able to learn the impacts such as how a child can improve their social skills and how going through puppet therapy can help children be in a comfortable setting do that they are able to express their feelings better. As well as help medical professionals get more insight if the child in order to figure out ways to help them more or to see if any process has been made. While writing the expository I was able to learn new features of the MLA format and learn how to use the database.