Childhood Obesity
Lyndsey Mcknight
Professor Hammett
English 1302
Reflective Essay
8 August 2023
Word Count: 458
Reflective Essay
Coming into this course I was worried about how I was going to do on the essays that were required of me because it has been several years since I took my first English composition course, and I did not remember many of the skills that I had learned in that class. This semester went a lot smoother than I expected because of how informative the course was. The essay that I learned the most skills from composing was the argument proposal essay. In that essay, I went over childhood obesity and the different solutions that can help lessen the rate of that epidemic.
When I first started writing the argument proposal essay, I felt very overwhelmed by the amount of research I had to do, however, once I learned to use Google Scholar and the College of the Mainland library database, from Professor Hammett, it made the research much easier and time efficient. The main aspect of the essays I struggled with was grammar and punctuation. I have never been very good when it comes to the use of commas and semi-colons, but I learned a lot through the lectures and supplemental material that was provided in this course. Learning that information about punctuation made my essays easier to write, and it made them flow better so the reader could have an easier time digesting the material of my essays.
Throughout the semester, I also learned a great deal about my social epidemic topic, childhood obesity. I learned that this epidemic is quickly growing, and many more children are experiencing obesity than they did years ago, and the best ways to treat and prevent this epidemic are by getting adequate daily physical activity, having a consistent sleep schedule, making healthy dietary choices, and educating children and their parents on the importance of living a healthy lifestyle. Making the in-text citations for my sources was something that I had to work on and get a better understanding of. I had to learn from Professor Hammett that when you are using the same source consecutively in the same paragraph you do not have to use the full in-text citation, you just use the page number from that source that you got your information from.
Overall, this course has been very informative and taught me a great deal about composing collegiate-level essays. The most important skills I am going to take away from this class are how to use punctuation correctly and how to cite sources properly, which will help me with every single essay I have to write in the future. This course was very beneficial to the future of my college career, and I would suggest every student take this course to refine their writing and research skills.
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