Ethnographic Reflection Essay

Writing has always come easy to me, or so I thought. Over the course of this semester, I’ve realized that there’s more to writing than just content; in fact, there are many components to writing a good piece, including: transitional statements, expanded vocabulary, textual structure, text type, and integrating outside sources. As a high school student, I tell myself, it doesn’t matter how it’s formatted, you should be more concerned with content, but as a Composition I student, I’ve realized that format and content are entwined. By writing in different genres, Composition I has allowed me to expand on creatively presenting the content in my essays and improve my formatting skills. Furthermore, the different genres that I’ve explored throughout

With integrating outside sources comes in-text citations and a “Works Cited” page. Expanding my knowledge on integrating outside sources has allowed me to support what I say in my essay with proof or evidence. The problem was, in a direct quote, I thought, if I put quotes and the author’s name, then it’s cited, but the various types of sources are cited differently. In my Ethnographic Research Essay, I incrrectly cited a source as the following: “According to Marc Kaufman of ‘American Odyssey,’ ‘Thousands of Hmong-Americans have earned college degrees… today the American Hmong community boasts scores of physicians, lawyers and university professors.’” I forgot to parenthetically cite this direct quote with the page number to help build clarity and credibility in my essay. Additionally, in my Rhetorical Analysis, I properly cited a newspaper article as: “‘users consumed significantly more whole grains, low-fat milk and fruits’ (Farley and Sykes A19).” I am proud to say that moving into Composition II, I have added strength to my essays by knowing how to cite websites, newspaper articles, personal interviews, academic databases, movies, and film