Essay #1 Reflection

When first starting this essay I wasn't completely clear on the assignment. I knew it was an essay but I didn't really understand the structure that was to be presented. Once the class got started on the actual process of constructing their essays, I started to understand more of what was being asked. When we got started I realized this would be a rather important essay for the class I knew it was one of few that would probably majorly affect my grade. Just choosing a topic was difficult for me because there were so many to choose from. The class brainstormed a few common main ideas that people could use. I then decided to use the topic of hero or villain, bacon or berkeley. The usual topic that is chosen from this idea is that Bacon is the hero, But I decided to go in the other direction and portray Berkeley as the hero because he seemed more like the hero in my mind. Once I had my main idea I had to write a thesis that was straight to the point and a statement from my head. It took me a couple times to get a good thesis because I wasn't putting my opinion into it at first. After the thesis was the outline. This seemed like the easiest step of the essay for me. It pulled together the main ideas that connected to the thesis and then I added quotes and facts to those ideas. Once I had a good outline I started my first rough draft. This included the body of my essay and my thesis. I integrated some quotes but needed to find more so I went back to my documents and found more that connected to my topic. I believe I wrote four rough drafts before I edited it to become my final. Throughout the drafts I added more and more details, quotes and my opinions, to support my main ideas. Editing was an easy process for me. I believe my final draft shows my ability to write an intellectual and interesting essay. I think this essay is one of my best essays because this process seemed a lot more organized, helpful and informational than in my high school english and history classes.