Reflective Essay 2

Hinojosa I
Diego Hinojosa
English 1301-201
Dr. Sharity Nelson
8 March 2024
Reflective Essay 2: Visual Analysis Essay
During the development of the second essay of the course, I learned how to describe an
illustration to understand the overall purpose and message of the visual, in this case, a cover of a
novel. In my major, biology, the analysis of visuals is helpful, as I need to dissect images, photos,
or diagrams to find crucial information to identify the components, structures, or processes of a
tissue or sample. In my biology lab, my tasks are to observe photos of cell plant samples to
identify structures, so being able to differentiate the appearance of each structure is fundamental
to my academic formation.
The knowledge I hold of imagery description is well-developed because I have the hobby
of drawing. I draw as a hobby, so throughout my life, I have researched many ways to improve
my style and, in the process, gained knowledge regarding the construction of foregrounds and
backgrounds, character design, and illumination. The way I planned out my essay was like when
I was about to draw, and I contemplated three key things: the foreground or focus, illumination
or tone, and background. I analyzed and exposed these three elements as the three body
paragraphs of my essay. The techniques of writing to develop these ideas are universal to all the
courses that involve writing a paper down. In chemistry, I do lab reports, creating them using
writing techniques to deliver quality work about my procedures, observations, calculations, and
results from my experiments.

Hinojosa II
The conference highlighted a crucial flaw in my text, a poor interpretation that linked
every element I explored. I modified my essay to have a functional topic sentence and added
explanations that reinforce the topic sentence by relating the composition of the elements to the
interpretation I elaborated. The interpretation is of two shady characters that may or may not be
criminals in the dead of night in a city discussing possible illegal matters. The other fundamental
thing that got reworked for my essay was the citation. The citation was incorrect because of my
low knowledge of the matter; however, my professor corrected me. The changes were simple:
have the title in the language of publication with the English translation in brackets and have the
illustrator’s name as an author while adding a sentence explaining his contribution to the book. I
also added further explanations into sentences to clarify descriptions.
The peer review only solidified the observations of my professor about the poor state of
my topic sentence, as it was the only element my peer saw with a flaw. My peer wrote a few
observations and only complained about something my professor pointed out to me in the
conference, the topic sentence, so the change was to complete the missing topic sentence. My
peer wasn’t critical of my work because his opinion only made me more comfortable with my
work, which could have affected my judgment.
Most of the descriptions I made covering the elements of the visual were fine; however,
the exceptions didn’t tie back to the topic sentence because of missing details that, upon my
professor’s advice, were revised and changed. Some sentences needed more specification on the
location of elements, so I added further explanations to compensate for the unclear positioning of
elements. Other sentences had their location modified to make the presentation of the
information understandable or more logical. The takeaway from this revision is that I must be
Hinojosa III
more careful about how I describe things because even though I may be giving a lot of details,
some of them may be worthless or unclear to the main point of the whole.
The most challenging part of the essay was the MLA formatting of citations, making me
confused for a while. I wasn’t sure if my formatting was correct until I asked during class. I
modified the citation on two instances during class with my professor’s assistance. It started
because I erroneously translated the book’s title without putting the original title’s language; in
the second instance, I modified it again because I didn’t correctly credit the illustrator’s cover,
instead giving the book’s citation. I need to concentrate on formatting correctly elements of a text
in MLA to avoid these types of mistakes in the future.
The least challenging thing to do in my essay was to describe things. I already stated this,
but it is my hobby to craft illustrations, so breaking it apart is entertaining. I always ask myself if
I had to explain an image to someone who couldn’t look at it, how would I do it? And I start
constructing every detail: characters, gestures, light sources, setting, ambiance, structures,
symbolisms, etc. It was a fun activity for me, so I put as much effort as possible into making my
work of quality for the course.

Reflective Essay 2

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Reflective Essay 2

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Reflective Essay 2

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Hinojosa I

Dr. Sharity Nelson

Reflective Essay 2: Visual Analysis Essay

or diagrams to find crucial information to identify the components, structures, or processes of a

results from my experiments.

also added further explanations into sentences to clarify descriptions.

work, which could have affected my judgment.

in MLA to avoid these types of mistakes in the future.

work of quality for the course.

You might also like