Unpacking Manuel’s Final Reflection

In my first draft of my Unpacking Manuel’s assignment, I avoided the ultimate question of why my object was hung up on the wall; all I did was research the object and make an argument as to why it might’ve been hung up back in the late 1980s. However, for my revision of the essay I decided to tackle the question of why it was still up in 2016. It took me longer than I expected to come up with some reasoning that might make sense because this was a type of question that I had never had to write a paper on. The question that needed to be answered for this assignment was open-ended without a concrete answer. The one similarity between this paper and others I had to write in high school was the research component of it. By writing this paper, I was able to realize what my strengths are and what areas I need to improve in. I noticed how I was efficient at finding information on the object and creating an essay about that, just like I was used to from high school. However, the area that I need to improve on is going beyond just the typical essay. It was a challenge for me to find a way to properly connect the research with my new thesis. Nonetheless, I believe that this assignment was a great way for me to start developing the skill to write essays like this. Through Unpacking Manuel’s I realized that writing really is a process. It’s been very helpful to write a piece, reflect on it, and then be able to revise it after that. It’s a process that has made me a better writer through analysis. Also, in Unpacking Manuel’s we’ve engaged in collaboration since, in class, we all pitched in ideas for the rubric and how this assignment should be graded.