Ruiz 1

Jocelyne Ruiz
Professor Villareal
College 1
15 December 2015
Success and Failures Reflection
An assignment I felt most successful in this entire semester is my presentation in
my speech class. My presentation was about to persuade my audience how a physical
copy of book is better than tablets or kindles. Despite the fact that I am bibliophile, a
person who loves to read books, has experience with this persuasive report, I still ended
up feeling nervous presenting in front of my class. As soon as I got up to speak, my
mind felt fuzzy and my breathing was out of control. I tend to sound shaky and expose a
nervous voice that may have cause an awkward balance in the audience. After
introducing myself, I thought about how important it was to stay on track and to present
the topic. So I took deep breaths and went along my speech just like I prepared in my
notecards. I explain the benefits to own a physical book than a kindle and concluded
with providing information about beautiful bookstores in California.
Overall, I felt so accomplished with my presentation that not only I made it on
time, but I finished strong with an astonished look upon my face. I learned that
conquering my fear of stage fright made me feel somehow independent and robust. In
addition I learned to be more involved with my classmates in order to break the
awkward tension between my presentation and their attention. So I broke my bubble of
personal space and have the nerve to present without that anxiety feeling and shaky
voice.

Ruiz 2
English is not my favorite subject for two reasons; the first reason is that I hate
writing essays or anything involved with writing, and the second reason is that I am a
terrible writer. I have tried to write a proper thesis and topic sentences without changing
the subject. The midterm essay result was the best soothing feeling I felt then after that
feeling was over, I was nervous once again about my writing. I struggled with myself in
the introduction for a proper thesis or body paragraphs. I decided to meet up with a tutor
to discuss about my troubles with writing. After for two weeks she prepare me to write
with confidence than with my bad conscious and self-doubt. Eventually my
subconscious feeling of negativity hasnt fade away and I began to feel more nervous
than before. Whenever I write an essay, I tend to start a rough draft before the actual
essay and then I have my self-doubt on a couple of sentences that I felt werent
accurate to the prompt. These insecurities are driving me insane. I learned that I have a
huge insecurity about my writing and I also learned that I need to practice writing more
essays whether I like or not. I have done at least a couple of strategies that my tutor
taught me before I write my essay. The first strategy is to think positive before any
writing assignment. The second is to accept judgment from my professor as advice to
improve my writing skills. The third is to always write a rough draft of the prompt,a brain
storm. Lastly is to read the essay out loud because reading it mentally is different than
hearing it. So hopefully these steps will provide a successful essay in the future.