Exemplary Piece

My exemplary piece is from my Dual Credit course: American Literature 2327. In our

first semester, we focused on learning about the evolution of literature and writing in America,

about how cultures and traditions influenced the great writers from the earliest of times. My

exemplary piece is an essay that we had to write researching about a certain author from a

specific time period. In the beginning, I thought it was a simple paper where I have to talk about

another random guy; all I had to do was study his works and put it on paper. However, as I

started working on the assignment, things turned out pretty differently.

The following was the learning target for the assignment:

In the beginning of our class, we were supposed to enroll in a guild for specific time

periods. I decided to research about the Enlightenment Era. When the time came to read the

works by authors of that time, I was very intrigued about the concepts they wrote about. Each

portrayed different interpretations to understand God and allowed me to come across

perspectives that I never thought of before. Among all the authors, Thomas Paine’s works stood

out to me. He gave me an interpretation of religion with science- the foundation of his faith.

Being someone who marvels the study of science, Paine’s works quickly grabbed my attention

and made me interested in it. The prompt for the assignment was to explore how Paine used

science to understand God.

I started the assignment about fifteen days before the due date, knowing that it will take a

lot of effort to finish a decent paper. With the help of Mr. Crawley, I finished my rough draft

within two days and sent it to my professor for him to review it. When I received his comments,

I was actually shocked to find out how “disorganized” my paper was. The professor made
comments and spotted mistakes in almost every other line of my paper, which often made me

question my writing capabilities. However, this did not dishearten me from improving my paper.

I scheduled a video conference with the professor and talked with him over an hour, asking about

changes that would improve my paper. After this session, I was pretty sure that now I could write

my best paper of the year.

Following his instructions, I quickly made edits and came up with another draft shortly.

As last time, I sent the paper for review and received it the next day. This time, to my utter

surprise, he “butchered” the paper and asked me to make further improvements. He criticized

almost every detail I mentioned about Paine, asking me to show evidence for my claims. To

further help me with this, I had my University tutor look into it; she gave me further feedback

about how to answer the prompt according to the professor’s comments. Finally, in the last week,

I spent hours researching and editing my work to produce the best paper I have written so far. I

scored a 95% on it: the best score I have received for a college paper so far.

As I reflect back on this experience, I really appreciate how much the professor helped

me grow as a learner during the course. While writing the paper, I had to share my perspectives

on Paine’s works, which actually helped me define my stance on religion, science, God,

morality, etc. Also, when reviewing the paper, the professor made a lot of criticisms on my

writing. Personally, I hate criticism, but after receiving the grade for this paper, I learned that

criticism actually helps if an individual takes lessons from it. Furthermore, this course helped me

create a structure for my essays: I find it easier to organize my ideas and actually have a

structured approach to answer the prompt. This experience has been really beneficial for me, it

was a pleasure to get a 95% for the assignment, but it was more of a satisfaction to realize that I

actually learned writing in an organized fashion.