Essay Contest Reflection


Adam Tran
ENC 1101-0M04
The Freedom To Choose
            The essay contest assignment was among my favorites of semester. It allowed me to be creative and there were basically endless possibilities. We were asked to choose from any essay contest, regardless of the word count or anything of that sort. As a result, I was able to actually research and find an essay contest that I was interested in, instead of being turned off by the minimum or maximum word count. The topic (to a certain extent of course) was also up to us, so we could choose any essay topic about pretty much anything. It was nice to almost no restrictions at all for this assignment. It called us to research and find what truly intrigued us.
            When given the option to choose any essay contest, no ideas really popped into my mind. I did not have an essay contest that I had heard of or that I had my mind set on. As a result, I went to the computer and looked up common essay contests. I stumbled across an interesting essay contest about what ice cream flavor I’d be. Upon reading the prompt, I thought about what my answer would be. I found myself thinking for a while and seriously debating between many options. It was for this reason that I decided to choose this essay. I could not come up with an answer and took the essay as a challenge instead of brushing it off and moving onto a topic that I had an answer to right away. This prompt forced me to really think and to decide between the several options that I had.
            The essay prompt was easy in the sense that it was simple. It asked a simple question and did not call for a certain answer. There could be tons of answers, virtually ensuring that no answer could be wrong. It was also easy for me because I know a lot of ice cream flavors and could easily make connections to myself. This made it easy and hard for me both at the same time. It made it difficult for me because I seemed to make a connection between myself and almost every ice cream flavor out there. As a result, I had to really sit down and think about which ice cream flavor would represent me the best. I had to narrow down the long list until I finally found which fit me the best.
            The feedback I got from my peers was that I should possibly include more information about coffee ice cream. I briefly spoke about coffee ice cream and how it related to me, but failed to include more specifics about coffee ice cream itself. My classmates suggested for me to include more detail that way the audience has a clear understanding of the relationship between coffee ice cream and myself.
            In order to write this essay, I had to first research and find an interesting topic. I then proceeded to explore different options and approaches that I could take. After thinking about it deeply, I decided what would be said and then put my thoughts onto paper. 

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