My thoughts on my paper

As I was writing the argumentative paper, I did not think it would be too difficult. I did not have problems coming up with examples and explaining my ideas. I felt it was straight forward and I thought I did well on it. However, I did not receive the grade I hoped I would. I got points off for content, organization, and use of MLA format.
When it comes to content, I believe I explained my points quite well. I offered contextual evidence and explained my thoughts. The intended audience for this paper was the University’s English department. I feel that such a group would have a great deal of knowledge on the topic I am discussing. It would be impractical to add a great deal of background information because my audience is most likely better informed on such information than I am. I recognize that I could have been more specific in some aspects of my paper, but I did not want to be redundant or appear as though I did not have my audience in mind.
I also got points off for organization. I am not sure what is meant by this but I believe it would have to do with relating my points to my thesis. I realize that the purpose of a paper is to explain its thesis. I tried very hard to use points that specifically exemplified my thesis. Again, having my audience in mind, I did not think I would have to be extremely specific and explain every point as if they had no idea what I was talking about. I now understand that since this was an argumentative paper that I would have to explain better to get my point across. I need to work on making my point stronger by explaining my thoughts so there is no room for refuting my argument.
I was also docked points for correct use of MLA format. At first I was a bit confused as to why I got points off in this area; however, I now understand that I did not cite my outside source within my paper. I did not realize that even though I did not use a direct quote and had a bibliography that I would still have to use MLA format too cite them within the paper.
Overall, my mistakes have helped me realize what I need to do to improve my writing. I will try my hardest to improve upon the areas that I have had trouble with. Hopefully I will be more successful on my next paper.