Mia Doreen George

Professor Meaks

ENGL 21001-R

CCNY: S-209

3/25/26

Introduction: For my portfolio I made better paragraph breaks to make the piece more digestible. I made sure to approach this piece how I do all of my reflection pieces; with self honesty and humility. In the future I’d like to prepare better by organizing the notes I made on my laptop better so I can be more efficient.

                                               In-Class Literary Analysis Reflection:

On Tuesday, March 17th 2026, I had to complete an in class literary essay based on a story from the compilation piece ‘Her Body & Other Parties’ by Carmen Machado. I chose the short story ‘The Husband Stitch’ by Carmen Machado to be the one I would center my essay around. The assignment was to thoroughly explore the story and its reflections on a type of relationship tie within it. I chose to explore the partnership between the husband and wife in the story, and what their relationship reflected on both of them, the story, as well as society as a whole.

In preparation for this exam I made sure to reread ‘The Husband Stitch’ and went over my previously written notes and highlights on the piece. I then made sure to write out fragmented ideas I had that I could use for the exam. I also thought of a body outline pertaining to what things I should include in the introduction, body, and conclusion to ensure everything flowed properly. 

When the day of the exam came, I was very nervous due to this being my first in class essay in college. However, the anxiety melted away when I sat down and started focusing on my writing. I incorporated most of my ideas, worked at an efficient rate, and looked back on the story to pull from some of its contents to support my essay as well. I read over my work, trying to make sure I followed the directions as given, and turned it in within the given timeframe. Overall, this exam, in my opinion, was fruitful.

Pertaining to the discussions we had in class prior to the in class essay, those were extremely helpful to me in regards to finishing the exam. Me and my group worked together through text to build our individual questions with our given story ‘Mothers’ by Carmen Machado. We made sure to have our own voices shine through our questions.

In terms of what I learned from other groups, the questions were particularly interesting, especially regarding what the stories reflected on a wider scale of the world and feminism, or misogyny. I enjoyed writing down the questions, answering them in my own way, and really delving into the discussions with the rest of the class. It was not only incredibly fun and thought provoking, but also challenging. It readied me for the exam by getting me to think about a wider range of perspectives, as well as other aspects of the stories I may not have been considering before. I implemented this wider range into my essay, or tried to.

In terms of me and my groups own leading discussion, I think I did well with bringing questions in that probed the characters psyches more, in terms of pulling the spotlight off of the main character in ‘Motherhood’ and pointing it to her lover, who we never see the inner monologue or thought process of. In terms of prep this helped me be less shy to speak my own mind and opinion on a piece to my peers. Overall it was wonderful.

Lastly, in terms of future in class essays, I’d like to work on organizing my preparations because I feel I spent too much time digging through my laptop to look for what I wrote prior. I think the entire prep and exam as a whole was an amazing experience, of which I will always carry the lessons of. My classmates and professor taught me a lot through just this assignment as a whole, and I hope I did the same.

• Mia Doreen George