The first paper of the semester was challenging to navigate at first, but eventually taught me better skills when it comes to writing. I learned how to efficiently cut out unnecessary information, because we were writing to a popular audience and therefore, had to keep the article short. At first it was challenging to pick and choose what was the most important information of the article, through revisions I was able to better identify what was necessary. I also was able to learn skills regarding creating a better thesis, as well as tying back to it at the end. This helped my paper have a concrete message and flow easier. For me, the hardest part was reading and translating the article. There was so much information that I had to pick and choose from and a lot of vocabulary I was not quite familiar with, so it was difficult to change it into basic jargon. I had to pay extremely close to the article and context clues to fully understand the definitions and overall message, which helped me to recognize what to include and what to leave out. The easiest part was the author’s defense. This was easier for me because, although it was subconscious at the time, I could identify why I used certain techniques, since I was the one who made that decision. In the future I can definitely bring the skills I have learned from this paper into other literatures I write in the future. The most important skills I learned, cutting out unnecessary information and thesis skills, are universal skills necessary for any paper, not just this specific type of article.