Chelsea A.

Waddell
English 1102
C. Douglas
May 6, 2014
Final Reflection

Dear Connie,
This semester has been a journey full of both positive and negative moments, but I have
enjoyed it. English 1102 has introduced me to new styles of writing, mainly argumentative, and
has provided me with a chance to improve my critical thinking skills and writing, as well as to
realize my literary strengths and weaknesses. Throughout the course of this semester, I felt as if
my writing skills were improving, and that helped me to become more confident with my
writing. During this class, I struggled with multiple things, the first being choosing what topic I
wanted to choose as my line of inquiry. You stressed that it was important that we chose a topic
that we would be comfortable researching for the rest of the semester, thank you for stressing
this point. If I would have decided on a different topic, I believe that the second half of the
semester would have been a complete mess.
The next thing I struggled with was keeping up with my daybook. Last semester I did not
have such a difficult time keeping my daybook updated but this semester you assigned a lot more
work. Honestly, at the beginning of the semester I was lacking the motivation to do the multitude
of assignments, resulting in a subpar daybook. However, when it came time for midterm
conferences, I took the time to update my daybook. While I was in the process of doing so, I
realized the purpose of completing so many assignments. As I say in my daybook entries
reflections, I understood the point of the assignments and what it was that I was supposed to gain
by completing them. Lastly, I struggled with the amount of effort that was required from me this
semester. This is something I addressed in my annotated bibliography reflection because this is a
prime example of a high effort assignment.
During the semester, I have realized that as a writer, I struggle to express my thoughts
clearly to my audience. I learned this while writing my persuasive essay for my multi-genre
project. During this genre, I wanted to persuade my audience that tightening the gun control laws
for mentally ill people would cause them not to seek treatment in fear of persecution. While
writing this I finished and realized that my essay would be hard for anyone other than myself to
understand. Even though I got what I wanted to say out, it was not done is the best way. After
this realization, I went back and changed the wording and structure of the essay. Now that I went
back and revised the persuasive essay, I feel as if it may be one of the strongest pieces in my
portfolio. I believe that I was able to accomplish my goal of getting the audience to understand
that tightening gun restrictions may do more harm than good though the context of my essay.
I feel as if my Round Table Paper is also, one of the strongest pieces in my portfolio.
When I first started writing this assignment, I struggled with the fact that we were supposed to
write as if our audience had no prior knowledge about out topic. I wanted to be thorough in
information so that my audience understood each dominant voices position and their reasoning
behind it. To make sure I provided enough detail I would be very inclusive and detailed with the
information I presented, and as a result, I had multiple paragraphs that were filled with technical
babble. I had to figure a way to decide which information would be most beneficial to the reader
and how to explain the different ideas in a concise manner. I believe that I was able to give my
audience the imperative information they needed about the dominant voices in an effective and
orderly way through my Round Table Paper.
This semester I also took a Liberal Studies class, which focused on technology and the
ethics concerning technology, LBST 2211. LBST 2211 gave me the opportunity to connect the
information that I learned in English 1102 to my life outside of that particular classroom. I found
that this class and your class were similar because they both discussed fallacies, critical thinking
and arguments. Since I am enrolled in both classes simultaneously, I used what I learned in one
class and applied it to the other and vice versa. For example, in the Liberal Studies class, we
discussed the controversial topic of assisted suicide and since I found this topic to be interesting I
decided to use it as the topic of my rhetorical analysis to see if it was a potential candidate for my
line of inquiry. In addition, for the final essay in the Liberal Studies class I had to write an
argumentative essay about a technological ethical issue. For this essay, I utilized the information
that we learned in your class thus far about argumentative writing and applied it to my work.
Burkes Parlor, argument as conversation and inductive and deductive arguments were among
the concepts I used in my liberal studies final paper.
Overall, I can honestly say that this has been a productive and effective semester in
regards to my writing and literacy skills. I have learned about a different style of writing and
gained skills and knowledge along the course of the semester. I was able to take skills I have
learned in your class and apply them to another class and I will be able to do the same in the
future as well. I believe that this is what the First Year Writing Program is about, providing
college freshmen with literacy and critical thinking skills that they will utilize for the rest of their
academic career. This class, along with English 1101 has taught me a great deal and most
importantly taught me to have confidence in my writing. At the end of the year long journey, I
am not as intimidating by college-level writing.

Thank You for Everything,
Chelsea A. Waddell