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Dear Malcolm,
UWRT 1103 has been one of the most unique writing/English courses that I've ever
experienced. Over the course of the semester, I was engaged in a variety of different tasks and
assignments that helped me develop my writing and critical thinking skills. What made it so
unique was how the class was structured not to just give simple reading and writing assignments
but rather ones that will stick with and have a permanent impact on every student who takes it.
Writing in our daybooks almost every time we had class is a perfect example of what I mean.
When I went out and bought my daybook at the beginning of the semester I was dumb
enough to grab the first journal I saw and it turned out to be a graphing journal. At first I was
worried that I would get points taken off or be reprimanded for purchasing the wrong type of
journal, but I came to realize almost immediately after using them for the first time, that
worrying about such a thing was unnecessary. Our daybooks were not about having good
formatting and being precise and punctual in our writing but instead were about the sheer
cultivation of free flowing thought and to organize your thoughts and plan for the day. Given that
we were never checked upon to confirm that our writing was well written and grammatically
correct, the daybook served its purpose flawlessly. Having the class at 9:30 in the morning twice
a week resulted in many cranky and tired mornings not wanting to go to class or let alone work
at all for that matter. This being said, coming in early in the morning and the first activity being a
free flowing stream of consciousness about what ever prompt was given was how I was able to
organize my thoughts and prepare for class and the day ahead. With out such a regularly used
system to awaken our minds and get our thoughts churning the class would have unfolded in a
much different way throughout the semester.

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When it comes to the rest of the work we did its hard to pick out one particular paper or
blog post that stands out from any of the others. However, I do believe my EIP to have been the
most important project I was involved in this semester. I dont just mean the final paper either.
The entire process was extremely important towards my development as a writer from 1st draft to
final draft. The Topic Proposal was by far the part of the entire semester that broadened my
thinking the most. The peer review and teacher review was a perfect way to see everything I
needed to improve on and also keep doing well. I often mentioned in daybook entries how my
best writing comes out when I care about the subject matter and am passionate about what Im
writing about. During the entire process leading up to my final EIP draft I was constantly
watching the news and the Internet looking for any new events that could help me improve my
final project. Being able to have such control over what I was writing about made me push
myself to do the best work I could throughout the entire process. Not only was I proud of my
final paper but also I was also relieved to have it done. Rarely in my academic life have I worked
on a paper as hard and for as long as I did on the EIP, an indicator of the importance it carried
with it.
While I was proud of my final EIP, it also helped me gauge in a new way my strengths
and weaknesses. I already knew before I enrolled in the course as a whole, that my grammar
skills were sub-par to say the least. I was prepared to receive heavy backlash from my peers and
teachers about my disregard for grammar and punctuation and rightly so. And while I did
receive a comment on almost every assignment turned in regarding my need to proof read and
work on spelling I learned that while it is the Achilles heal of my writing, it doesnt define it. I
learned through my grammatical short comings that with a little work and a lot of revision, I
could be able to write a paper that show cased my thoughts and ideas while avoiding glaring

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mechanical errors. Furthermore, I learned that my strength is in the ideas I have as a writer and
thinker. I may not always be able to word them particularly well the 1st or 2nd time around but
when I am able to clearly articulate and write out my thoughts and how I feel about what ever it
is I'm writing about my writing isnt half bad.
The literacy narrative was the 1st time during the semester where I struggled to find a start
and a meaningful subject that was both interesting and fit the prompt well. During that process I
often struggled with writing and opening my mind to broaden my thinking. Eventually I turned
in a somewhat good composition but the way my writing and thought developed throughout the
semester started with the literacy narrative. At the beginning of the semester I was struggling to
write a four and half page paper about my own literacy, something I should be very familiar with
and have no trouble talking about. However, I struggled nonetheless and after completing the
narrative and moving forward on all our work I really can see how this course opened my mind
up to the new horizons my writing holds. This class has helped me go from someone who could
barely write four pages about themselves to someone who was able to craft an entire ePortfolio
covering an entire semesters writing.
The course was extremely interesting and fun but not always. When we were tasked with
creating the Annotated Bibliography I was, to be completely honest, very annoyed with the task,
but (not to sound extremely clich) there can be no improvement without some hardships. Never
the less, the program that UNCC offers for all students to improve their writing skills and ensure
that they stay sharpened for quite some time is excellently crafted. It is hard to say whether my
writing skills would have improved had I not taken UWRT 1103, but I now know for a fact that
my writing and critical thinking skills have changed and improved significantly. From the start to
the finish of the semester my writing has grown and so have I.

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-Tristan Wall