Taylor Kauffman ENGL 1101 Mr.

Borrero 6 December 2012 Reflective Letter I have never experienced a course as unique as English 1101. At the beginning of the semester, before knowing anything about this class, I was expecting it to be typical reading intensive class. The books that we were told to order from the university website, gave me an indication that during this course we will work on writing too. I was expecting to write a bunch of essays. But, the first day of class Mr.B told us to go return our books because we wouldnt need them. Overall, this course has impacted my writing skills tremendously. At the beginning of the semester, one of our first journal entries was to draw a picture of what an author looks like. A majority of our class drew your typical librarian or an older person, who appeared to be smart. This course has taught me that we are all writers. We were challenged in many different areas of our writing pieces we composed, and the little things that have changed, have helped us become better writers. In one of the first assignments I completed, I discussed my history and past experiences with reading, writing, and composition. In the piece, I include discussions of my past encounters with composition, and my beliefs and opinions of reading and writing, significant details that made reading and writing successful or difficult, as well as any challenges. While retracing my literacy history, I was able look more into depth about my strengths and weaknesses as a writer. While looking into my strengths and weaknesses as a writer at the beginning of the semester, I was able to use what was highlighted on my strengths to carry out them out

throughout my work done in this class. When I depicted my weaknesses as a writer, I would try to improve on them, or I would get feedback from Mr. B about how I could make specific areas better. In my Weebly, additional work tab, I added my extra credit paper I did in Sociology because when I received feedback from it, I was told my paragraph structure was very good. At the beginning of the semester, one of my weaknesses as a writer was my paragraph structure. But, towards the end of the semester, I have definitely not mastered this concept, but it was improved dramatically. The improvements I have made were only developed because of my hard work. In past English courses, the only was I was ever assessed was by a number grade slapped on my paper. Through group conferences, individual conferences, and email responses, I have been able to be more concerned about becoming a better writer, than what grade I made on an assignment. The choices I have made throughout this semester have allowed me to become a better writer. I always prioritize my schoolwork before I go out and do anything. I also try to go above and beyond on everything that I do, so I can make sure I have the best grades possible for when I transfer to a nursing school. The wise choices I have made to put as much effort as possible into my assignments for this courses have allowed me to become a better writer. The first big assignment we had to do was a literacy genre narrative. At first when planning out what I was going to do, I was ready to take the easy way out and just write an essay for it. But after exploring other genres, and participating in a group conference, my views were challenged and I changed my genre from an essay to a blog. The final product was a lot of work for me because I chose to go into a lot of detail about most of the important experiences I have had with literacy. Through this process I learned a lot about little narratives and how important it is to give your audience as much detail as possible. I was forced outside my comfort zone to

explore a genre that I had little experience with, but enough to make it successful. While doing this project, I also learned more about how important digital literacy is to my learning. My knowledge and understand of what literacy really is has expanded throughout the work in this course. The multiple assignments we did leading up to our Multi-Modal Literacy Narrative helped me think of literacy in a new way. Literacy is found everywhere and anyone can compose it. One of my favorite lessons that we did was protesting against the senator through different forms of literacy. The three choices we had were post-its, a fairytale, or a generic letter. Throughout the class discussion it was really cool to see how each different one could be used to get the message across. This activity really helped me think about how I wanted to do my project. After this project was completed, we were to write a defense essay. In this essay we discussed why we chose the genre that we did. My defense essay was my least efficient work in this class because I did not necessarily apply what I was learning to this essay. The essay I wrote did not flow very well, nor did it tell about why I actually chose the genre that I did. I revised the essay though and focused on the five major points that needed revising. These points that I emphasized on were establishing a clear focus on my introduction, topical transitions, narrative structure, reduction of rambling and enhancing my conclusion. My writing has improved tremendously in these five areas. In my ethnography, which was our second project in English 1101, it is a lot more evident that I have worked on these skills. For the ethnography project, we were to observe a discourse community of our choice. At first I really struggled with deciding what to do. In class we watch a Youtube video about LARPing. I found this very interesting and it gave me a better understand of how different the subcultures could be. Another activity and video we watched in class was about the Squatchers.

All these videos led up to the final product. These videos gave me a better understanding of what a discourse community is. A few classes later we were told to go in the Student Union and observe anywhere. I really enjoyed this activity because it taught us what observations should look like. For our project we were required two observations. I think the observations were one of the most helpful things because thats where a majority of my paper came from. The different activities we did in class helped me understand what an observation needs to look like. Both of the big projects I completed in this course have shaped who I am as a writer. A specific area that I have improved in is creating a piece that actually flows. Before this course, I was always able to get everything out that I need to say but when I try to put it together, it is all out of order. Throughout my different works in this class, I pay close attention to my paragraph structure. I have learned it is important to make sure you do not just jump around from topic to topic but you make the transitions easy. Another area that I have improved on in this course is reducing rambling. In my defense essay I tended to ramble about things that werent very important. In my ethnography, I did include a lot of detail, but there was reasoning behind all of it. To discuss my discourse community and get an understanding of how they use literacy to achieve their goals, you have to understand all of the details. The weaknesses that I had before as a writer have been strengthened through the different assignments we have had in this course. The literacy narrative project helped me focus on incorporating details into my little narratives. This concept carried over to my Ethnography because it helped complete my piece. Also, the Sociology paper that I attached in my E-Portfolio has displayed my strengths formed in this course that were discussed. The risks I took during this

class were to add as much information as I knew. Sometimes I felt as if I was saying too much, but I would always rather have more than not enough. The most challenging assignment in this course was the annotated bibliography. I had trouble figuring out what types of books and websites I wanted to use. The discourse community I chose was small non-denominational church. When starting the project I had no idea what I wanted to discuss about this topic specifically. Throughout working on this project, my purpose statement evolved. I ended up not using that much of the research I found in my annotated bibliography because I sort of changed that path of my topic. I was going to talk a lot about the generic church and first. I had been learning throughout this course to make things very specific so I narrowed it down to the visions and goals of this discourse community. While researching the subculture I chose, I felt this project fostered my growth the most as a writer. I was able to explore different types of research, through observations, interviews, and book research. This project broadens my horizon to what literacy can be. Literacy is not limited to just what is found in books. I learned how literacy is applied everywhere we go. This course really opened my eyes to seeing literacy in a new way and improving my skills as a writer. As a final result of English 1101, I have learned so much about literacy, writing and myself. In my older writing assignments all throughout middle and high school, I would chose to stay in my comfort zone. My teachers in the past have always been satisfied with my essay and research writing. This course challenged me to step outside my comfort zone as a writer and really take into a matter ways that I could strengthen my weaknesses. I will never be the perfect writer, and there will always be room for improvement. The challenges and assignments in this course have brought me to a new view of literacy.