Sidnee Baker

UWRT 1101-001

Final Reflection
If I were being completely honest about this course, I would say that it has been one of
the best classes Ive been a part of this year. This was my very first class of my college career,
and by far one of the most resourceful. One thing Ive always loved is an instructor with a
passion to show other people what theyre passionate about. I feel like that is really the best word
choice to use when talking about this course: passion. It is what drove the class. Its what made it
what it was. Because it was such an early class and on a Monday morning half of the time, it
would be expected that some class periods were a little rough. However, I could always be able
to feel like I got something out of the class. Thats what really matters in the long run. The peer
knowledge about things that I actually wanted to know about is what made this class one of my
favorites. I loved how everything was up to us. Our topics, our assignments, even a majority of
the deadlines were left up to us. I appreciated that more than ever because I feel like it gave
everyone a fair chance to bring their own unique ideas and approaches to the various
assignments. I loved giving and receiving feedback. If ever there was a question about
something, I knew for a fact it would get answered in a timely and precise matter. I feel like
because of the way this course was set up, it allowed me to get as much out of it as I wanted. Im
thankful that I was able to learn that and really see the benefits from it in this class. I really
wanted to learn. Self-motivation played an important role in my grades in this course.
For our first assignment, the vignettes piece, when we were first learning the guidelines
and requirements I was nothing short of confused. I didnt understand why we had so much
leeway to do what we wanted with it, and honestly, I didnt really know how to handle such a
broad assignment. After seeing a few examples and really trying to reflect on myself, I was able
to create something very meaningful to me. I didnt make any changes to it after I got my ghost

Sidnee Baker
UWRT 1101-001

grade. I felt pretty confident about the way it turned out. Because of the positive feedback I got
and the good grade, I feel like thats when I started to get what this class was going to be about.
In high school we were taught a correct way to write and an incorrect way to write. The fact that
I was able to break through those standards after the first assignment only strengthened my
interest for the class.
The textual analysis was the next assignment. We had to choose our topics before we
could begin. I struggled for a while trying to find one a topic that I felt I could talk about for the
rest of this course. We had briefly been talking about feminism in this class and also in one of my
other classes so I thought if nothing else, Id have enough material and resources to write about
this topic. So, with that, I began looking for my resources. I easily found the five required texts
for this assignment. This was probably my least favorite assignment because I struggled to find
enough to say about each text. I had never done a text analysis before and I found out early on
that they can be quite challenging. I found that videos were easier for me to write about. I assume
its because theres a more visual aspect of videos than regular text. In a video, I was able to see
the facial expression of the narrator. The way they talked, the way they interpreted things, and
the illustrations made it much easier for me to analyze who their targeted audiences were and
what they were actually wanting people to get out of what they were saying. When I was reading
an article or a chapter in a book, those things were pretty much left up to me to interpret, which
was quite a challenge for me. After getting my ghost grade and my feedback, I was able to go
back and change somethings. I added to the analysis that were too short and fixed the ones that
needed to be fixed. This was the assignment that I focused on fixing the most because I did the
worst on this one. I was glad I was given the chance to change the things that needed to be
changed. This helped me understand the things that I was doing wrong, as well as the things I

Sidnee Baker
UWRT 1101-001

was doing right that I wasnt sure about. I was able to learn and grow from this assignment,
which to me is the most important thing. I know that whenever Im reading something, Ill give
more thought to who he or she is directing their writing to and why they use the language and
modes that are used. Ill also put these thoughts into my own writing, which will improve my
writing skills tremendously.
The essay was the one that scared me the most when I was first hearing about the
guidelines and requirements. I engraved it into my brain that I was not going to procrastinate on
this because I did not have that luxury at all. Six to eight pages of academic intelligence is not
something that can just be typed up one day before its due. I knew that from the beginning. I
really wanted my essay to be good. I wanted to show of the fact that I was learning a lot about
this topic. I wanted it to make sense and be relevant. I wanted it to flow well together and stay o
topic. I knew that if I wanted all of that, I couldnt mess around. I had to put the work in. I
decided to focus my essay on all of the falsehoods and misconceptions that are associated with
feminism. I already had a lot of new knowledge about the issues with feminism thanks to the text
analysis assignment, however, I wanted more sources that were precise about the common myths
about feminists. I was able to find the ones I really wanted to talk about fairly easily. I started by
making an outline. I put a fair amount of thought into the outline because I knew it wouldve
been the best way to ensure that I stayed on topic while I was writing my paper. Oddly, I found
this assignment not only to be one of my favorites, but also one of the easiest. It was so ironic to
me that my mindset completely changed in hindsight after completing this assignment. I also
chose to go to the writing center for the essay. I am glad that I chose to go for this one because
they were so extremely helpful. Honestly, I think my essay turned out to be as successful as it
was because of my trip to the writing center. I was able to get any questions I had about citations

Sidnee Baker
UWRT 1101-001

answered, as well as proofread a large portion of my paper in a constructive way by reading it

allowed. The feedback that I got was also very helpful. I decided not to make too many changes
because I felt like it was pretty well written the way it was. I only made those minor grammatical
improvements that were pointed out to me in my feedback. Other than that, I left it pretty much
as is.
The genre remediation was a lot like the vignettes piece in the sense of free reign. I
wasnt really sure where to take this assignment at first. After talking about it in class, I decided
that a protest sign was a great idea. I googled different protest sign ideas and found a great one
for me to interpret into my own. I chose a sign that was relevant to the main points that I had
made in my essay. I think that I did well in capturing the right idea. Im no artist, but I liked the
fact that it wasnt some clear cut, formal thing because I dont think that style is seen much when
it comes to women protesting for their rights. At first, I used simple blue boy and pink girl
stick figures for both the top and the bottom. However, after getting feedback about it, I felt like I
was close to capturing the message I wanted, but there was more I could do with it. After making
those few minor changes, I thought it was perfect. It was the perfect statement for equality for
everyone and I loved the fact that I was allowed to make those necessary changes.
Overall, this class taught me so much. It was personal to me. I love that I am talking
away so much, but at the same time, I dont feel like I had to study for hours upon hours to be
able to do that. I feel like this class was set up in a way where the student it taking away as much
knowledge as he or she wanted to. The work was there for you to do, but it was up to you to
make it what it was. Every assignment, for the first to the last, was based off of ones own
personal creativity and style. Im walking away from this class knowing that I am a writer in my
own sense. No one can take that away from me.