Dear Reader,

I’m going to start out by saying that I’ve never liked writing ever. I have never been good

at it or felt that I was good at it. This class made me love it. I know that you may think I’m just

saying that but I honestly love writing now because I have confidence. This class is what gave

me the confidence. Every assignment in this class helped better my writing no matter how small

of an assignment it was.

There were multiple different activities that we did this semester. We did essays, daybook

entries, blog posts, peer editing, researching, revising, editing, group work and there is so much

more. I enjoyed each of these assignments. In the beginning: I felt that they were tedious and

small. As we got deeper into the semester, I realized that everything helps you in some way.

Most of the assignments helped me organize my thoughts better. I’ve always been very scatter

brained and never was able to put my thoughts on paper. The daybook entries helped with my on

the spot writing. I really enjoyed these because they were a time where I could just pretty much

word vomit up on the paper. Reflections helped me think about what I just read or did more in-

depth. Peer review made me learn to help others in the nicest way possible. Out of all of the

assignments, the one that helped me the most as a learner and person was the revising. I truly

didn’t think that revising was going to be that hard. I thought that I wouldn’t need to change that

much in my paper. Come to find out it was very hard. It’s hard to look at something you wrote

and pick it apart. Even though you know it’s not perfect. You don’t want to change anything. I

really had to step back and look at my paper from an outside perspective. That is what helped me

the most while revising my EIP. All of these assignments helped me grow as a learner and

person because it taught me patience. Now, I’m not a very patient person like at all. It is

definitely something I’m working on; however, in writing you have to patient. You have to know
that getting better at writing takes time and you have to work at it. You have to be patient with

yourself. I got very frustrated with myself in multiple instances and I had to breathe and know

that I’m trying my best and I’m getting better. I can’t stress enough how much this class and

these assignments helped me as a writer and a student.

My most important work in this class was my EIP. I bet that is a very common answer

but this was a very big assignment. I consider this my most important work because it is

something, I am extremely proud of. I didn’t procrastinate on this assignment which is

uncommon for me. I really sat down and took my time with this because it was about something

very important to me. As a writer and student, my overall goal is to be proud about what I am

doing. I am most proud when I’m writing something that’s important and when I’m not

procrastinating things. I know procrastination seems to be a silly thing; however, it is something

I struggle with a lot. This assignment made me a proud student because I didn’t procrastinate. I

took my time. I made sure I knew exactly what I wanted to do and how I wanted to say it. This

assignment helped me get closer to my goals because it made me realize what I need to do to

reach them as a student and a writer.

In writing, I have many weaknesses and not a lot of strength but I’m getting better. Some

of my weaknesses when it comes to writing is doing it in a timely manner, making sense and

being confident. I have said this before but I’m going to say it again. I procrastinate. A lot. That

is something that hurts me as a writer because my work isn’t as good when I wait till the last

minute. When writing sometimes I make no sense. I make complete sense to me but to other

people it looks like gibberish on a page. Since I make no sense, I have never had confidence in

my writing. I always felt that I didn’t write as well as others and that I would never write as well

as others. This semester two of those have changed. I’m starting to make more sense. I make
more sense because I’ve realized what I have to do to help readers understand what I’m saying. I

have to write my thoughts out on the paper first and then go make and make it make sense. With

that being said, my confidence has now gone up. I feel that my writing means something. Now

that it makes more sense to most readers; I have the confidence to right more because I have a lot

to say. The one thing that I’m still working on is procrastination. I know we are shocked. It is

something that I’m really trying to fix but when you get into the habit of something it is hard to

break. Even with my weaknesses; I have my strengths. I am good at just having fun with my

writing. I feel that writing comes naturally to me. It doesn’t make sense sometimes but I feel like

words just flow with me. I start typing and I can’t stop. These strengths have helped a ton this

semester.

After looking at the SLOs I see two that I have progressed in. The main one I have

progressed in is my composing process. Before this class, my composing process was all over

the place. I never really had a system on writing. I just word vomited on the page and called it a

day. I know do an outline of my paper before I start. After my outline, I just write. It doesn’t

matter if there are errors or if some parts don’t make sense. I just write. After finishing the very

rough draft, I fix it up. I make sure that if someone reads the writing that they will understand.

This process has made writing so much easier for me and less stressful. This has helped me as a

writer, thinker and reader because it has helped me gather my thoughts and do things in a better

process. As reader, it has helped me break down what I am reading better. The second SLO that I

have progressed in is critical reflection. We did a lot of reflection in this class. The reflection

helped me be able to reflect on the things I was reading. It helped me gather my interpretations

from the reading or assignment and put on paper. I really enjoyed being able to look back and
see how I reflected on things. I never reflected before this class but it is an extremely helpful

thing. It is something I will continue to do in college.

I feel like a grew a lot as a thinker, questioner and writer in this class. As a thinker, I

learned how to think outside the box more. When it came to picking my topic, I struggled

because I kept thinking of ideas that were basic. Basic ideas are not bad but I felt like I need to

do something better. This was extremely frustrating for me but then I thought to myself. Just

think outside the box. Think of topics that you would usually think about. Just write down topics

that come to mind. Be open about topics. That was my biggest problem was being close minded.

As a questioner, I learned how to think of deeper questions. When I first started then inquiry

project, I had already picked my topic and now I was thinking about what I wanted to focus.

Who thought that coming up with questions would be so hard? I sure didn’t but I struggled. I just

couldn’t seem to think of something that was worth researching. I then started to research and

then find questions I had from there. So as a questioner a learned how to find question. How to

think of the right questions. Last but not least, as a writer, I learned how to be patient. I talked

about this earlier but I struggled with getting my writing to be good. I made like 7 first drafts of

my EIP because I kept deleting what I had. I wanted to write the paper right then and no later. I

just wanted to get it done. I learned how to sit back, be patient and just think about what I want

to right. Don’t stress about being perfect. Just think about what you what the readers to know.

This has made me a much better writer. It is able to sit back and be patient with your writing is

hard but so helpful in the long run.

The studios were highly informative. They really helped me break down each of the

things we were talking about in class. Most of the time it is hard for your professor to touch

every single detail on everything we are talking. The studios gave us a way to practice what he
was talking about and helped us better understand. I found these assignments easy because

everything was laid out for you. In each studio, it explained the assignment and why we are

doing it. I was surprised on how helpful these actually were. I heard from people in the past that

they were just busy work but honestly it wasn’t. If you did the assignment right It helped your

writing. Overall, I thought that the studios were extremely helpful to better my writing.

Personally, the topic proposal was hard. The hardest thing about it was finding the actual

topic. I kept searching and trying to find something that I would enjoy researching but I just

couldn’t seem to find something. I honestly don’t remember how I chose my topic. It kind of just

popped into my head due to my recent experience and I felt that it was the best topic for me. I

would have changed my composition process and researched a little more before I did my topic

proposal. I felt that I didn’t know enough about it. I also would have taken more time to write it

and be able to reflect on it and make it better. After finding a topic, writing it wasn’t hard. This

assignment got me excited for the rest of the EIP.

I thought the Annotated Bibliography was so fun. I don’t know why but I thoroughly

enjoyed writing. I really enjoyed researching more about my topic and learning more because it

made me passionate about my writing. Even though I enjoyed researching it got very frustrating.

I couldn’t seem to find a lot of reliable sources. There are not a lot of scholarly articles about

teen suicide. It gave me doubts about my topic. Once I found sources to use, the process of

making the AB was interesting. I enjoyed breaking down each source and finding the

information that I was going to use in my EIP. I enjoyed because it helped me with my EIP. It

helped me know what I wanted to talk about. This activity absolutely surprised me because I

thought I was going to hate it. It seemed so long and tedious. I was not excited to start but once I

started, I couldn’t stop. I really enjoyed this assignment.

 My first EIP Draft was so hard. I wrote that draft about 7 times. I couldn’t seem to gather

my thoughts in the way I wanted to. I was writing good information but it wasn’t coming off in

the way I envisioned it. The draft I submitted to my peer I completely got rid of and even though

that might sound crazy. It was honestly that best thing I could have done because it caused me to

start fresh and have new thoughts. This assignment is what made me realize that I needed a

composing process because the way I was doing it was not working. I was better at writing this

than I thought I was going to be. After I gathered my thoughts and wrote an outline, I was none

stop typing. I wrote an entire 8 pages in 3 hours. I just had so much passion for what I was

writing about that everything just came to me. Even though this assignment was hard it taught

me how to gather my thoughts and that if I make an outline my life is so much easier.

My Final EIP Draft was hard but easy all at the same time. After reading over my essay

again, I realized that some parts of it weren’t making sense. I felt that the point I wanted to get

across was there just maybe not in the way that will help people understand. I found it difficult to

change things in my essay because I liked the way it was. I knew that I needed to change things

but I just didn’t want to. I would have changed the mindset I started it in. I was honestly just

going to change the grammar mistakes because that’s all I thought I needed; however, after

reading comment I realized that I needed to do more. I am really glad that I changed parts of my

essay because I believe that my point is now getting across in a way people can understand. I am

most proud of this assignment because I feel like all of my hard work this semester paid off with

this paper about something that is very close to my heart. I felt needs to be known and my goal

for the meaning of this paper was absolutely achieved.

My ePortfolio was a very fun assignment but definitely the most challenging. I found it

easy to gather all of the information I needed and to design my website. I didn’t find it easy to
reflect on everything. I have gotten better at reflecting but it was hard to do it on every

assignment. I think that every single reflection I did is very helpful. It is good to look back at

your writing. I would have changed my composing process and probably been more critical

about my website. I found that I was better at designing my website than I thought which sounds

dumb but I was nervous about designing. This was the most challenging assignment because it

was very big but also hard to put together. I feel that a lot of people thought this was going to be

easy and it wasn’t. I am so very grateful that we did this ePortfolio because I am very proud of

the work I did in this class and now it is all in one place.

I loved this class. This was my favorite class this year. I felt that I could express myself in

this class and it was very goofy and fun. I thank my professor for all of his help this semester. I

know we were a loud class. There are multiple things I will take away for this class. The first is

patience; I need to be more patient with my writing and myself. I’m too hard on myself in a lot

of aspects in life. I am going to stop procrastinating and start being the student I want and know I

can be. I am going to continue my blog because I really enjoyed expressing myself. Most of all, I

am going to have fun with my writing. I don’t have to be so particular all the time. I need to learn

to let loose and get creative. I learned so much about my writing in this class and my professor

has made me love it. I am so excited to continue blogging and journaling. I am a better writer

and student from this class and I will be forever grateful.

Sincerely,

Bailey Stephenson