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Dear Reader,

Taking this class has allowed my writing to be increasingly thorough and more

structured. Through various assignments I have come across multiple new techniques that

others have used to successfully write excellent essays and papers. Going through and reading

and discussing excerpts from a writers book, and also free-writing in our daybooks have both

been experiences that have truly been beneficial in the writing process. Also learning how to

annotate bibliography and practicing annotating text in general has also been helpful in other

classes as well, not only when writing for this class.

Writing in my daybook was overall one of my favorite activities. It allowed for me to be

able to write about certain little prompts that my professor asked for while also having the

freedom to write it in whatever formed I saw fit. It also gave me a space to write in creative

ways if I felt like doing so that day. Overall, I saw it as a place where I could practice my writing

without feeling the pressure of a paper. We wrote about many things that I would have never

considered if it had not been required to be written.

Learning how to correctly annotate bibliography is something that I think was the most

valuable thing that I received from this class. It is something that I know I will be able to use in

the future as I advance my academic career. One big aspect that the annotated bibliography

has is structure, and I feel that it is something that I was lacking when I first came into this class.

To a degree I am still missing this, but overall I think that having some structure in my writing

has helped me tremendously. We discussed it in a daybook page, about what were some good

things to have in writing. It came down to organization, tone, grammar, smooth transitions and
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a good conclusion. Some aspects of this that I struggled with are organization and smooth

transitions. My writing tends to be a mixture of ideas that I end up sorting out which ends up

making my transitions hard to smooth out. I have learned that making an outline can really aid

in the process of writing because I will know what I want to look for and in what area I want

that information to be, then from there I can smooth out the transitions by closing out the

sections with little sentences at the end of each paragraph.

My topic proposal was a compilation of all my thoughts on what I wanted my topic to

be, it outlined my reasoning for choosing the topic. I liked writing the topic proposal because I

find it easier to write why I want to do something and why something interests me over

researching and putting together a paper. In a way I was not quite sure if I structured it

correctly, but I tried my best so hopefully I did do it correctly.

My first EIP draft was a little difficult to write. I had some of the information but in that

moment I was not sure about the direction I wanted to take the paper. I had some solid

information and ideas thought out but I was struggling to find the information that I wanted to

include in the paper. It didn’t meet the length requirements because of the issues that I

mentioned but after I wrote the draft, I felt that I realized that I needed to have more structure

in my writing process. This included staying focused for longer periods of time, which I found

very difficult, and creating a solid outline for my paper. So ultimately those are the two big

things that I learned I needed to do for papers that were going to be longer in length and would

be more time-consuming. This really helped in writing my final draft of my EIP. The problems

that I ran into were different this time. It was mostly finding reliable academic journals that

could expand on the research I had already done. It was difficult finding information that wasn’t
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repetitive. Eventually I had to venture out and try to find articles through google, instead of

through the library database. I feel that a lot of the information on my topic was similar and it

tended to all kind of mesh into one general are. The idea that female role models can inspire or

affect both young girls and older girls and women was something I always assumed but that I

wanted to prove through thorough research. It took a lot of time for me to sift through all the

articles and journals that had the same conclusion and into ones that included differences in

race and age to see how wide of a range this topic had.

Overall, although I am not the best writer and writing is not my favorite activity, I am

glad I took this course because of all that I have learned. It was a great learning experience and

although I did not always enjoy the writing prompts, I feel that it was a necessary and beneficial

course that I took. Usually if I was given the option between writing something and not writing

at all I would choose the latter. I really enjoyed the freedom that I had, to write in a place that I

was the most comfortable, which is the library. I appreciate all that I have learned from

required prompts, peers, and also my professor and her suggestions.

Sincerely,

Leslie Zuniga