Final ReflectionDear reader, As this semester comes to a close I would like to reflect on what I have learned and accomplished in UWRT 1103. I know I wasnt told to write about how great Professor Campbell was, but I feel as though he did contribute to making this class enjoyable. I have never enjoyed english and I have always dreaded writing. Professor Campbell opened my mind to writing and gave me a chance with the work I did. The structure of the class was probably the most beneficial aspect of it all for me. Every morning, being able to go into class and have a simple task of writing down whatever the free write was, got me ready for the day. Often times, having an 8 AM makes it nearly impossible to focus, let alone think. The short day book assignments helped with that for sure. Being able to be reminded on what we had been learning definitely helped get me into the swing of things for the day. For example, one day book assignment was telling us to describe the process of creating our EIP. Although I hadnt begun this yet, being able to have time to plan helped me get started and organized with my paper. Another part of the class that I loved was the blog. I have personally never kept a blog, so this being the first time was definitely a cool experience. The videos and readings we were assigned were never boring and there was always some message to get out of them. I loved having the blog because I was able to share my feelings on the video/article without having to present out loud. I have always been shy and presenting has never been my strong suit. With that being said, I do still have pretty strong opinions and it was nice to be able to get them out. The assigned readings/videos for the blog posts also expanded my knowledge. We were never assigned two of the same readings and everything had a different meaning. This helped expand my knowledge on many things other than writing. For example, there was a TED Talk that was about 30 not being the new 20. It was motivational in a way but it also taught a great message. It is never too late to get started on something. Whether that is a career or just a simple project, today is the day to start. I loved that we were assigned things that dealt with life, in general, rather than strictly writing. The last aspect of the class I enjoyed was the library days. I always feel rushed when having to write something but that was never the case in this class. We were given many library days which we could use however we wanted planning, researching, and writing our papers. This was so helpful and definitely helped with not stressing over homework. This was also helpful because Professor Campbell would also be in the library so any question we had we were able to walk over and ask. Having that much time to write instead of procrastinating until the day before an assignments is due was very beneficial to my writing. For once, I was able to make writing a slow process and make everything sound good and seem organized rather than rushing it like I always have in the past. I guess what I am trying to say is having so much time dedicated to my writing helped me enjoy the process and taught me how to correctly write a paper. I would say the most important work I did this semester was my literacy narrative. As a student, I was never asked to write anything rather than research papers. The only ability I thought I had was writing research papers. Having this literacy narrative opened my mind to a whole new side of writing. I never knew I was capable of writing a story about myself without having to cite sources and give examples. Because of this experience, now I have practice with both research papers and creative writing. I definitely think this is an important thing to learn to do. So many people are opposed to writing (including myself) because it is associated with research. What a lot of people do not realize is writing is also a great way to express something more personal. I really enjoyed writing my literacy narrative because it brought me back to my childhood. It reminded me of something I really enjoyed that I had forgotten about. That, alone, made the process so exciting for me. The literacy narrative was extremely important to me as a writer in the way that I found out I could write papers other than on research. The narrative was also important to me as a person. I felt connected with my child self once again. Aside from the literacy narrative, I also felt that the ePortfolio was one of my more important creations. I have never created a website before so that alone was an awesome experience. On top of that, being able to create something that reflected my personality was really cool. Seeing all the work I put into this semester appear on the website was just a reminder to me how hard I worked. Before this, I never knew I was capable of writing so much and being okay with it. This definitely helped me grow as a writer. It made me realize what I really am capable of that I never knew before. This website will be a forever reminder that I am capable of writing and that I am some what good at it. Its easy to see that this course has helped me grow as a writer. My weaknesses I once had with writing have now turned into my strengths. For one, I was never good at writing research papers. Although it was a common assignment, it was never a strength of mine. I was very nervous to begin my EIP first draft. I could only think about all the failures I had with writing in the past. I could only think about all the negative comments teachers gave me about my papers. It was all very discouraging to me. The one thing I valued more than anything was Professor Campbells continuous positivity with my writing. Instead of failing me on every paper for grammar and other technical issues, he focused more on the ideas I had and the strengths of my paper. I believe that is the reason I became so confident in writing. My biggest weakness was being able to write a good, interesting paper. The first EIP draft seemed like the end of the world because it was five pages I could mess up. After all the positive feedback on my other papers, I started to feel so differently about the paper. It suddenly turned from a weakness of mine into a challenge. What was just a research paper at the beginning turned into an actual interest of mine. For once, I felt I put my heart and soul into a paper rather than just filling it with uninteresting information. Also, I never thought I was capable of writing five page papers without spending days on end doing it. I found that since I became interested in the topic, this all changed. I found so much information and I had so much to add that it all just started to come together. Before I knew it, my paper was almost six pages long. When it came time to write the final EIP, I no longer viewed it as something I hated. It became an interest of mine that I was very curious about. I found myself always wanting to learn more. I was no longer nervous, but instead I felt confident in my abilities. Being able to create an organized paper definitely became a strength of mine this semester.When it came time to start my topic proposal, I found myself having the most issues. We had a daybook entry about planning what to write about and I remember being lost for words. The biggest challenge for me was finding a topic that was interesting yet not too specific yet something that matters. It took me a long time to decide what to write on but finally I decided on something I thought would interest me. I faced many more challenges before writing the proposal, though. I was unsure of what questions I needed to answer and I didnt exactly know where to begin. Believe it or not, I conquered this challenge because of the deadline. I realized it was due soon so I just went for it. That was one of the biggest lessons I have learned all semester, though. I have always just made writing an assignment so formal in my head. I never just let writing happen until I was forced to do so because of the soon-approaching deadline. I learned that shitty first drafts are really good and really helpful. Instead of trying to perfect something, I learned to just start writing. Another challenge I faced was writing the annotated bibliography. I had never done this before so it was all very new to me. Having to spend time finding reliable sources rather than just pulling statistics from websites was very time consuming. On top of that, having to write a full report on each of them just seemed like so much work. I was pleasantly surprised, though. By the time I had found all four sources, I overcame the challenge of evaluating each one. This sounds strange but the reason I was able to overcome this challenge was by following directions. There was a guide for what to include in the evaluation that I was unaware of until I was scrambling to find things to say. Once I found this, everything started to come together. Before I knew it, I had written a whole page on each source and I was confident I did exactly what I needed to do. I learned that directions really do help and they definitely keep you on track with what needs to be talked about and what is unnecessary. In the end, having these four sources really helped construct my paper. I used all four through out the paper and found that they had my most valuable information. Overall, I was pleasantly surprised with this class. From the structure of the class to the visible affects it had on my writing, I feel like I really did grow from it. Aside from that, I really do feel that my weaknesses that I entered the class with became my strengths. I am so much more confident about writing now and I am not scared to just write how I feel. Going to class at 8 AM everyday turned out to be something I enjoyed rather than something I thought I would have dreaded. I am glad I took this course and I really do believe what I have learned will stay with me while I write papers in the future.