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Final Reflection

April 18, 2020

Dear Ms. Barnidge,

 

I’m excited to be writing this letter, because that means I am almost done with English 102. Okay, it wasn’t that bad, but I definitely enjoyed English 101 more. I realized I wasn’t very experienced in academic or research-based writing and it was harder to motivate myself to get started working. It’s ironic because I liked the “creative writing” from 101 better, but this semester’s academic writing was all based on creativity.

Since we focused on one topic for most of the semester, I was a little sick of it by the end, but I did find some interesting things along the way. Coming into this semester hearing the whole theme was creativity kind of set me back, because I’ve never really considered myself creative. After writing my exploratory essay, reading extra articles for my reading log, and doing research for my annotated bibliography and research essay, I could actually see the areas in my own life that were keeping me from being creative, that I could work on.

I think the hardest part of the semester for me was actually doing the research and finding the articles that contained the information I was looking for and wanted to use for my essay. Once I found the articles I wanted, it wasn’t too hard for me to put together the annotated bibliography which set me up pretty well for the research essay. After we were sent home for the rest of the semester, I was really thankful for the day in class we were guided in starting our research essay. I think without having that start, even though it was small, I probably would’ve struggled to get going again. Since I had something on the page, it made it easier for me to add to what I already had in chunks. Once I had a good draft, I was able to have my family do a “peer review” for me since I no longer could be with my classmates. With online learning, it also really helped how clear and upfront you were by sending out an email early in the transition process with all of our remaining class dates, deadlines, and what would be expected from us.

As my freshman year comes to a close, I am really happy with the progress my writing has made. I appreciate how you recognized the things that were already working for us but showed us new strategies to try and different perspectives to consider. I think it really made a difference for me to have the same instructor for both semesters. I wasn’t a very confident or experienced writer coming into college, but I am proud of all I have accomplished this year in English 101 and 102. Especially after 102, I feel more prepared to continue academic writing in upper level courses and even into my career. In addition, I also know that I can write about things I want to write about too, or even just write to get thoughts and emotions out to clear my head. Thanks for everything, Ms. Barnidge.

 

All the best,

Sydney Helgeson

 

P.S. Now when someone Googles me, all my first-year writing can be found on my ePortfolios ;)

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