Dear Reader,

As my freshman year at UNCC comes to a close, I have begun to reflect on the

progress I’ve made, not only as a student, but also as a scholar. This class has specifically

taught me about opening up my mind and seeing what I can do with it. From the moment

that I stepped foot into the classroom, I realized that this would be far more fulfilling than

any English or writing class that I’ve taken in the past. Rather than focusing on a specific

piece of literature or type of writing, we focused on our thought processes. By doing so, it

allowed us all to go deeper than, say, a page requirement, and instead aim for the best work

that we can create (which is not a simple thing). The classroom environment was very

important as well. From my peers to my professor, I felt as if there was a mutual respect

around the room between everyone. In general, University Writing 1103 came together to

be my favorite class of the semester.

Through all of the work I did in this class, I think that the most important and

enjoyable was my informal writing (blog posts and daybook entries). These short passages

allowed me to just let the words flow from my brain. It was extremely interesting to look at

a photo, article, video, etc. and then respond naturally. At my core, I feel that I’m a relatively

artistic person and writing really is an art, so it was enjoyable to me to instinctively

respond to some piece of work. Informal writing can help me find out who I am as a person,

which is certainly a goal of mine while I’m in college. I just seemed to love it because it felt

natural, which, at least for me, was rare in a writing piece (no matter how brief it is). I

usually don’t feel compelled or passionate about most writing pieces because I generally

like to express myself in other ways, but because everything in these entries were

completely instinct-based, it was much easier and more fulfilling. The informal writing has

allowed me to understand myself, and what I enjoy writing. I feel that this is the reason

why it is the most important to me.

All writers have their own strengths and weaknesses, and I am not an exception. I

know that even though I feel like I’m a pretty solid writer, there are certainly areas that I

can improve in. For instance, I think that my biggest weakness (which is something that

just about everyone struggles with) is procrastination. Just bringing myself to sit down and

write is the hardest part about the process. Once I’m there, my ideas can flow, but I still

struggle with the organization of my thoughts. I understand that formal essays and such

generally have a structure – an introduction followed by the body paragraphs, often

organized from least to most important, then a conclusion. However, I always seem to

struggle with the organization of the body, whether it is the paragraphs or the sentences

within them. Another weakness that I have is my reliance on my own viewpoints rather

than looking at the viewpoints of others. Too often do I find myself struggling to include an

alternate perspective in my work, which can be detrimental and almost discrediting. I think

that I have definitely worked on that in this class, but there is obviously room for

improvement. As far as my strengths go, I believe that I have always been good at getting

my point across. My theses are mostly always crystal clear and precise. I also feel that

unlike a lot of people, I have a pretty strong sense of proofreading my work. My grammar is

usually pretty solid to begin with but I always like to check my work, aside from some

minor instances. In general, I have a ton of room to grow as a writer but I do feel like a have

a good basis to build from.

Perhaps my largest improvement from the beginning of the semester is my progress

as a thinker. I have learned to take a step back before my writing and just think. I used to

just start writing with minimal preparation and find that my work would sort of drift off

topic, but since taking UWRT 1103, I have absolutely come to value preparation. For

instance, on my literacy narrative, I just sort of wrote and tried to find out where I was

going with it, which can be okay in some instances, but I think my work would’ve been

much better if I took the time to sit down and think about it. The planning is the most

important part and it has been something that I have always struggled with, but at this

point I feel that I take more time to think about my plan, which has made things much

easier. When it all comes down to it, learning to think efficiently has been one of my most

valued experiences in this class and will also serve as one of the most useful.

As I mentioned before, the literacy narrative was a stressful piece for me because

although it was a fairly brief project, I really didn’t know what I was going to write about. I

thought about what I would make it about for a while and even bounced around from story

to story until I settled on one, which was actually about learning to tell a story. Out of all of

the pieces I did, I don’t know if I can say that this is my least favorite one, but I didn’t really

feel as if it had much value. It was difficult for me because it essentially had to be written

like a passage out of a novel with dialogue and a story progression, which I am not the best

at. However, I think I made it work to the best of my abilities and I ended up fairly happy

with it.

The topic proposal was an interesting piece because it was much more in-depth

than I had originally imagined. Before I looked at the template for it, I thought that it would

simply be a short paragraph about what we would be researching and nothing more, but

we ended up having an overview, questions, the reason for interest, and even the next steps

in the process. This ended up helping tremendously because it allowed me to gauge much

further interest in my topic that I had before and actually sort of gave me a timeline for the

EIP with the “next steps” portion. I found that the topic proposal was valuable and even

enjoyable because I did get to learn a lot about my topic even before I started the real

research. The fact that it had a template to follow made the assignment much better, as

well, because it gave me a structure to go by. It was probably my favorite of the major

assignments for the semester because it allowed me to explore different topics and find the

one that provoked the most interest in me.

The annotated bibliography was a particularly stressful assignment for me, but it

was not the hardest. I think that it probably held the most value of anything that I had done

for my extended inquiry project because it helped me learn how to research my work

efficiently. As a college student, it is not uncommon for me to dread researching a topic

because it is so tedious and time-consuming, but it is certainly a useful skill to have. It was

nice to get all of the information that I researched down onto my annotated bibliography

because it made the rest of the extended inquiry project much easier to complete. The

annotated bibliography was a useful tool and is something that I think will come in handy

for me in the future.

My extended inquiry project drafts were both fairly well polished, but a clear

progression can be seen between the two of them. On my first draft, it is clear that I didn’t

have quite enough research yet. Essentially, I was trying to get all of my information down

on paper before I got all of the minute details that make the paper complete. It helped to do

multiple drafts because it allowed me to see what I needed to build on and also see

progress when I added new information. Once I got to the point where I needed to turn in

my final EIP draft, I felt like I didn’t have enough information in my annotated bibliography

for my paper, but once I sat down and started letting my thoughts flow, I turned out to be

just fine. Even once I got to the final draft, it became aware to me that I didn’t really

represent the alternate perspectives enough aside from the danger of 3D printed weapons.

However, now that I have come to the end of the semester and I’ve been working on my e-

portfolio for a while, I have added things such as a loss in quality of the product or lost jobs.

Meeting the 8-page requirement for the e-portfolio EIP draft was difficult as well, but like I

have said before, once you sit down and start writing, the words sort of flow. This

assignment was very difficult but also quite informative, so I did enjoy it as a whole.

The e-portfolio assignment was the most difficult but most rewarding of the

semester. First of all, it was a long and tedious process. We were told to start early because

there is a lot that goes into this assignment, and that was the best advice possible. Although

the pieces of the e-portfolio aren’t very difficult on their own, there are a lot of them, so

spacing them out was a must. It was a nice experience to reflect on my old pieces and look

at the progress I made through the course of the semester. However, it was also very tough

to make changes to my EIP or write this final reflective letter simply because it is hard to do

major assignments with summer on the horizon. I think that is what made the e-portfolio

so difficult. Altogether, though, it was a rewarding and necessary experience.

In the future, I hope to keep learning how to think more effectively in a writing or

literary perspective. I have definitely enjoyed the semester in UWRT 1103. I have learned a

lot in this class and I will remember the skills I have learned, such as planning my writing,

organizing my thoughts, and even making a journal. Thank you Malcolm Campbell, this

really was my favorite class of freshman year.

- Brett Morgan