Final Reflection Letter

Aliyah Wright
UWRT 1102-031

Considering the broad topic that I began with, Evolution of American Culture, you can image
how much sorting through I had to apply to this essay process. In all essence I wanted to focus on some
type of issue that changed the United States as a whole. There were so many influential factors that
altered this population to where it was a task just to list them. A big influence on my final topic
Feminism was my group. Together we brainstormed which years provided the most change, and how
important was that change for todays generations. Through trial and error and many revisions from my
peers and my professor, a clear topic began to emerge; Feminism, primarily focusing on the 1960s.
Researching provided me with a challenge, mainly because the topic of feminism is more of an
opinionated subject and many websites were biased. The feminist movement did not begin in the 60s
and end in the 70s contrary to popular belief. So the undertaking of pin pointing that snap shot in
history was not easy. There arent many accessible books on this topic, if so the book contained one or
two paragraphs, and it was through the experience of a specific someone. What helped me benefitted
me most were news articles, documentaries, and the internet. Although you have to beware of biased
propaganda, the internet supplied me with tons of information. Documentaries gave you an intimate
look at certain events that led up to, or occurred during this time. News articles expressed how these
events affected society as a whole and what changes materialized from it.
I wanted to create a timeline in my essay, because like I stated, the feminist movement did not
originate I the 1960s. This choice of pattern was both successful and unsuccessful. It was successful
because it did give a timeline of events leading up to my intended topic. In effect my intended topic lost
its relevance conclusion was weak. My presentation was not based on my paper because I wanted to
give the class a more enjoyable or shocking perspective to my topic. I used radical feminism as a
subtopic because it was an idea that I wanted to touch on but it had no real importance to my essay. Yes
radical feminism was a factor in the feminist movement, but I chose to focus on the political change that
conspired from liberal or normal feminism.
Freedom to write about whatever you desired was a new experience for me. In previous writing
classes I was given a topic or a general idea of what the instructor wanted to us to focus on. Creative
freedom has taught me that it is okay to be wrong, that is it fine to ask for help, and feedback is not
criticism. It has also taught me that there is a process to writing a paper, now that I understand that
process I will alter it the best way it suites me. I enjoyed putting this portfolio together, although it was a
pain in the (bleep), figuring out how it worked. Looking back on all the work I turned in it seemed like so
little was done to create this final product. I appreciate the way Ms.Carty stretched out the due dates
and gave us immediate feedback to help us improve our writing abilities. Ive gained from this class the

skill of research and collecting information in an organized manner. Ive lost the habit of
procrastination a little bit.
~ Sincerely, Aliyah Wright