Jeremiah Blackburn

UWRT 1103
Professor Malcolm
4/23/15

Reflective Letter

I just want to start out by saying thank you. Thank you for making this semester a little
less stressful than it could have been with any other English professor. Throughout this past
semester I have been able to use your class as a de-stressor. When my first two classes on
Tuesdays and Thursdays wouldnt go so well I could always depend on your class to at the very
least put a smile on my face which more often than not is a hard thing to do in a classroom
setting. Looking back on the experience now I learned quite a bit more than I thought I would.
From the corrections alone on our multiple papers we were assigned to accomplish I learned
more about my own writing style than I have before in any other writing or English class.
Through the numerous assignments and activities given to us to broaden our outlook on life, I
learned that each day should be taken as a learning experience and that using daybook writings
and blog entrees to track my thoughts is the most effective way to go about self-reflection.
This semester we were assigned a number of different tasks, whether it was to read an
article, listen to a Ted talk, watch a video on YouTube, write in daybooks, or write responsive
blog entrees. I can honestly say that even though it was difficult at times to balance the
assignments, I thoroughly enjoyed each and every task. So much so that sometimes when I had a
little more time on my hands I would repeatedly watch and listen to the Ted talks that were
always extremely interesting, or go back and write something that would come to mind later on

and I just needed to get it out of me, the daybook was that outlet. One activity that I believe I
enjoyed the most were the Ted talks, no matter what they would always induce critical thinking
in a way that would make me think for days at a time on the same subject that I had heard a
speaker convey their thoughts on through a Ted talk. Before this class I had never heard of Ted
talks much less seen one. If knowledge was measured through monetary means I believe that
opening up the world of Ted talks to me would be worth the entire bill for the UWRT 1103 class,
whatever number that may be, others may disagree but I stand firm on that opinion. Furthermore,
the class had even more to offer with the intriguing assigned articles that were just as thought
provoking as the Ted talks. Being fully immersed in the life of a student and being constantly
surrounded by educators, it is a breath of fresh air to be told to listen and watch speakers who
dont necessarily line up with the views most educators share about the criteria that make up the
public educational system.
These assignments and activities were what made the class so fun and different than other
classes I had taken in the past or were taking at the time. Out of all the activities and assignments
we were tasked to accomplish throughout the semester my favorite and most important work
would be the completion of building a website that encompasses all the work I have done up
until this point. This ePortfolio will be something that I will be able to learn from and expand
upon in future assignments. Not only do I now have the ability to create a website but I also
possess the knowledge to update and change the website itself, which may sound elementary to
some but to me that is valuable knowledge to be able to put on a resume one day for a career that
may involve website management. It is hard to pinpoint the ePortfolio as the most important
assignment that I have accomplished this entire semester, due to the fact that in some way, shape
or form each activity and assignment has grown my thinking beyond its prior boundaries. So

while I still believe that the ePortfolio was the most important of all the assignments because it
has grown me in the most prevalent manner; this does not mean that there were not many second
place winners that could have made a strong argument that they were the most important
assignment, but in the end the ePortfolio takes first. Not only for its real life applications but also
for teaching me that nothing is too hard to achieve. When presented with the notion that I had to
create an entire website within an eight week time period (which turned into about four weeks
very quickly) in my head I was not up for the task and had no idea where to begin. However,
through the process of creating my website I quickly realized that it was extremely simplistic and
the fear subsided. With help from the mentor that Professor Malcolm was, the steps to create this
ePortfolio could not have been any easier, sure it would take time and labor to achieve the best
website I could create at the time, but the process never had a hitch due to it being laid out so
seamlessly. This assignment was my favorite and the most important to me because it pushed me
and I cant think of anything I like better than to be pushed towards success.
Throughout this semester there has been a number of writing assignments that have been
graded such as the Topic Proposal that set up the rest of the work on my EIP drafts and
eventually the ePortfolio, and with each grade there has been an explanation behind that grade
which I have very much appreciated. Within each explanation has been some strengths in my
papers and some weaknesses, and through these written comments from Professor Malcolm I
have been able to recognize what areas I am proficient in and some areas where I am lacking.
This information and feedback has not only been addressed in regards to my writing but in
regard to the thinking that goes behind my writing, the processes in my mind that have to occur
in order for words to be typed. This thinking has been very much opened up if I may in the
course of this semester, the freedom to write in a non-essay format which translates into the basic

free write style that we practices so many times this semester has given me the strength to look at
my writing and give it more fluidity and take away the weakness of such rigid sentence
structures. What I mean by that is that I have been taught to write in a very professional manner
all my life and never have been presented with the chance to write in the manner in which I
think. Now sometimes when I think I dont always think with transition words or complete
thoughts however, the creativity with which I think has never been transferred into my writing
with the liberty that I have been given this semester. So moving forward I will now give myself
more room for creative thinking, while I will still try to stay within the boundaries of
grammatically correct writing and formats that are given to the specific piece, whatever it may be
in the future. When given the freedom I will now have the strength to free write with a free mind,
so while at one point in the semester this was my weakness, with repetition it has now become
my strength.
As Ive progressed through UWRT 1103 I know for a fact that I have changed my
writing, but not only that I have also changed the way I think and question certain things or
situations I come in contact with now. I honestly believe that through the different assignments
and readings such as the 30 is not the new 20 Ted talk where I was exposed to the thought that
I may not have as much time as I had previously believed in creating the future I want to make
for myself. Sure, Im still young and have many things to learn however, I want to take that
attitude that I have limited time on this Earth, and I want to make the best of each moment and
learn as much as possible within that moment. An example of making the best of each moment
was when we were presented with the Literacy Narrative assignment. I could have chosen a
random memory that I enjoyed in my childhood when things were relatively good but I didnt, I
chose events when I was five and six when my life was early but I knew the surrounding

circumstances were not the most accommodating for the raising of a child. This pushing of my
memories of not so good times inherently pushed my thinking about who I am and how I came to
be whom I am. This led me to question the events in my life and critically think about the effects
of each challenge that has come my way within my lifetime. Which eventually led me to write
upon one of the largest challenges in my life, which was being raised by a single mother where I
had to grow up as a leader in my household, of which I go into detail in my first EIP draft. The
writing of this draft was both personal and difficult in an aspect of having to mix research
findings with so much personal experience, I found myself at times having to refrain from
writing as though I am an expert because I am not, I may have lived through most of the findings
of the expert researchers but I am only one case of many. I dont know what each situation looks
like nor do I profess to, so that was a challenge to write from a perspective of a third party at
times while at other times writing as someone who knows about the subject matter. One
assignment that helped me with this challenge was the annotated bibliography, which may sound
crazy but it did. When creating the annotated bibliography which is something I have never been
assigned to do, I realized that these authors even though many of them had not been raised in a
single parent household, knew a lot more than I had previously thought they would about the
effects of living in said situation. So while the writing of the annotated bibliography was not so
pleasant in and of itself, after writing it and reading about these different authors and researchers
I had a sense of trust in them. So much that I could then let them be incorporated in the writing
about such a personal topic.
As I have made my way through UWRT 1103 with my fellow classmates and Professor
Malcolm at the wheel I can say that I have learned much more than just how to make writings of
better quality. I can say that I learned how to ask questions where many would not look to

question. I can say that I have learned to think in a more critical manner both inwardly and
outwardly. Using the foundation I have created in this class I hope to build upon my newly
realized abilities and to share with others how to experience the same realizations. Those
realizations being that writing is an amazing outlet, that questions need to be asked, that thoughts
need to be provoked, and most importantly that knowledge is in every sense of the word, power.