Meghan Young Mr. Borrero ENGL 1101 12/5/12 Reflective Letter In life every choice we make is important.

The choices we make at one time can in turn effect every decision or choice we make after that. The choices we make today influence our choices for tomorrow. In writing its the same. From choosing a topic, or a genre to when to start a paper the choice you made the day before on the piece influences the decisions you will make in the future. Before taking this class I didnt understand the importance of each choice I made with my writing. I didnt fully understand how choosing the topic could influence every aspect of the research and writing process. For example; when first choosing the discourse community I wanted for my Literacy Ethnography I choose a group that I knew very little about because I wanted to challenge myself. But little did I know that choosing this community would soon be a bad mistake. I choose to do a paper on Southern Hunting (or rednecks) and found it very hard to find credible information. I even found it hard to find a way to relate this community to literacy. So I had to switch subjects which led me to turn in my Annotated Bibliography late. The choice I had made without clearly thinking through the whole process affected me later. With choices come decisions and before taking this English course I simply made decisions to make it as easy as possible on me. I would choose easy topics, write the minimum number of pages, and leave out various details so I didnt have to write as much. But after doing the Literacy Narrative project I learned how to elaborate really well. Every entry I wrote in my blog had to be in great detail so that the reader could clearly understand everything from my Literacy History. By having to elaborate so much I learned that detail can really make writing

Meghan Young Mr. Borrero ENGL 1101 12/5/12 more interesting not only for the reader, but also for myself. Adding various details to my writing now is something I will carry away with me from this course. Walking into this course I had a certain way that I viewed writing. I thought I knew the exact way I like to write and what good writing is always known as. But what I didnt know was that my views would soon change. What we all know as good writing is not always necessarily good and what is bad isnt always necessarily bad. Mr. Borrero taught the class and me that good writing is what you think it should be. From having class discussions, group conferences, one on one conferences, choosing any genre we want, and also any page length we want on numerous papers; Mr. B has taught each of us that what we think matters. From here on out I can say that before every choice I make with writing in the future I will first think about this class, and the things I learned about making the right choice. I will think back to what I know I can do and what I think is good. I will think about how the choice I make then will influence all my later decisions.