Eileen Jakeway ENGL 1103 Malcolm Campbell 11/25/13 Final Reflective Letter Dear Malcolm, I am writing you to reflect

on my experience in your class Honors English 1103, but I have a feeling you are just as interested in my thoughts, in order to evaluate your own performance as an educator. I feel that you are extremely dedicated, hardworking and intelligent and I wanted to take a brief moment to thank you. Your efforts did not go unnoticed or unwanted. I appreciate the environment you created for your students this year, especially through the various activities and assignments you used to prompt my creative thinking. I thoroughly enjoyed being able to free-write everyday in my daybook. Although I believe I might have gotten more out of it had I continued with my thoughts outside of class, those first 5 minutes were always a release and a peaceful time for me. Keeping a blog was an experience very beneficial to me, especially considering that I wanted to start my own blog regardless. I wound up significantly less enthusiastic about the notion than at the beginning of the year, but it was still an opportunity for growth. The other assignment I found constructive was the Extended Inquiry Project. I never doubted that learning could be fun, but I enjoyed being able to draw upon a variety of my interests in many different disciplines and apply them in English class. I respect the free reign we were given in choosing our topics; I believe this is very telling about students in many ways.

My most important work in the class is, I think, rather easy to identify. My journey with Nietzsche over the course of the semester was quite interesting and rewarding. It was taxing, it was enlightening and it certainly was important. As a piece of writing, it is important because it says something about the state of humanity and how I understand it. It is infused with emotion and research that has vast implications for almost anyone. I think it is important because it contains so much of me; this may come off as selfish, but I think whenever one pours oneself into a material thing, some sort of important manifests itself there. As a scholar, this work connects with my goals as a writer and student because it expanded my knowledge of a topic I felt was very interesting and relevant to many other topics. I wrestled through questions of content and composition and am a better writer because of it. Now, I will finally be able to talk to Kevin the religious studies major, with some context for the conversation or with Mr. Whiteside, and actually have something to say. I think my greatest strength in writing is also my biggest weakness. I write from my heart and my brain; they are one entity pouring out the words engrained onto the essence of my person. I write stream of consciousness, with little or no structure to much of my work. This can be wonderful insofar that I can reach the people that I reach, speak to those who can hear me and make important points to those who want to listen. However, sometimes this leads to impatience. I want to rush through research papers, treating them as beautiful blank canvases waiting to be painted by my words. However, sometimes, especially when writing research papers, it is better to stop and think. To outline an argument and plan the essay out. I have always found this difficult; I never

want to do it. Sometimes I think it is necessary and the EIP certainly showed me that, especially with all the information I was hoping to cover. My progress as a thinker, questioner, writer: Simple. I still think all the time, about everything, even when I shouldnt. I question every thing, all the time. And as a writer, the only assignment that truly posed a challenge was the research presentation. Somehow, I was unable to condense my entire paper into a PowerPoint presentation. I am a lot of things but I have never been successfully concise. Translating the written into the aesthetically pleasing is no simple task in itself. I learned that sometimes, I must cater my opinions to a certain audience. And I must learn to speak the language of those I am trying to reach. Not everyone is an English teacher that appreciates my writing. However, if I want my work to make an impression and actually reach people, I will learn to adapt. I think I was fairly successful in assembling my e-portfolio in a more accessible way. I felt especially that my daybook entries can show people the true side of me, so that my peers can see that I am not a snobby academic that feels superior: I am just a girl trying to find out how her world works. The other aspects of the Extended Inquiry Project were just as rewarding as the final product. The inquiry process was quite fun, but I was rather set on my topic from the start. I had started doing research on it anyways and saw this assignment as the perfect opportunity to expand my knowledge. The topic proposal I might have taken a bit too seriously; I was quite detailed. However, this helped me later on when it came to write the fast draft. Mostly, I was very excited to tell you about my topic because I felt it to be exciting and worth sharing.

Moving forward, I will keep in mind what I learned from this class. I think I must also learn that there should not be a disconnect between the person I am on paper and the person I am in class. I must admit that I was not as vocal as normal during class-time. I have much to say and I think it is worth contributing. However, I felt that my classmates would either not be interested in what I had to say or would condemn me for my input. This is really not much different from high school English class, but for some reason, I let it get to me this time. I also will be more confident in my skills as a writer and pursue the research topics that interest me, regardless of whether or not they are assigned.