1.

What connections are you making within this class, and to other classes you are taking or
have taken since starting college?
This class is all about making connections. By broadening my perspectives on subjects such as
media, literacy, grades, and language I am able to make those connections in my life and in my
writing. In the TED talks and other selections we have looked at I am seeing the connection
between freedom of expression and use of media to get messages across in unique ways. This
has made me think about how we use social media every day to express ourselves and how much
more personal it is compared to writing papers. The main connection I am making to other
classes is thinking about my thinking. Discussion, reflection, and revision are things we do in
all of my classes that I had not done in much depth before. I am learning to research my own
ideas and question myself and think about the meaning of specific events. College is about
getting to know yourself and I feel like that is done mostly through the work in classes such as
this one.

2. How would you describe your writing process? Has it changed at all since the start of the
semester?
My writing process starts with thinking about the topic for a while before I can figure out what I
am actually going to write about. Then I start with the introduction because I feel like that is the
hardest part and once that is complete the rest of the paper comes easy. My writing process has
changed drastically from the beginning of the semester. I used to start writing by creating
sentences or fragments to get ideas then putting the rest of the information in between. By doing
this I ended up writing paragraph by paragraph instead of making it one whole paper and I left
out a lot of information and analysis searching for the next sentence instead of contributing to the
purpose of the paper. Now I am better at transitioning from paragraph to paragraph and finding
narratives to support my topic or argument.

3. Reviewing the syllabus and your initial blog post, how would you describe the extent to
which you are meeting your general semester goals?
I believe that I have exceeded my general semester goals. In my initial blog post I said that I
wanted to learn how to be more creative and write better. Since we are given vague guidelines I
have more options on what to write about and the ability to use something besides the typical
five-paragraph essay to get my message across. I have learned how to use multimedia to
represent my writing through the literacy project and my portfolio. The feedback I get from my
peers and professor has helped me see what I am missing in my writing and gives me the
guidance for editing and revising my work. Looking at the syllabus I believe that I have been

meeting my goals in participation, effort, and responsibility as well and I hope to continue
growing throughout the second half of the semester.

4. Please discuss your thoughts on the feedback you have received from peers and your
instructor on your written work.
The feedback I have received is more than I expected because I am not used to getting any
feedback at all or being asked questions about my writing. Talking to others about my ideas and
questions makes me confident in my writing. It has helped me be more analytical in my writing
and shown me what I was missing before. Having the chance to rewrite my midterm reflection
was a good learning experience for me because I can see the difference that it made when I
looked back, answered the questions I was asked, made changes to make my paper better, and
read it again.

5. What are you proud of in the work youve done in the course so far? This could be your
written work, class participation, collaboration, etc.
I am proud of the written work I have done in this course so far, not because it is great but
because I have seen big changes and improvement. I have put a great deal of effort in all of my
writing because the transition between writing what I know the teacher wants and writing what I
want my audience to read is a tough one. I am also proud of my class participation because I do
not usually talk in class but I feel like I really connect with the topics, questions, and discussion
in class since they are so personal.