Hewitt 1

Dear Malcolm,
I want to thank you for making this semester fun. Thorough our
time together I have learned a lot about writing I have gained skills
that are needed to write efficiently and in a way that is interesting. If
you werent my teacher for UWRT I can promise you that every
assignment I got would have been written just to get it over with and
that I wouldnt have cared if it was good or not only if it would pass.
Because you were my teacher I took an interest in class, though not
every class was interesting I enjoyed coming anyway because of you.
Your humorous nature allowed the classroom to be a kind and inviting
environment where I felt that I could work hard in. I enjoyed writing the
assignments because they were not just the busy work that I always
see in classes. You picked topics that were fun, interesting, and
relevant. Without you as my teacher I know my semester would have
been much less enjoyable than it was.
I have learned so much over the course of the semester. Topics
that I knew about I gained a broader perspective and there were some
that were completely new to me. I gained skill in writing papers and I
learned a lot about editing. As I said in my blog I dont normally edit
my papers. I dont see the point in changing some small things when I
felt it is good enough. This is most likely because I never really cared
if my papers were good or not. Now I know how much of a difference
typing up a new draft and changing the wording makes. I can now edit

Hewitt 2
a paper with the same amount of ease as writing the first draft. I can
better pinpoint where flaws in my composition are and how to fix them.
The Margin Outline will definitely be a way I edit my papers in
future classes. At first I didnt see the point but after finishing it I
understood what it was about and why you thought it was necessary to
do it. By listing out the topic of every paragraph and sentence I
understood better how the paper flowed. It allowed me to spot flaws in
the order of my sentences and paragraphs to better create a more
clear and orderly essay. You taught me many different ways of editing
papers, such as helping me spot the mistakes in my paper, my least
favorite type of editing was the peer review.
The peer review in class was helpful but expecting anyone to do
anything outside of class was apparently a mistake. Not only were we
unable to swap the correct emails of two of us but the person who was
supposed to peer review my paper never returned it to me. Though it
may have been my fault for not reminding him to return it in a timely
fashion I dont think that it should be up to me to return it. I returned
his the day after he emailed it to me with the comments and markups
that I made. I may sound immature but I feel that expecting students
to return the peer review of another should not be required because no
one should be held accountable for anothers actions. Im sure that if I
got it back it would have been very helpful in editing my paper but
seeing as he didnt return it I dont really know.

Hewitt 3
The literacy narrative was the hardest paper to write because I
didnt know what to write and agonized over what I was writing
because I felt that I was getting too personal. Writing about something
that would be so public made me rethink what I was writing and I
ended up censoring and editing out much of what I originally put into
the paper. The direction of the paper changed completely because of
how I felt. The final may not have been as good as the original but I felt
more comfortable turning it in.
My Extended Inquiry Project was the longest writing project but I
was much more comfortable writing it. Though long the essay flowed
out of my hand much easier. Because I was interested in the topic I
didnt feel that I was forcing myself to finish like I do for some other
assignments, such as in a history class. I am proud of the final outcome
because of the help that you gave and all the editing I learned to do
with it. I think it may be on of the best papers I have done.
The e-portfolio was the assignment that took the longest time to
complete. Though it did not require much thought going through
everything and finding pictures, writing reflections of things I havent
touched in months, and laying everything out in its place took more
time than I thought. My scheme was umbrellas, because in my
Extended Inquiry Project an umbrella symbolizes the rebellion, and I
thought that it was a good scheme because everything fit under the
umbrella (Sorry for my bad phrase). To go along with this theme every

Hewitt 4
page is labeled as a colour of umbrella such that rainbows and
umbrellas go hand and hand. In order of colour the pages are also in
chronological order. Each page has a picture of the colour of umbrella
of the title of the page as well.
Having created a website in classes before, this process was not
very challenging. The only trouble I had with it was finding out how to
embed the pages into the website because just coping and pasting the
embedding code didnt work and I had to look through Google sites
and finally found a gadget to embed things onto the page. I think the
outcome is very nice with a good flow from one page to the next. The
colours keep everything outlined nicely and create a themed
consistency and link the pages with the theme, otherwise it would just
be the pictures and it wouldnt be as coherent. I just wish that I could
have know about picking a theme in the beginning and I may have
linked something like an umbrella into all of my papers.
The blog was maybe my favorite and most annoying assignment
of the semester. I liked being able to write my opinion of the topics
informally. I loved the topics and found them interesting and they
would be the videos and articles that I would read outside of class for
fun sometimes. I didnt like the assignment because it was hard to
keep track of. I didnt always know if a week had a blog assignment or
if I had done it yet or not. This caused me to check Moodle more times
than I thought necessary.

Hewitt 5
After the entire semester I feel that I have learned a lot and level
up my ability of writing, editing, and critical thinking. I have enjoyed
this semester and hope that more of my teachers will be like you. I
know it is hard to make the assignments that the board requires of you
to also be interesting and relevant but I think that you have done this
successfully. I have enjoyed learning from you this semester and I think
I am better able to take on all of the other projects involving writing
from now on. I am confident of my writing ability and think I have
made great progress this semester.
Yours Truly,
Amy Hewitt