Hayley Reynolds

Professor Campbell
UWRT 1103
Course Reflective Letter

Reynolds 1

Dear Malcolm,

So the semester is coming to an end, and as a look back on it there are some
things I want to share with you. There havent been any negative experiences to share,
but there are many personal growth and learning experiences to share.
Starting off this reflection just like we started off class, with daybook and free
writing. In the beginning I really thought that the daybook was just busy work, but as
time went on I really enjoyed the prompts and learning what I had to SAY. Free
writing is just you and your pen, and I really like that. My daybook actually brought out
the more political questioner in me, but my blog did that too. My favorite daybook entry
is a creative thinker and a questioner... I speak to be... and I said that I spoke to be
heard. But on a day-to-day basis I didnt realize that about myself, but when I was met
with any daybook entry I just felt creative. I often questioned if what I was writing was
going into the direction of what I was supposed to be writing. But I stopped caring once I
started seeing myself in my writing. I hadnt realized how conservative I can be and how
patriotic I am. I mean I had but not that my every day thoughts were based off of those
parts of me. It just took me a while to notice it. I had a few political tangents on my blog,
but I feel like that is what it was there for. I never realized how fun it could be to write,
but the best part is looking back and seeing what you write about on a certain topic. The
blog assignments in themselves were mostly reflective writings, which are good to
practice and also to just simply share your opinion. I am a very opinionated person, so in

Hayley Reynolds
Professor Campbell
UWRT 1103
Course Reflective Letter

Reynolds 2

some of assignments I wrote in great detail. But I liked that. Writing about something that
I have an opinion on is enjoyable, and sometimes I can get carried away.
Then came the second paper that I had to write, and it was the literacy narrative. I
wrote about my journey and how I became literate in politics. When I wrote it I was
passionate about my topic and sharing my experiences. I feel like that made my paper
stronger, and much easier to write about. It wasnt challenging to write about, because I
truly liked the topic. In my daybook I wrote if I had 24 more hours to finish my literacy
narrative I would have had a friend review it, and possibly ask a Political Science
Professor of mine for some information.
The theme of politics didnt stop there. Going into this class I was unsure if I
wanted to stay a political science major; and you told us that if we can not write a paper
thats topic pertains to our major, then maybe we should think about changing our major.
Well the topic proposal came and oddly enough my topic pertained to my major. This
paper wasnt challenging, because through the creative thinker daybook assignment
topic questions I easily began thinking and writing down questions like how much
money does the government spend on campaigns, what makes people vote the way
they do, and what about political ads? Through class discussion and more daybook
entries I settled on the question of How does social media affect the way the Millennial
Generation votes for political nominees? My topic proposal was kind of broad and I was
still extremely unsure if I was going to be able to write a solid 8page paper on politics.
But after I turned it in and got feed back that said things like good topic, a lot to write

Hayley Reynolds
Professor Campbell
UWRT 1103
Course Reflective Letter

Reynolds 3

about, and can be narrowed down; I thought to myself that this paper might not be that
bad.
While researching information for my topic, I learned how to use the UNCC
library database which is extremely helpful. With this research I created my annotated
bibliography, which was a pain. I enjoyed this writing, but at this point I didnt feel like a
strong writer. But this was a great way to get a lot of my information and keep it in one
place, so that I didnt have to look on a paper filled with random facts. It was hard to find
all four source types at first, but really it wasnt once I used the UNCC Library database.
By the way, it has everything you could possibly ever need for your researching needs.
All together the annotated bibliography isnt hard it just takes a lot of work, and I still
forgot to alphabetize them.... How? I do not know, but I should have caught that. While
researching and doing my annotated bibliography I realized I wanted to narrow my topic
down to social media particular to Facebook and Twitter, also just to keep it in the US
even though its prevalent in other countries.
During my EIP rough draft, I wanted to pull my hair out. I couldnt seem to find
information to help narrow me in like I wanted. Also I felt like I didnt know how to
write it the best way, however being able to make a website was the best thing for my
topic. That way I could include pictures, videos, and anything else I wanted to. I liked
this assignment because I was able to research a topic that really intrigued me; also there
was some leeway with it being informal. After my research, I started working on the EIP
rough draft assignment. This wasnt a hard assignment by any means, but it required a lot

Hayley Reynolds
Professor Campbell
UWRT 1103
Course Reflective Letter

Reynolds 4

of time and effort. My EIP rough draft had a ton of grammatical errors, but its my fault
for not going over it like I should. That is a weakness of mine. In my daybook I wrote
that I wish I would have had someone from my group review it one last time before I
turned it in, even though I already had someone go over it. Peer review to me was
extremely helpful, because I think you connect better to your peers so they can help guide
you in a positive way. I had friends in my UWRT class this year that didnt like the peer
review process, but my group really helped me, and it was great to ask them questions
about what title to use or what questions to address in my paper. I really liked my topic,
and throughout this class the assignments have all had similar topics for me. The fact that
these are the topics I picked, really helped me decided that I am in the right major.
My EIP final draft is almost complete as I am writing this. I have learned from the
rough draft, and have had a classmate peer review it one more time before I turn it in. I
am proud of my work, and I feel like this class helped guide me into writing such a strong
paper. Now I know how to better incorporate quotes and their authors, which will help
me later in college and in life. I just still feel like it wasnt as narrowed as I wanted it to
be, and that it needs more but I cant seem to get it to a good ending point. My daybook
entries really helped me focus on WHY my topic MATTERS, and it really was conveyed
in my EIP because I was sure why it was important. I think my favorite part of turning in
a paper is the feedback I get back after it is graded.
Just let me share with you... I hate the ePortfolio. It is crazy, time consuming, and
if you dont know anything about technology you better go buy a copy of How to Make

Hayley Reynolds
Professor Campbell
UWRT 1103
Course Reflective Letter

Reynolds 5

a Website for Dummies. I wrote in my daybook Im finding working on my ePortfolio

to be time consuming. I work on my tittle page for an entire class period and I still am not
satisfied. It is hard for me to tie things in to the suggested narrow topic. But I slowly am
making progress. The ePortfolio is not hard just tedious. I want to get an A+ on it so I
know I have to go above and beyond. I really am trying on it. I promise to myself to not
procrastinate on doing my work. I will type up my daybook entries so that it is more
appealing to the eye. The good thing is that all the work is already done you just have to
bring it together, and write a reflection on it. I will make a check list based off the one on
Moodle and then still incorporate things that I am going to add to go above an beyond. I
have stayed true to this daybook entry, and I have made several check lists. These are
things I normally dont do, but know that I am using them I probably will use them from
now one. Looking back, I wish that I could have started uploading things from the
beginning, Im not going to lie I lost some of my papers that I had class mates peer
review. Even though I had my rough and final drafts, it would been nice to be able to
include more documents. Something else that would be beneficial is to have specific peer
review sheets (if there is such a thing). I like the writing on an actual sheet, but that is just
me and I really like how we are allowed to choose what works best for us.
I had problems with trying to write more of what was expected and trying to meet
the expectations the max. As the year went on I tried to meet the requirements, but focus
more on what I wrote and the effort of the quality than on making sure every bullet point
was hit. I used to write poetry for fun, kept a journal, and even wrote short essays. In high

Hayley Reynolds
Professor Campbell
UWRT 1103
Course Reflective Letter

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school I stopped, but I think I may continue with a daybook and a blog. I really liked the
voice I had grown into towards the end of my daybook entries and blog posts. Hey who
knows I may minor in English. This class had brought the fun back into writing, except
when it comes down to citations. But I want to thank you for the grade feed back on
papers, and the help on my snazzy ePortfolio title.

Sincerely,
Hayley Reynolds
UNCC Political Science Major
Future GOP Campaign Manager (6 years to go, and praying)
Hopefully some day a graduate from a Law School
April 18, 2015