Dear Professor Knudson,

As I reflect on this course as a whole, I can track and evaluate my growth as a writer.
Through this course, I have used various writing genres including journals, vignettes, annotated
bibliographies, free-writes, and narratives. When I compared my first works of the semester, like
my early day books and free writes, to some of the literary assignments I completed near the end
of the course, like my annotated bibliography, I could see clear progress and growth in myself as
a writer. The writing activities I did in the first half of the semester really prepared me to write
some of the larger assignments that followed, such as my literacy narrative. The free write
strategy also allowed me to type a stream of consciousness without worrying about the structure
or focus of my topic. This increased my creativity and greatly helped get rid of some writers
block.
Reflecting on my own writing has also allowed me to realize my own writing habits,
style, and voice. I noticed I have to have a quiet and clean writing environment to gain complete
focus on my writing and be the most productive. For assignments over two pages I saw that I
have to write an outline before beginning my paper; without one it is much harder to stay
organized and on topic. Writing almost every day also allowed me to develop a voice through
my writing and become more comfortable writing on a daily basis.
I want my portfolios theme and main focus to be on my literary growth. My portfolio is
a testament to my progression and writing maturity through the semester. This especially shows
through my vignettes, in class writings, and my literacy memoir revisions and final draft.
Watching my first draft grow from an outline to a final draft, after many revisions and peer
comments, was a great learning experience, improving my writing skills with every critique and
comment. When writing my vignettes, it came easier each time, and I became more creative and

organized through each prompt. Writing in class also became more creative and easier to
transfer my thoughts into writing, this shows through my day books and in class free writes.
I really enjoyed this course and all of the room for creativity it allowed. It also helped me
grow greatly as a writer and solidify many important writing skills, like organization, completing
length requirements without difficulty, free write, and thorough revision.
Sincerely,
Alyssa Rankin