Dear Malcolm,

Coming into college I felt as if I knew enough about writing and English. I remember
thinking to myself, I spent four years in high school taking English and writing classes, why do
I need one in college too? After spending a semester in this class I can honestly say that UWRT
is a necessary general education class. Throughout this class I have learned a lot about myself as
a writer and thinker, and have learned a lot about how I need to handle writing assignments in the
future. Looking at where I was in the beginning of college, or even this semester, and looking at
where I am at now I can say that the changes I have made in my school life have had some
influence from this class.
The first serious assignment we received in this class was the literacy narrative. When
faced with this assignment I honestly had no idea where to go with it, I thought about things I
was literate enough in to write an entire paper about and at the time I couldnt think of many
things. I faced this assignment much like I did writing assignments in high school. I waited until
the last minute to brainstorm ideas and to begin working on the assignment. Upon completing
this assignment, I realized that my work ethic from high school English classes was not going to
cut it for this class, I was going to have to change some habits. Overall the literacy narrative was
a fun assignment once I got into the groove of writing something that I cared about, looking back
I regret not starting the assignment sooner so I really could have knocked it out of the park, but I
will take it as a learning experience. I would mark this assignment as the beginning of my
growing process as a writer.
The next serious assignment we had, and probably the one I struggled with the most was
the topic proposal. On my journey of growing as a writer and thinker I still was on my high
school level with this assignment. I thought about possible topics for a while, and I was fairly

certain I wanted to write about a topic involving eating disorders, but I did not narrow down that
search in any hurry. Once I did narrow down and decide what I wanted my topic to be I began
this assignment, once again after a little procrastination. One aspect of the topic proposal
assignment that was very helpful was the fact that it came with a template, I really enjoy having
lots of structure in an assignment so that helped me quite a bit. If I could go back and do it over
again, I would start this assignment sooner so I could put more time and effort into it.
After the topic proposal we moved on to the annotated bibliography assignment. Truth be
told when we were talking about this assignment in class I was somewhat confused by the
expectations, I remember thinking to myself great, an assignment that I dont know how to do,
that will really help my grade, but upon looking at the section on moodle dedicated to the
annotated bibliography I was able to complete the assignment. I surprised myself with how
easily I found websites that provided great research to answer all of the questions and to
contribute to my extended inquiry project. For this assignment, I struggled the most with the
actual citations part which was half of the assignment. If I could go back and do this assignment
over again I would put more time into creating my citations and making sure they were correct. I
will say, I did much better on this assignment than I thought I would, and I also found this
assignment was easier than I thought it would be. I dare say I even enjoyed completing this
assignment and conducting the research involved.
The extended inquiry project was next, which was the most stressful assignment of the
semester. While this assignment wasnt difficult, I felt as if there was a lot riding on this
assignment as far as grades go. I will admit that I did enjoy completing the extended inquiry
project, it was a topic I am interested in, invested in, and affected by which made the research
fun to do. I enjoy writing, and after completing the annotated bibliography assignment it made

the EIP that much easier to write. Once this assignment was completed I was very proud of my
work, it was a rewarding assignment that I would be proud to show my family and friends. That
being said however, I am very glad I completed the assignment and I wont have to do it again. I
was surprised by how much I actually enjoyed completing this assignment and how naturally
writing it came to me. Looking back, I can honestly say the only thing I would change about my
composition process is that I would have someone proofread it the second before I turned it in to
look for the mistakes that had been missed. Upon getting our grades back, I was pleasantly
surprised to see that I received an A on my EIP. Earning that A made me that much more
motivated when it came to completing my final product of my EIP. I put that much more effort
into my final product because I knew my first one was already quality work. I didnt
procrastinate on completing the final draft and I believe that made a difference as well.
To be completely honest, I did not enjoy the process of creating an eportfolio. I probably
wasnt a fan of creating the eportfolio because once again I felt as if so much of my grade was
riding on it. I did enjoy how specific the directions are, the structure helped me calm down a lot
and sit down and start knocking the assignment out. Having the required sections done before
starting (except for this letter) took much of the stress off of me as well, I was worried about
making sure my website was creative enough and making sure that I did not forget to add
anything that was required. I was surprised that this assignment was actually easier than I
assumed it would be, but I was also surprised by how time consuming it was as well. While this
assignment wasnt my favorite, I am once again proud of what I have created. I believe I did a
better job on this than I first believed I would be able to, and I am happy to have a finished
product.

I believe that the most important work I created in this class was my extended inquiry
project. This work is important because it is not only relevant to me but also so many other
people in the world. Eating disorders are an epidemic that in my opinion, are steadily becoming
more prevalent. This work is close to my heart because conducting research on how genetics are
related to the development of eating disorders is relevant to my own journey with anorexia
nervosa. Throughout the time in my life when I was receiving treatment I always blamed myself
for getting sick. I always wanted to know why I had to be the one who was going through this?
Why could I not just make myself eat? Why was I the one who became addicted to staring
herself? Finding the research about the link between developing eating disorders and your
genetic makeup was like having a weight lifted off of my chest. It was no longer my fault that I
was sick, and it was no longer simply a flaw in my brain chemistry, there were biological factors
as well that had led to me becoming sick. It was so important to me that other people know that it
is not their fault nor a choice to have an eating disorder. Creating this piece of writing honestly
was one of the most rewarding assignments I have done and in my opinion displayed my growth
as a writer.
Writing has always been one of my favorite things to do, even in my free time. Getting
my thoughts out of my mind and onto paper has always helped me to feel better. In school I have
always been good at writing and able to easily complete assignments and earn an A. In high
school I took AP U.S. History and learned how to write essays that were historically linked and
how writing in history classes was supposed to be done and excelled in that as well. Writing
comes naturally to me and I have always been proud of it. When considering strengths and
weaknesses in writing I will admit that I do have more strengths than weaknesses (in my opinion
at least), but those weaknesses have the potential to be detrimental to my grades. Some of my

strengths in writing are that I can fluff an essay with the best of them, I can add an extra page
onto an assignment just by the words I can add that are not necessary. Another one of my
strengths in writing is that I have a relatively easy time getting my thoughts into words and
forming those words into paragraphs thus constructing my papers. Once I sit down to write an
assignment I typically dont have a difficult time knocking it out quickly and efficiently. One of
my weaknesses in writing is getting the thought process rolling. Once I start the thought process
it is typically not difficult to keep them flowing but starting is often very difficult for me. I have
a difficult time brainstorming ideas and thinking of creative things. Another weakness I have in
writing, and life in general is procrastinating. Procrastination is my biggest weakness in school in
general, but it often has detrimental affects on my writing. I find myself waiting until the last
minute to start and finish assignments which leads to me not doing my best work. While I have
experienced waking up and typing a paper an hour before class or finishing a paper five minutes
before the deadline to turn it in and still receiving As, I have always known that this is a habit I
need to break. Procrastination is a weakness that I do still have, but I admit that after a semester
in this class I have improved tremendously in my work ethic and how timely I am on starting
assignments. This semester I learned that if I want to create quality work that reflects in my
grade, I must begin my assignments before the last possible second.
After a semester in UWRT I would like to think that I have progressed as a thinker and
writer. I can definitely say that my creativity in assignments has expanded because I have had my
boundaries pushed to think past simple or obvious things and topics. I would like to think that I
have expanded my thinking to consider things from points of views that are not my own. I have
never been a closed minded person, but Im not going to lie I often times have been judgmental
of peoples writing. After this class and considering everyones topics and doing peer review I

think I have progressed. As a writer I think that I have progressed in my writing and matured. My
writing style has grown to be more along the lines of a college student instead of a high school
student, and while at first I was annoyed to have to take another writing course I am thankful to
UNCC for requiring me to take this course.
Moving forward from this class I will take away the fact that I know I can complete
college level writing assignments with success. I can conduct research and create an entire
extended inquiry project that is good enough quality to earn an A, and knowing that makes me
feel that much more confident in my writing moving forward in college. Last semester I felt as if
I was still on a high school level with writing and I knew that wasnt going to cut it in college,
but after a semester in this course I can say that my writing style has matured into a college level.
Moving forward from this class I will know that I am creative enough to come up with several
topics for an assignment, I am capable of completing assignments that at first seem impossible, I
can manage to keep an open mind when watching videos and completing blog reactions, and I
am capable of not procrastinating and doing my personal best on an assignment. UWRT 1300
has taught me a lot about myself as a student and moving forward I am going to work the most
on comma splices and procrastination.

Sincerely,
Taylor