Johnson 1 Kellie Johnson Instructor: Malcolm Campbell English 1102 April 29, 2013

Dear Malcolm,

It is sad for me to say that this is my goodbye to you after a long, hard semester. I would have to say that this has been one of the best experiences in an English class simply because I have actually learned something from your teachings. From you, I learned how to explore and learn from my curiosity. You taught me that it is okay to ask questions and that you should always pursue to answer those questions. Out of all my classes, I believe that is the best thing I have learned by far and I wanted to truly thank you for teaching me that life lesson. On a happier note, this English class has definitely prepared me for the future ahead of me. The thinkbook entries were surprisingly a great help for me in the long run. I thought this activity was actually just busy-work to keep us entertained in the morning. However, it really helped me lay out my entire EIP since I was able to plan and write about the different elements that I wanted to include in my essay. By the time I started my research, I was able to go back to my thinkbook entries and read over my ideas as well as research, which contributed greatly to my final paper. I also enjoyed the days when you asked our class to complete a sentence about ourselves such as the I am entries. These entries allowed me to explore myself as well as push me to become a better writer.

Johnson 2 To my surprise, being pushed to do a blog site was a wonderful idea that allowed me to just be myself for once. Creating a blog allowed me to explore my life and personality, as well as bring out my creativity. Being able to design and create your own site, as well as post about your days, definitely brought out the expressive side of me. It is always nice to write freely about yourself instead of solely writing about specific topics in a research papers. The blog enabled me to improve who I am and my writing in a beautiful way that could have never been done by just a research paper. I have decided that I am more than likely going to continue my blog site so that I can continue expressing myself as well as showing the world who I really am as a writer. By the way, I am not one who is big on peer review either. However, after taking this class, I have learned to appreciate peer review and editing a lot more than I initially did in previous classes. Being able to participate in peer review not only allowed me to help better other students writing but it allowed other students to show me how I could improve in my writing. I really appreciated being able to see my mistakes and go back to edit them for my final papers. My peers were able to see mistakes in my work that I would have never noticed until they pointed it out to me. I feel like my peers were a huge contributing factor to my overall EIP and that without their help it would have not been the paper it was in the end. However, I would like to say that I am overall proud of my overall turn out for the annotated bibliography. To me, the annotations were the most important piece of work that I turned in this semester. It contained all of my research that was incorporated into my paper and it took me the longest time to complete. The annotated bibliography has always been the worst part to me when it came to doing a research project. In the past, I always felt like I wasnt using enough information or I wasnt doing the citations correctly. However, this time I felt like I nailed it for the most part. Thanks to all your help, I was able to find plenty of research that fit

Johnson 3 into my annotated bibliography extremely well and I felt like I mastered my citations, except for a few common mistakes. Without my annotated bibliography, my final EIP would not have been as successful as it turned out to be. Overall, it made writing the final paper easy and it allowed me to feel like my writing was more organized. In the future, I actually look forward to writing an annotated bibliography because I know it will help me succeed in the end. Besides grammar and spelling, I believe I have discovered my weaknesses through this class. I have come to realize that I am absolutely terrible at citing in a research paper. I caught myself struggling throughout writing my paper when it came to giving credit to the author because I was always confused on how it was suppose to be written or where you were suppose to place the citation. Ever since I have been writing research papers, it has remained a weakness to me. However, I have gotten better throughout this semester since I had some help from the shiznet of MLA citations (thank you Malcolm). I was able to look up were I was having problems with citations and fix them. You could say that it will take some time to completely fix but I will continue to work on it throughout my college career. I will say that I did gain a few strengths this semester such as organization and timing. When it comes to writing papers, I have always been able to organize the paper and make it flow in a way that makes it easy for the reader. I was extremely pleased with my overall paper simply because its flow stood out to me. My topic had a ton of information and research behind it, which left a lot to cram into an essay. With the help of my organizations skills, I was able to fit all of that information into my paper without making it sound sloppy or misplaced. Also, before this semester, I would have called myself a procrastinator. However, in this class I was able to push away that weakness and put a lot of time into my EIP. I didnt wait till the last minute to do any of my assignments and I know it helped me in the longer run. For me, making time

Johnson 4 management one of my strengths will become one of the most useful things for me in my future college years and career. For the most part, I will say that I have progressively grown as a thinker, questioner, and writer from this class. I have grown from this class due to one challenge: the EIP. The extended inquiry project really pushed me to think, since it had to be something that brought interest to me. It was a challenge to actually think about what I wanted to learn when it came to a single topic. Throughout the entire project, I had to ask myself a ton of questions such as what I wanted to learn or how this topic was occurring in recent events. In the end, I chose to do my EIP on violent video gaming for two reasons: interest and curiosity. As a gamer, I always wondered if violent games had something to due with human aggression. This topic left me curious in so many ways. There were so many questions without answers. It was mind blowing to me. From tons of research and thought, I was able to answer some of my questions and I was able to write about all the information I had gained on this topic. This assignment was a challenge simply because I had to go further than just what I knew from the top of my head. I had to actually think and ask myself questions. From all of this, I was able to write this paper with confidence and a mind full of new information. I must say that there are four things that were the most difficult for me in your class: the inquiry process, the topic proposal, the annotated bibliography, and the extended inquiry project. From the beginning, I knew I would have trouble with the inquiry process. I say this because I ask entirely too many questions as it is. I knew I would have trouble narrowing down my topic due to the fact that I had a ton of questions and a broad topic. However, I was able to narrow down my questions to the ones that actually caught my attention the most. I give credit to the assigned readings and class discussions. Now, as for the Topic Proposal, I found it challenging

Johnson 5 since I had never done or even heard of one before. I went into this part of the assignment openminded and I hoped that I would be able to do it correctly. Surprisingly, it was easier than it looked and I was able to put my questions out there as well as the direction I was headed in when it came to discussing my topic. Again, I will say that the annotated bibliography was the most difficult part of the entire project since I absolutely hate doing them and it was time consuming. Having to get all my research and citations together is always going to be difficult but come to find out, it is surprisingly helpful in the end. After all that time and effort I had to put into my annotations, it eventually was paid off when it came to writing my Extended Inquiry Project. Initially, the EIP was the easiest part of the four sections. Yes, indeed, it takes a long time to write a six page or more paper, but the other three elements allowed it to be a breeze. In the end, the only change I would make is how much time I spent on it. I wish I would have started writing it earlier so that I would catch all minor mistakes and make it as perfect as possible. Anyhow, I feel like I conquered these four assignments with great quality in the end. Professor Campbell, I must say that I will take so much from this class with me. What I learned in this class is something I will hold with me forever. You taught this class so much and I am more than grateful. Yes, at times it was difficult and completing the EIP was not easy, but I will tell you I learned more from it than I did in any other class. I can now do an annotated bibliography without dreading it and I now know that I can write a successful essay. Also, I was able to answer all of my questions with confidence and with that I came out of this class with lots of new information. You taught me that it is okay to be curious and to ask questions. That is important information that I will always need in college and in my future career. That is something you dont learn in your average, everyday class. Again, thanks for all the little tips

Johnson 6 and thank you for everything. We are going to miss you as our professor! I hope we taught you something as well!

Sincerely Your Student,

Kellie Johnson