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Jennifer Le
Malcolm Campbell
English 1101
December 1st, 2014
Final Reflective Letter
Dear Reader,
My ePortfolio contains all of my writing assignments that I have written for the semester.
This ePortfolio shows how much Ive grown from writing. My ePortfolio contains my genre
analysis, my literacy narrative, my mini-ethnography, my daybook entries, my revisions, blog
entries, and this final reflective letter. This ePortfolio shows the work I have done throughout the
entire semester, and shows how I have improved in writing.
Throughout the semester, I have enjoyed writing my assignments. For example, I enjoyed
writing my literacy narrative because I was able to talk about a past event in my life. The
different activities that I have participated in my classroom have helped me become a better
writer. My blog assignments have helped me play around with my brain and to recognize what
subjects I enjoyed more compared to others that I dont like as much. I didnt enjoy peer editing
as much because I am sensitive to critiquing. Throughout the semester, I have learned how to
take criticism since I know that not everything I have written is perfect. This process was
difficult to me. Sometimes, I would contact a peer about a week ahead of time and email them
my file to review. Sometimes my peer does not respond to me and I dont see them until the
assignment is due. I would have to find a friend to peer edit it for me since my peer editors were
not reliable enough. The researching part of some papers would be simple for me. For me,
research papers are the easiest papers. It is a source giving facts towards a topic, while some

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papers that are creative, or opinionated, are a little more difficult since it requires the creative
part of the mind to come out. Some people arent really great with the creative part, like me. I
like to do research because there is such limitless information to write and learn about, so the
research part of papers that I have done for this class (and the past research papers Ive done) are
simpler for me. For example, for my genre analysis, I would enjoy researching about how
cosmetic advertisements would affect women. I would prefer to write about how cosmetic
advertisements would affect women than writing about how I think cosmetic advertisements
affects me. Overall, I find these activities to be very helpful. I have developed as a better learner
and person from expressing emotions and thoughts through blog entries, listening to critiques
from peers, and researching topics.
The most important work that I find in class is my daybook/daybook entries. My daybook
entry is like a diary for my mind. Every thought Ive had for a paper, or prompt, which is
assigned is in each page of my daybook. This helped me with every assignment that Ive had.
My daybook entries have helped me brainstorm ideas for some assignments. It also has a list of
definitions of topics that have been reviewed in class. I find this very important because instead
of thinking very hard of a thought that has been expressed weeks, even months, ago, it would be
written in the daybook. My daybook has helped me out in my assigned papers to do in class, and
it has also helped me develop my ePortfolio. This daybook connects to my goals as a writer and
a student because I have always liked the idea of writing my ideas. Ever since I was a little girl, I
have has a diary with a lot of secrets, and how I would feel about my day. I would read back in
these diaries and remember the memory as if it happened yesterday. Daybooks help me as a
writer since I can think of ideas and brainstorm by writing it, and it has helped me as a student
since it has helped me write my papers in class by brainstorming a handful of ideas to discuss. I

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would write a list of pros and cons about what is a little easier to write about and what is not.
This process works a lot quicker than it sounds, but I would usually choose the first idea I had in
my mind. What makes my daybook my most important work is the content that I have written in
it. In essays, facts and research are the only contents expressed in it. My daybook entry shows
facts, thoughts, and ideas that I have. Many people dont see it this way, but I think that the less
everyone knows, the better. I think of this statement because if a reader read something about
they didnt know, imagine how the reader would react if they realized the amount of information
they didnt know. My essays would only show what information that readers need to known, not
about information that I have discovered. Daybooks are like a diary to the mind; it contains every
thought processed from the mind to the pencil writing it down.
The biggest strength in my writing is detail. I like to discuss specific things in a story. For
example, my literacy narrative shows every emotion I felt, every thought that came across my
mind, and every piece of dialogue I can remember. This strength seems to constantly stay with
me whenever Im thinking about a situation that has influenced my life. Throughout the
semester, this strength has stayed with me since I thought that my literacy narrative was very
descriptive. It was as if my literacy narrative came from a movie. A weakness in my writing is
the flow. Before, the flow of my stories would actually be one of my strengths. I feel like once I
gather all of the information and detail of my papers, I would struggle of putting what piece of
information where because I would think that a piece of information belongs in more than one
place. This causes me to have random fragments and subjects in some of my papers. This part of
my writing has changed throughout the semester since the flow of a story would usually be one
of my strengths, but now it is a weakness. The biggest strength in my thinking is my mind being
very open. I like to talk about random things and I would usually speak before I think. Its as if

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my mind had another mind of its own. I like this quality because it makes it easier for me to be
able to think of ideas and I can develop ideas a lot quicker. My strength hasnt changed
throughout the semester since my strength is still active in other subjects, other than writing. A
weakness I have with thinking is not being able to brainstorm on a topic. Before, I said that a
strength of mine is developing ideas. Usually, I can think of a lot of ideas, but not a lot of
information on the spot about an idea. This weakness of mine is difficult to deal with since I
dont have a great creative mind. Overall, my strengths and weakness with my writing and
thinking have made me a better student and writer.
My progress as a thinker has grown substantially. Writing this letter involves a great
amount of thinking, and it has almost fried my brain (meaning Im probably going to pass out
after I finish this letter). I have faced challenges in many of my assignments. In my miniethnography, I have thought a lot about a specific group that I would want to research on. I have
considered topics from the environment of college/elementary classrooms to secret organizations
such as the Illuminati. There were many choices that really grabbed my attention, but I learned to
deal with this by deciding to work on something I am guaranteed to find information in. My
progress as a thinker has improved a lot since I have been in college. I have experienced and
discovered new things and it helps me find out what kind of person I am. My progress as a
questioner has also been better. I have always been an eager person. I loved to learn about new
things; an example would quick life-hacks. I enjoyed the mini-ethnography assignment since it
required me to interview people, asking them questions about information I didnt know. Yet I
wanted to ask questions, it was difficult for me to think of questions. There are an unlimited
number of questions I can ask my victim, but it took me a very long time to develop specific
questions on a topic. I would sometimes question myself about why I would do certain things.

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Dealing with not knowing what to ask, I would ask any questions I thought of and analyzing the
questions that I thought were important. Being a questioner has benefited me. I have asked
questions about a great number of things, and it usually helps me in the future. My progress as a
writer has helped me in the class. Clearly, writing is required in the class (hence University
Writing), and I never found any writing in the class as boring. Every assignment I have done in
class has been very interesting to me, and it has benefited me significantly. A challenge I faced
with writing in class is brainstorming what to write. Again, I would usually research my
information, but having to think of topics to write about in a certain topic is difficult for me to
think about. I dealt with this struggle by asking some peers about what they would write about.
For example, my literacy narrative was one of my enjoyable assignments, but it was a struggle to
think about what to write about. I knew that I had to write about reading or writing, but I wasnt
sure what event to choose from my life, since I didnt find many of them significant enough. I
didnt realize how much writing I have done in college until I have looked back at my ePortfolio
and my blog. It makes me happy to look back at all of the work that I have done.
My major assignments reflect my work. My major assignments included the genre
analysis, the literacy narrative, the mid-term reflective letter, and the mini-ethnography. The
genre analysis paper was a very productive assignment that I enjoyed working on. I enjoyed
finding research on techniques of advertising and how it affects a certain group of people. The
most difficult part of the assignment for me was trying to understand the difference of
conventions and constraints. I didnt understand the definitions well and I didnt find a lot of
information about the conventions and constraints of my genre. The simplest part for me was
thinking of the idea. Since there were so many broad ideas, I thought of an idea that is actually a
problem in society today. The only change I wouldve made to my genre analysis is applying

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more information of the genre other than the communication used, such as the conventions and
constraints. The literacy narrative was one of my favorite assignments since I was able to write
about myself. The most difficult part of the assignment for me is remembering information from
years ago. This process took me some time and some creativity, which is difficult for me since
Im not really creative. The simplest part of the assignment for me was the dialogue. Although it
took me some time to remember specific information, I find it easier to remember what people
say that what I see around me. The only change I wouldve made in my literacy narrative is
adding more to the narrative. Although it has been revised, the ending to my narrative was short
and dull. I skipped details about the big event at the end of my narrative and squished all of the
information in the conclusion. The mid-term reflective letter was also one of my favorite
assignments since I was also able to write about what I was thinking about. The most difficult
part of the assignment was to really ponder about the discussions provided within the letter.
Some questions are similar to what is required in this letter; the mid-term reflective letter
summarized everything I have done from the beginning to the middle of the semester. The
simplest part of the assignment was being able to write everything that crossed my mind. I would
type down a sentence in the letter and check if it even relates to the discussion question. I like to
free write about my life because it doesnt have to be in a certain format, and it can be about
anything. The mini-ethnography was the most challenging assignment for me. I thought that
researching certain things was simple, until I had to think about what I had to research. This was
the most difficult part for me. I had to think about what my group was about, what the members
did, how activities are performed, and many more activities that the group did. The simplest part
for me was being able to observe the group. For example, I could sit down with the group and
talk with them as if they were my best friends. Although this assignment was the most

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challenging, I had some fun being able to spend time with a group of people I usually dont
spend time with. It was a nice experience. These major assignments have helped me learn to
become a better writer and student by increasing my skills of being a thinker, questioner, and
writer.
The work I have done in the last four or five months has made me realize that I have
improved with my writing and that writing will always be a part of me. The activities in class,
the daybook that I cherish in the class, my strengths and weaknesses in writing and thinking, and
my progress as a thinker, questioner, and writer have affected me from the beginning of the
semester to now. I will take the skills being a thinker, questioner, and writer along with me, and
hoping I can become a better student and writer with the improved skilled I have gained in this
class. I hope to master these skills so that they will help me in the future.

Sincerely,

Jennifer Le