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Dear Reader,

Through the class assignments, I have had the time to explore my ideas and opinions

regarding a mass of topics. Most of the blog assignments provoked reflection; the search for an

extended inquiry topic allowed me to dig into my interests. Reviewing my eportfolio, I realized

that my writing has become simple. I have not felt the need to alter my vocabulary with bulky

words, as I had before starting college. Since the beginning of the semester, I remember Malcolm

insisting we "keep it simple," arguing in favor of clarity. Sometimes, this emphasis on simplicity

would make it harder to express my point, because it is much easier to look up a big word on the

thesaurus website, than it is to elaborate on something using modest descriptions.

My development as a student and person has been carried out through the various

assignments given to us. The writing done for my daybook was a peaceful process. I took this

time to be honest with myself and reflect upon the ideas presented. As I had mentioned in one of

my entries, I consider writing to be therapeutic, and this was no exception. What resonated the

most with me after completing all my blog posts, are the flaws in our educational system. Many

of the videos about self-growth made me recognize the importance of helping myself. After

watching these inspirational videos, I acknowledged the greatness behind my resilience and

achievements. As for the critiquing of peers, it was not very helpful, Although I needed the

feedback, my group was not interactive or prepared to share. We were also assigned to read

about writing, which I initially dreaded. However, after completing the task, I have gone back to

refer to these sources for the assignments that followed to perfect my writing. Relating to the

studios, most were generally lengthy, and some were much easier than others, of course. Yet, the

studios helped me keep my ideas organized.

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I am convinced that the most important work I have done for this class is my Extended

Inquiry Project. Since the day I chose to focus a semester-long project on women in politics, I

knew that the results of my research would have an ever-lasting impact on my perspective,

because it is such an important issue to me. Specifically, I explored in detail the effects on the

community and the constrains for women to have a political voice. Through the completion of

this EIP, I feel much more confident about how I would impact my community being a

politician. Currently, my memory is saturated with data and facts that prove that the addition of

women in politics would have a significant positive spin on the lives of the constituents. As a

writer, I have proved to myself that, at least when a topic is of interest to me, a designated

number of pages is no challenge. The research for my EIP was indeed very time consuming, but

it felt like no burden because I enjoyed it, and entertained myself by asking more questions about

the topic. As a person, I am motivated to run for public office, and to inspire more diversity into

the field. I believe this assignment has been grand, because it is revolutionary in a society that

intends to demean women.

I remember it was one night of my sophomore year in May, that I decided I would never

procrastinate again. I have been asserting this flaw for a few years now, and I can finally say, I

do not procrastinate (for the most part). Due to this work on myself, I have become an organized

person, obsessed with planning and order. Learning how to divide my time between school

assignments and work before getting to college, was extremely beneficial. Luckily, I have grown

out of being an introvert. I am not afraid to ask for clarification, anymore. Through the

experience of previously completing several research projects in high school, finding data has

now became an easy task. The workshop that we attended during this class, also helped me

understand how to navigate the UNCC library resources. Currently, I am working on mixing the
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kind of sentences I use to piece together my writing. I have noticed that I like to repeat the use of

long sentences, so I have tried adding shorter ones to the mix. I have also been regulating my use

of conjunctive verbs, such as "however." Since I learned about dependent clauses in high school,

I haven't stopped using them. So, that is something I am still trying to improve, too. Yet, my

biggest problem is how distracted and/or frustrated I get when writing. These feelings lead me to

walk out of the room, which as a result, makes me take longer to complete the assignment. It is a

viscous cycle that spirals around me as I try to write.

Yet, reflecting upon the course's SLO's, I have successfully fulfilled the requirements to

graduate from this UWRT 1104 class. It is evident through my eportfolio and EIP, that I have

mastered the understanding of rhetorical knowledge. The intention behind both of those

compositions is to reach out to a diverse crowd that is interested in my evolution and/or women

in public office. By adding hints of humor throughout my paper and my eportfolio, specifically

the EIP draft tab, I have accommodated my writing to keep the reader's attention. Through the

coursework of this semester, I have proven that although I may want my writing process to be

organized, it is anything but linear. Before even starting the composing process, I bared every

resource I could relate to my EIP. Through my revising and editing process, I gave room to

flexibility, while also engaging my opinions to the data collected. My expertise in knowledge of

convention was applied by citing my sources. From start to end of this course, we were expected

to reflect upon each assignment. My reflections are displayed throughout my eportfolio and this

paper. These reflections have allowed me to better understand the patterns in my writing process.

I would argue that the studios made up most of the writing done for this course, besides

the EIP. The first studio consisted of reflecting on my writing process. Since this was at the

beginning of the semester, and I had not done a big writing assignment since the previous school
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year, and had not considered my composing process before, this task was harder than it

originally seemed. For our second studio we were to begin our eportfolio. This studio, not only

helped me stay organized and manage my time, it also helped me realize the level of work the

eportfolio would be as I worked to complete it. The research studios allowed me to focus my

energy on looking for sources to back up my EIP. This, although very time consuming, was

helpful because I collected loads of information and eventually used them all in my final paper.

The writers move studio is the one I had mentioned dreading. However, once I started the

assignment, it turned out to be one of the easiest studios. I used a few of the sentences fabricated

from this studio in my final EIP. I know that the knowledge I gained from this studio will

empower my future writing skills. In my eportfolio, I mentioned the last studio being the most

helpful. I believe this because the process of creating an outline for my draft confirmed that my

paper flowed in a thoughtful manner. I also saw space for improvement and additional

information I had not previously covered.

In my eportfolio, I conjoined the annotated bibliography and the topic proposal onto the

same tab. Writing the topic proposal was relatively easy. The hardest part was deciding my topic,

rather than writing about it in a proposal. It was helpful because I developed my data into words.

I enjoyed doing this assignment; it reassured that I had enough passion to dedicate a semester to

the topic. My annotated bibliography on the other hand, was much more time-consuming. I had

trouble finding the lengthier sources that were required. During several instances, I felt as if I had

run out of things to write. Although this was tedious, it helped because I found extensive sources

that I applied to my EIP.

I have the need to feel prepared- always. So, before starting my writing process I

gathered an overwhelming amount of information regarding my topic- even if it was slightly off
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topic. I took notes as I did my research to have all the information I needed with easy access;

however, having all this data actually made the process harder. I had so much to write about, I

didn't know where to start. This delayed my work. When I began writing, I was not happy with

any of the introductions I had made, and I was confused about how I would make all my

information flow nicely. That is when I made my outline, and found peace and stability. The

beginning of this was surprisingly difficult.

As I received feedback from Malcolm about my EIP draft, I was relieved to discover he

believed my paper needed little improvement. I made small adjustments, such as fixing grammar

mistakes and adding dates of events. I also included the names of people I had not wanted to

include previously, because mentioning their names would give them a platform of attention, and

I didnt think they deserved it. However, I realized that if I named these people, it would add

clarity to my paper. So, I took the time to add the names, and also the corresponding party to

each politician mentioned. I also decided not to change the "'" in the title, as Malcolm

suggested, because I wanted it to be a play on words, where "the house" could mean the

traditional setting someone might picture a woman following gender roles would be in. Once

"...the senate" is added to the title, it is clear that I am referring to political positions. In addition,

I decided to keep the "estrogen and testosterone" part of my paper because it added humor, and it

was accurate in its context. I came to the conclusion that adding trivial facts about estrogen and

testosterone would not improve the purpose of my paper. The biggest change I made to my paper

was adding several paragraphs explaining who is specifically against women in positions of

power, and the physical and emotional abuse that female politicians go through.

Creating an eportfolio was not hard, but I have to admit, it took me some time to fully

understand how the features work. Adding images that related to my theme was very entertaining
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and a process I enjoyed. Embedding the documents and writing the reflections...ehh.. not so

much. Yes, this whole project was time-consuming, but I cannot complain over it being difficult.

I divided my time appropriately to keep myself at peace. When naming my eportfolio, I thought

it was appropriate to name it the same as my blog: passionate perceptions. I believed this to be a

good idea because my ideas on both pages, were in fact, passionate perceptions of mine.

Besides the data gathered from my extended inquiry project, I have learned that I must

question the system of education. I have learned that I am the best option to my own success. In

other words, I am my own leader. Through this course, I have learned that simplicity is a

student's (and teachers) best friend. I have also learned that one must always keep an open mind

and be vulnerable to new perceptions.

Sincerely,

Jennifer Delgado