Final Reflective Letter

Dear Reader,

This semester has truly been quite the eye-opening experience for me. I learned about

how to make my writing better as well as to search within myself to discover what I truly like,

and not what someone else wants me to like. For instance, when writing in my Daybook, I found

that creating ideas for a topic to research for about 3 months was hard. I found that what I

thought I was interested in, may not be what I’m actually interested in. My topic proposal was

almost about nuclear energy, which I thought I’d like reading about for an hour or so a day but

was actually not as interesting as I thought it was going to be. I found myself getting more

engrossed in writing about technology than I ever did about nuclear energy. This led to me

finding that I can be much more productive researching a topic that I’m passionate about, rather

than a topic that I’m interested in.

This enlightenment didn’t only come from coming up with ideas, it was sparked from this

whole class. The “Lit Lounge” as it is called taught me that ability to discover what I really like,

as it challenged me to say what I really think, along with giving helpful advice to go with

creativity or just improving writing in general. This translated well when going into essays and

critiquing my peers as I became better at analyzing a piece and giving feedback as to what I truly

thought about it. Take my first EIP for instance, I knew it was pretty bad from when I turned it

in, I knew it wasn’t my best work, because I learned to recognize what truly is a “Shitty First

Draft.” Then when reviewing other essays or works that authors had put out, I found that writers

have to put a lot more thought into their paper than we think they do. For example, writer’s

moves, they may seem simple, but they truly are complex in nature, creating a paper that flows

well and has impact to along with it. Those are the small things that truly distinguish some
authors from the rest of us, they know how to abuse these moves to capture an audience. That’s

why when I looked at my first EIP and some of the other works, I somewhat knew what was

missing. The Lit Lounge and this class in general have certainly taught me more to what

successful writing looks like.

Research is harder than I thought. Coming up with ideas and subjugating them to a

singular purpose was much harder than I anticipated. This is why I both hated and loved the

Annotated Bibliography. The Annotated Bibliography was not hard to find sources that

supported my topic, but it certainly made me think more about my EIP. The Annotated

Bibliography had me try and connect all these different sources all with a different purpose and

put them towards my own ambitions, something I hadn’t really done before. It taught me how to

cite certain sources correctly, instead of just putting them through a citation maker. Which was

tricky for some sources since they didn’t exactly fit some of the criteria for a proper citation.

This will certainly help me in the long run though, as I move forward with my studies and

needing to do proper research and finding key points within many forms of work.

As I mentioned before, I did not like my first EIP draft, it was pretty bad in fact. I liked

writing about my topic, especially in an extensive paper, but it made me both confused and

angry. This was all because I didn’t know how to write a proper research paper and honestly felt

like I got trapped at some points. It made it all the worse when I went back and saw all the

mistake I had made after I turned it in, but it really opened my eyes to how much improvement I

need to make as a writer. I feel like if I could go back, I would have rewritten a whole new draft

and started a bit earlier to look back over it.

My final EIP draft started as a soul-crushing experience as my revision process was

extensive and I was not used to revising my papers. I enjoyed rewriting my first draft and adding
a bit more to it, I felt like I had just brought something back from the dead. I know there is still

some more problems with the final draft, but I’m just happy that my final will be better than my

first in terms of its delivery and the message it tries to get across. I believe that if I had the

chance to go back and start a bit earlier, I would have. I started this final draft way too late, and it

will show in my grade, but I just wanted to write a clear paper that changed the problems with

the first draft. I just want to have time to perfect it and make sure it’s the best it could be.

My ePortfolio was surprisingly time-consuming. I know that my professor told me to

start early on it and I should have listened. Formatting and creating new content for a website I

know nothing about took way longer than I expected. It may have been because I’m quite

stubborn and don’t like asking for help when I don’t know how to do something. That fact

though is just one of the things I’m going to have to change going forward. I overall enjoyed

creating the ePortfolio though, as it made me reflect on my previous work and gave me the

freedom to design a website.

This class was overall a good time, I may have not been the best student, but I certainly

learned a lot. I learned about self-discovery, the process of writing, and how difficult some

assignments are without a plan. I think I’ll take away the fact that starting work late is not a good

idea. I also think I’ll be writing more since it has allowed me to discover more about myself and

allows for improvement of my abilities as a writer.

Thank you to those who’ve read this letter, it is not a well-formed letter, but it addresses

what I’ve done and what I’ve learned. I’m glad that you took the time to read about my journey.

Thanks again,

Blake