Dear Professor Ferrara, 

I have learned a lot in ENW 100. Throughout the semester, I believe my writing skills 

have improved. The different styles of writing have made my writing more well rounded. I 

enjoyed writing the Literacy Narrative the best. I liked the ability to form characters and set the 

scene for the story. In high school I didn’t do that very often, it was more based on books or 

research. However, I spent the most time rewriting and revising the literacy narrative, since it 

was a new form of writing for me. I liked the “non-academic” feel of the writing. It brought more 

creative thoughts to mind. I think that this was more interesting. I know that when I write papers 

where I have to focus on finding evidence to support the claim I made, I focus more on the 

evidence, and less on my writing skills.  

I thought that the second paper, my Rhetorical Analysis had the most interesting topic. I 

knew I wanted to write about the ocean because that is something that I am passionate about. 

When trying to find a Ted Talk to write about, I did fall into the rabbit hole of Ted Talks. I thought 

they were all fascinating. Most of them were about ocean topics, however, I ended up learning 

about different types of energy and innovations on how to clean up oil spills too. My love for the 

ocean was similar to Dr. Johnson’s. We both grew to love the ocean at a young age. During my 

many years at the beach, and sailing I have not only loved it but have been interested in 

learning about it and what lives in it. I have seen interesting things wash ashore. Including a 

dead sea turtle and seal on the beach! In Dr. Johnson’s Ted Talk, she talked about how she 

helped design zoning for the island of Curacao. One of the reasons they had zoning was for 

shipping, where large boats could come in and out. I think those sea animals that washed up on 

shore, was due to boating accidents. I was intrigued by Dr. Johnson and her work with the 

ocean. I thought she brought ethos, logos, and pathos, to her talk.  
 My love for the ocean was also one of the reasons I chose to write about single-use 

plastic for my research paper. The facts that I found out about the plastic epidemic were 

shocking, and about the amount of plastic being used and how much of it ends up in the ocean. 

It was sad to hear how this has plagued both the ocean and the health care system. As 

someone who is going into the healthcare field, it will be interesting to see what happens with 

plastic and health in the future. I also enjoyed doing my research. I thought that it brought an 

interesting aspect to the paper, both from the research aspect, and that I have never done 

something like that before. One of the reasons I thought it was interesting, was seeing what 

other people thought about a topic. While I thought that some of the answers on the topic were 

very obvious, others had different answers.  

One of the major take-aways was that I got to learn how to become a better writer while 

exploring topics that interested me. I enjoyed being able to have more freedom on what I could 

write about. In high school, most of the writing was based on the teacher telling us to write about 

one thing, with little wiggle room to explore other ideas. I think that all of the assignments were 

helpful and relevant for college writing. I think that the course was laid out in a well thought out 

way. I also think that having the structure for the first essay, where you had to have drafts done 

by a certain time allowed them to be written and planned out better. My first draft and final draft 

turned out to be completely different, but if I didn’t do the writing exercises, I wouldn’t have the 

final draft I did. I know during the literacy narrative for myself at least, since nobody knew me, I 

felt like I had to tell my whole life story, just to give an idea of who I am. I ended up focusing in 

on one part of my life. I think that the advice I was given helped me steer my writing into the 

direction I wanted it to go in. By taking what the teacher says about the paper, allowed me to 

end up with a better paper.  

 My advice I would give is to do the exercises and apply them to the paper you are 

working on. The teacher is giving the exercise for a reason. I think that by applying them to your 

writing will give it another dimension to it, and in turn, become a better paper.  

Sincerely, 

Ana Mastrocola