Cassie Steele

Professor Schwartz

WR 122

14 March 2016

Reflection Letter

Dear Erin,

I have greatly benefitted from my time in your class. The instruction and feedback you’ve

provided over the past several weeks have not only helped me to hone my writing skills, but to

view research in a new way. And though I cannot believe I am typing this, I genuinely

appreciated the textbook selection as well. I had expected a book about conducting and writing

research to be a painful read. But, much to my surprise, I didn’t find The Craft of Research to be

a complete bore. In fact, I rather enjoyed the writing style. I found the information to be

invaluable to my education as a writer and a researcher.

I consider myself to be a competent writer, but I have to admit there were times this

quarter when I felt out of my depth. Not entirely surprising considering that prior to enrolling in

this class I hadn’t stepped foot on a college campus in over 10 years. To say my writing and

research skills were a bit rusty is an understatement.

Though it seems laughable now, a few months ago I would have limited my definition of

“research” exclusively to the study of academic literature or scientific data. I would have argued

a blog post, interview, or writing not expressly scholarly in nature failed to qualify as valid

research. When you introduced the theme of this course, I remember thinking, she wants us to

do what?! How, I wondered, could anyone write a research paper about playing the guitar. And

though you did a fine job of changing my perspective on research, I have to admit, I wasn’t

adventurous enough to test this new theory for myself. Though I deliberately chose an area of
personal development that had been studied and would provide a plethora of scientific data this

term, I wouldn’t rule out a more abstract subject for a future research project.

In addition to providing a deeper understanding of research, this class served as a

wonderful refresher for writing in general. As I mentioned before, I was more than a bit rusty. As

was made painfully clear to me in drafting my first essay this term. I am embarrassed to admit

that I spent over 20 hours writing an essay that I ultimately scrapped at midnight the night

before it was due. I had a difficult time reconciling the assignment objectives with what I knew a

“personal narrative” essay to be. Rather than approach you for clarification as I should have, I

attended a tutoring session. And, although the tutor provided some generally useful feedback, I

still didn’t feel confident in the direction I was heading. Thankfully, the realization that I had

written the wrong style of essay struck me in time to take a fresh stab at it. However, this

experience taught me a few lessons, namely, ask for clarification as soon as possible, and

secondly, outlines are my friend. I had forgotten how useful outlines are for creating structure

and maintaining organization. They even proved useful for some of the more robust journal

entry assignments..

          Although I found the journal entry assignments to be somewhat redundant, I did

appreciate the ease of submission made possible by Google Drive. On the whole, I thoroughly

enjoyed your class. In particular, your wit and humor, as well as that handy trick for editing a

piece of writing in reverse. I had been very excited to tell my daughter and husband all about it,

but apparently I am the last person alive to learn of this strategy. Thank you for helping me grow

as a writer, a researcher, and a person.

Sincerely,

Cassie Steele