1

Drew Frazier

Professor Howard

ENGL 1302

28 November 2023

Reflective Artifact

I took English 1302 with Professor Howard for the Fall 2023 semester here at UTRGV

and learned a lot about myself and what I aspire to be in the future. There were a lot of projects

that I had the opportunity to create and work on this semester that were crucial in honing my

skills not only as a writer but also as a theologian. Professor Howard gave us the wonderful

opportunity to research any topic that we desired with her approval, and I chose to write and

research about why Christians need to understand theology at a deeper level, which could be

simplified to the fact that Christians can tend to have a very surface-level understanding of what

they believe in and why. At first, I was writing the project to see whether this belief that

Christians should have a deeper understanding of theology was something legitimate and not just

a stereotype I was making. The results of my research were in resounding agreeance with my

theory. I interviewed multiple pastors who are experts in the study of theology and they all came

to the same conclusion–that theology is crucial and many lack the proper understanding of what

a Christian should know and should be striving to know. This topic and the results from the

research were helpful to my current and future life in a multitude of facets. Currently, I am

helping to serve at my church, and that involves instructing others and guiding them in their
 2

faith. This gave me an insight into what level people who are seeking to follow Jesus as a

Christian stand currently and how I can help to educate them and grow them in their faith. It was

not only very intriguing to me but my research will be very useful for my future because I will be

going into seminary after graduating from undergraduate school, seeking to become a pastor in

the future.

Another moment in the class that was very monumental and helpful was the feedback that

I received on my projects. Professor Howard was extremely helpful in pointing out parts of my

paper that could stand to be improved. I tend to struggle with going into detail with certain topics

that might be a subpoint to the main point. She would point this out and give very practical

advice that I could implement into whatever I was working on at that point. Another part of the

feedback that was very helpful was the peer portion of it. My partner for feedback, Noe, was also

helpful when it came to pointing out flaws in my paper, most of the time on a more general scale

I had to think about how I was going to change, and through that process, it helped me to become

a better writer by strengthening my weaknesses and building upon what strengths I currently

have.

I think I can still stand to work on the point of going into more detail on specific topics. I

have multiple people who have told me that in some subpoint areas I lack detail. I think I have

gotten better at that skill throughout this class, but it is something I will strive to keep working

on as it will be a very crucial skill for my future.

Overall, ENGL 1302 was so much more beneficial to me as a reader and writer than

ENGL 1301. I learned so much about myself, my faith, and my abilities as a reader, writer, and

even as an orator. There are a lot of applicable skills in writing that I learned from writing my
 3

research paper on a deepening understanding of theology. I think it is so important for instructors

to allow their students to have more free roam when it comes to what they are writing about, and

Professor Howard did a great job at that while still guiding students to be able to dig into what

they are writing about.