Wednesday, December 13, 2023

Dear Ms. Williams,

The purpose of this letter is to explain the revisions I have made as a part of my final exam in
English 111. For my revision, I have chosen “Formal Assignment #3- Genre Project & Artist’s
Statement.”

My writing before taking this course, as compared to my present writing, was very similar in
structure and grammar, but different in purpose and the thought(s) that went into said writing.
Before this course, when I needed to write something, I had not adopted a way to organize my
thoughts and organize all of the information that went into writing something, whether it be for
class or any other reason. Overall, I was not the biggest fan of writing, however, after this course
I realized writing does not have to be a painful or tedious task for me to complete, but rather a
way to exercise my mind and learn how to express myself through writing. My formal
assignment shows this due to how it is organized and how it is meant to be appealing and show
that thought has thoroughly gone into it. I also believe that my artist statement shows this as
well. It is not very messy and all over the place like it would have been had I written before
taking this class.

I chose this formal assignment to represent my finest work because, first, it was my favorite
assignment to write, and second, it is the most recent formal assignment I have done, which I
believe would show my fullest writing potential as I was later in the course and had become
more knowledgeable towards my writing. Overall, I am very proud of this formal assignment and
believe that it shows growth.

When I wrote the first draft of my assignment, I began by putting everything that I wanted to
include into sentences. I did not worry about the formatting, but I did keep everything in order
when I had it placed in my research. This helped me stay organized and kept my thoughts clear.
One activity I did was to remind myself who my audience was. I needed to remember that it
wasn’t meant to be just my peers and professor, but a random person reading a magazine at a
doctor's office, grocery store, their home, or any other place where you can read magazines. This
helped with my tone and purpose of writing.

The difference that peer and instructor feedback made in the different versions of my assignment
was focused on the organization of my writing. I was told that my magazine article needed more
pictures and structure to make it look and feel more like a magazine. I was also told on my
artist’s statement to remove the spaces between my paragraphs and remove one or two wordy
sentences. The most significant revisions I made, based on the feedback I received, was that I
added more pictures and a few more sentences to my assignment to help add more structure to
add into that “magazine feel.” This helped make both my genre project and the artist’s statement
look and sound better to read.

Overall, my use of the writing process was very simple. For pre-writing, I decided what I was
going to use as a genre and what topic I would use. Eventually, I decided to do a magazine article
on the science behind kindness. For drafting I used a Google Document to do a rough draft,
which included my research in little bullet points, which slowly progressed into having an
organized list of information put into the order I would write it. From there, I formed the
information into sentences while formatting the article to look like a magazine article. Once I
was done with the sentence structure, I moved to finalizing my draft. This involved me finding
images that fit my topic and looked presentable for my audience. I changed the color of each of
them to fit with the purple/pink color scheme I was going for. I added a few sentences for more
structure and I considered it good to be submitted after fixing grammatical errors and
organizational errors. Afterward for revision, I used the feedback mentioned before to help make
my assignment all the better. Overall, I added images and fixed sentences for my revision.

After completing my revision, I feel that the best part of my assignment is the structure of my
artist’s statement. I am proud of the length of it, the organization of it, and the overall readable
nature of it. Specifically on my artist’s statement, I worried about the word count and the length.
I have a bad habit of over-complicating sentences in hopes of increasing the word count and
length, rather than being concerned with the readability of it. However, with help from my peers,
I was able to counter some of my complicated and wordy sentences to help make them more
readable.

An area of concern I have with my assignment is the platform I used to write my magazine
article. I chose Google Docs due to how fast it would be and how I would already be used to the
controls and format of it. Had I had more time - and maybe more imagination - I could have
used something like Weebly or another platform to have a more professional-looking magazine
article. However, I think the point of my genre and topic was met despite these concerns.

Overall, this course was an incredible experience! I have never taken a fully online English
course until this year. At first, I was nervous that I would not be able to focus and retain
information well due to not having an in-person instructor. However, my fears were quickly
proved wrong due to the excellent teaching and instruction I received! From this course, I gained
more knowledge into how I can become a better, more organized writer, and overall better
student. If we had more time in the semester, or if I were to take this course again, I would focus
on giving myself more time to do assignments and increasing my imagination. If I am 100%
honest, I found myself rushing through some steps in assignments just to check them off of my
to-do list. I also found that with being online, there was a larger standard that I would have to
hold myself up to just to complete work in a meaningful fashion. Despite this, I still think I did a
good job, and I can proudly say that I had a lot of fun!

Sincerely,

Elijah Withers
ewithers@student.lincolncharter.org

The Absolute Easiest and Cheapest

Way to be More Healthy- Being Kind.
By: Eli Withers

We all know what kindness is. Kindness is defined as the quality of

being friendly, generous, and considerate. Kindness is holding the
door open for someone walking behind you, saying bless you when
someone sneezes, giving compliments on someone's outfit or hair,
waving at a neighbor, smiling at someone; The list could go on for
ages. One thing that these things all have in common though, is how
simple they all are. It is incredible how something so simple can
benefit one's health- both physically and mentally- in an incredible
amount.
Kindness is a Natural ‘Reset Button’.
Psychologists have found that performing acts of kindness boosts
happiness and well-being. (Mahoney, Mark. “Be Nice: Explore the Many
Health Benefits of Practicing the Art of Kindness.” Mayo Clinic Health. 10
Oct 2023.) Studies even show kindness being linked to
releasing “oxytocin” into the body, which is
responsible for improving blood pressure.
Studies even show acts of consideration going
as far as benefiting your nervous system.
Think of kindness as a natural reset button
for your body. If a negative thing happens or you
are worried about something, kindness can help improve your overall
mood. It enables your body to counteract negative impacts on your
systems. For instance, stress and anxiety can negatively impact your
digestive system, cardiovascular system, and even your nervous system.
Acts of compassion give your body something to focus on and something
positive to look forward to.

Kindness in a Real-Life Scenario.

Kindness fought against the negative
social effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic.
During the pandemic, there was a study done
on prosocial behavior in adults in Ontario,
Canada. The study showed that kindness and
prosocial behavior went hand-in-hand in
recovering from the social downfall that
occurred due to the pandemic. (Shillington,
Katie J; Yates, Julia; Vanderloo, Leigh M;
Burke, Shauna M; Ng, Victor. “‘When
you give kindness out, you get it back ten times more: Ontario adults’
prosocial behavior during the first 16 months of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
PLoS One. July 2023.) The study shows adults
that who experienced or committed acts of
kindness became more prosocial and even
more socially aware than others during the
pandemic. Small acts of kindness rose, which
eventually led to many engaging in safe social
interactions (which helped many remain
socialized) and giving back to community members and organizations. This
only shows how small acts of kindness - either given or received - have an
incredibly positive impact on society, even during the most recent and very
tragic pandemic.

How to Start Being More Kind: It’s Simple!

To start being more kind, start small! For kindness to have health benefits
doesn't mean having to donate large amounts of money to charities or start
picking up trash on the side of the road for weeks on end, but rather a
simple compliment, smile, or any kind gesture is enough to start you on the
path to being a healthier and more kind person.
Date Created: November 2023.
Eli Withers

ENG 111

Professor Williams

14 November 2023

Artist’s Statement

For my formal assignment, I chose to do a magazine-type article about the psychology

and overall health benefits that come with acts of kindness. I am not 100% sure why I chose this,

but I believe I saw something about it on the news or had heard about it on the radio. It is an

incredibly interesting topic. My purpose in making this project was to show that kindness is

super beneficial to those who receive it and those who give it. My audience was not any group in

particular. I think that this knowledge would best be targeted towards the general public.

I believe that many people in the general public think that kindness is something you do

to make others happy and feel good; while this is true, there is also hidden psychology that

people do not realize since we cannot see it. This prompted me to put my efforts into crafting an

article that would be easy to understand, interesting, and overall not some boring magazine

article that people glance at once. Surprisingly, my research efforts were met with great success.

I managed to gain a lot of new information to add to my article to make it less monotonous and

boring.

I saw my piece being shown in a health magazine or any magazine that could

accommodate an interesting health science topic. I mainly used logos in my writing; I stuck to

the facts my research provided me. I based my genre on my topic, since my topic is not meant to

be a super long book or something you could teach someone how to do, I went for the smaller

approach of a simple magazine article. Most magazine articles are not meant to be super long but
are supposed to be long enough to give the audience the information needed to understand your

topic. I also wanted to be able to capture the reader rather than have them brush it off. To me, a

magazine article is something people glance over and put away whether it be in line at a grocery

store or a doctor’s office in the waiting room. This was taken into account when creating a title,

adding the colors, and organizing the article the way I did. I hoped that adding words to my title

such as ‘easiest’ and ‘cheapest’ would help capture a reader. This was also my hope in adding the

images which were super simple images that I gained from websites in my research. They are

super easy to read and understand, which makes a reader feel as though the topic is easy to

understand and might be worth reading into more.

My first step in creating my project was to research my topic a lot. I knew I needed to

know more so that way I could understand that it was a solid option and so I knew what I was

going to talk about fully. The research was difficult at times, but overall was pretty simple. At

first, nothing helpful was popping up on the library link. I changed the wording a bit to include

the word ‘psychology’ and I immediately had what I needed in research. Then I decided on my

genre, which was pretty easy to do. I did get worried about the length of my project. It does not

take a lot to get the information of my topic across, however, I feel confident in the length of my

article. From there, adding in my research was super easy. I ensured I read and understood my

research, then wrote it into my article in words that were easy to understand. I also made sure to

reword many things since many websites had the same type of sentences in different words.

Now that it is done, I believe that it turned out to be a very nice article. There might be

things that my partner sees on my peer review that I need to change or tweak a little, but from

what I have gone over I believe that it is very solid. I used all of my research efficiently and

organized it well. Overall this article is to help the general public understand that kindness is not
just a thing you do for others, but can be extremely beneficial to your own mental and physical

health. I feel confident that this magazine article, had it been posted into an actual magazine,

might have had the ability to capture readers and have them read the entire article, and hopefully

put being kind to others more in a new perspective.