Shane Doiron Malcolm Campbell English 1103 May 1, 2012

Dear Malcolm: I want to use this letter to explain many of the changes that went into my writing and thinking over the last semester this year in English 1103. First of all I just want to thank you for investing so much time into your students. Your caring nature has definitely made an impact on how I look at things. I believe that this class would not have changed the way I think if it wasnt for your patience and diligence. Throughout this letter I will be examining all techniques used in our class to extend my thoughts and form an inquiry project throughout the semester as well as challenges I faced. The first topic I would like to discuss is the use of our daybook and blog. These two forms of media were primarily used to develop thoughts as the semester went on. At the beginning I really had a hard time putting much thought into my daybook just because I had never really thought critically before. Free writing at the start was a very hard process because all through school I had been taught structure which basically goes against free writing. Throughout the semester I found that free writing really helped me think in ways I had never before. Creativity was created instantaneously as I learned to put every thought on paper even if it was irrelevant. Sometimes I just found myself rambling on things I just couldnt get out of my head. When devising the e-portfolio, especially the daybook page, I realized just how much my writing had changed over the semester. Required daybook entries helped my critical reading as well. I learned to pick out main points and relate to what the writer was saying. As daybook writings progressed my thoughts included a more deep feeling and I was able to keep research on my final inquiry over the semester as well. The blog for me was also something new and a place to keep my

thoughts organized. I generally kept my focus for my blog upon the inquiry research but sometimes I would blog on things that just interested me. One problem that I faced with the blog was actually remembering to write in it every week. I came to the realization that if I am not reminded to do something I can easily forget things. To combat this I was forced to put a reminder on my computer every week to do this blog. I feel as if the writing of my blog changed similarly to my daybook. Thoughts became deeper in meaning and became easier to write as well. Overall the daybook and blog to me were the most important aspect to this class. They ultimately helped me grow as a thinker and writer at the same time. At the start of the class we were presented with a topic proposal in which we chose a topic of interest to eventually create a final inquiry paper from. This part of the inquiry process gave me a lot of difficulty as my mind changed in interest for certain things. At first my main focus was on obesity and internet overuse. As time went by and the topic proposal deadline was approaching, my initial interest was beginning to change. I realized that this topic may not be worth spending time on if I really had no personal connection with. I also learned that if the scope of a topic was too large, I may have a hard time narrowing my research down. With your help I finally decided that my topic proposal was going to be about online gaming and its impact to our society. Once my topic fell into place the original topic proposal was not hard at all. I really enjoyed searching for topics that interest me for this part of the inquiry process and really developing a thought about one specific topic. The second part of the inquiry process, the annotated bibliography, was most difficult and least enjoyable to me. When I first started the annotated bibliography, I had no clue what I was doing. This part of the inquiry process was new to me and proposed many challenges. Collecting research for me was very interesting in a sense that I was learning new things and collecting data on my topic of choice. I had a hard time finding print sources due to the fact that my topic was on a fairly new subject which

included the internet. The time it took to complete the research needed to write the annotated bibliography did sort of turn me off to my topic a little. I learned a lot of stuff about online gaming and how it affects our society. I was surprised to find that there are addiction centers for those with an internet gaming addiction which is a serious problem today. Overall the annotated bibliography was troublesome but helped immensely with the rest of my inquiry project. As I began my extended inquiry essay, I realized just how much the annotated bibliography was needed. Apart from the introduction and conclusion, all research was there and ready to be drafted only because of the annotated bibliography. Throughout this part of the inquiry process I really learned the most. First of all I learned how to include main ideas properly into an extended paper as well as how to make the paper flow better to each main point. I found out that if you struggle with research and dont have enough information it can hurt the final step of the process. One thing that I really struggled with through the final part of the inquiry process was procrastination. Drafting my essay took about a week total but going back to a daybook entry where we scheduled time to complete it, I went way off schedule. I feel as if drafting the essay would have taken less time if I had gone by the schedule I provided myself. One very helpful step that we took as a class was peer review for the essays. From peer review I was able to see what I had done strongly as well as what needed work. I feel as if the strongest part of my paper may have been my introduction. Certain parts that needed work included in text citation and the works cited page. From my work this semester I believe that the inquiry process as a whole is very helpful in putting together ideas to form a well thought research paper. From this semester my work and thought process has changed dramatically and for the good. From this class I will take my critical writing skills as well as critical thinking skills. I will also have more confidence when dealing with research papers in the future!