Dear Professor Jizi,

Writing has always been an area of weakness for me and if I am honest, it is something I
have never enjoyed. Throughout school I always felt that my writing was inadequate compared
to the writings of my peers. I absolutely love to read and have always done well in English
Language Arts classes, however, the writing components of these classes brought about feelings
of stress and inadequacy. Last semester I took UWRT 1101 and began to feel a little more
confident in my writing, yet still the uncertainty and doubt about the quality of my writing
lingered in the back of my mind. This semester as I embarked on my UWRT 1102 journey, I was
determined to gain more confidence and self-esteem in terms of my writing ability.
My e-portfolio includes the following components, What Happiness Means to Me
essay, research on happiness, EIP research and essay, and Pinterest page Genre project. As I
wrote my essay on happiness, I was struck by how easily the words flowed when I was writing
about something that was so meaningful and special to me. It was amazing to see the many
blessings that I hold so dear on one piece of paper, and to realize that these priceless people in
my life are the ones that bring happiness into each day of my life. Normally, I am not
comfortable with peer editing, because again it makes me feel insecure with my writing.
However, as we were doing peer edits on our happiness essays, I found myself feeling a little
more secure and confident about the essay I was sharing with everyone. The research that we
read and discussed in class regarding happiness, was truly enlightening to me. I especially
enjoyed the section that discussed how different religions and cultures view happiness in varying
ways. I never thought about some cultures looking at happiness as a bad thing, and looking
down on those that were too happy. Also, the fact that some think that if you are experiencing
a time of happiness, then something bad will happen next; because, one must follow the other. I

did agree with the research regarding how some people are just naturally happier than others.
This is something Ive experienced personally and whole heartedly agree with the researchers.
My EIP Research and Essay, on the impact of caring teacher/student relationships on academic
success was extremely informative and relevant to my current field of study. The information I
gained from this research project will be very valuable and useful as I continue towards my goal
of becoming an elementary education teacher. I was shocked at how much information was
available regarding this topic and how overwhelmingly positive the research was towards the
importance of caring relationships. After doing the research and essay for my EIP project, I
decided to extend this topic into my genre project. I created a Pinterest page that can be a
resource tool for current teachers as well as education majors as they work towards creating
positive classroom environments for their students. The board includes posts related to building
relationships, as well as posts about caring for students. There are multiple inspirational quotes
in the Caring for Students section, that I hope will touch others just as they touched me.
My most important work would definitely be my EIP research and essay. This topic was
relevant and important to me, and therefore I found it very interesting to research and write
about. Again, the same as the happiness paper, I found this essay easier to write than most and I
believe it is because I felt a connection to the work. Connection enables me to feel more
confident and sure of my writing pieces. If I have a vested interest in the piece I am writing
about, the words seem to flow easier and come together in a more cohesive way. The topic of
education, and especially teachers that build positive relationships with their students is very
important to me. My own life has forever been molded and shaped by several teachers that took
the time to build a relationship with me and their caring and support have had a lasting impact on
my educational success.

Two areas of weakness that I face in terms of writing are feeling secure in the quality and
content of my writing, as well as being able to give adequate feedback to others on their writing.
I have always felt that my writing was not as good as my peers and have struggled to find my
voice in my writing. As a result of this class, I have become more confident and feel that I have
started to find my voice in my writing. However, I do feel that this is still a weakness that I will
need to continue to work on. The other weakness is being able to provide adequate feedback to
my peers on their writing. I feel that this weakness is tied to my first weakness. When I am feel
insecure in my own writing ability, it is difficult for me to feel confident giving advice to others
on their writing. With the increase in my own confidence level this semester, it has been a little
easier for me to provide editing suggestions to my peers. Again, this is still an area of weakness
and I will continue to work on gaining more confidence in this area as well.
The EIP project truly stretched my thinking, as I worked to narrow my focus and
investigate the topic of positive teacher relationships and academic success. This project turned
out to be challenging and enjoying. It was challenging because I wanted to adequately express
the importance of classroom relationships. This topic means so much to me and I wanted to
share the impact that these relationships can have on student lives. For these same reasons, it
was so enjoyable to write, because I am connected to this topic and want to educate others on its
importance.
In regards to my proposal, my focus started looking at the many different aspects of
teacher/student relationships, however, as I began my research and started writing my essay the
focus narrowed. I decided to focus on how caring teacher/student relationships impact student
academic/social success. This change occurred as a result of research findings, as well as, my
own personal experiences that I brought to the essay. As far as research, I was able to locate

resources on the Internet, scholarly journals, as well as an education magazine. All of the
resources that I referenced were credible sources and proved to be helpful to my research. I did
find that some of the scholarly journals were very in depth and the research provided was
difficult to understand and decipher. There were a lot of articles available and I believe that this
is because of the relevance and importance of this topic. I was surprised at the amount of
research available on the topic of the importance and impact of caring relationships on student
success. After looking at the available research and reading multiple articles I did narrow my
focus to just the caring aspect of relationships. In my essay I wrote in a more informal manner,
in order to make a better connection with my reader. In the essay I included references to my
own personal experiences, therefore I felt it was more impactful to write informally. My critique
group was beneficial from the beginning, as they offered suggestions on making sure I was
hooking my reader and creating a natural flow to my essay. This research was similar to projects
I have completed in the past, however, I felt like I was more prepared and successful as I worked
through the research process. This inquiry project helped me grow in my research and writing
ability.
This writing class has been very beneficial to me, and I feel that I have grown personally
as a writer, researcher, and reflector. My confidence and self-esteem has increased and I am
more willing to share my writing with others. Going forward I plan on continuing to focus on
finding my writing voice and becoming more confident with my writing ability.