Dear Malcolm,

Holy cow the semester has flown by! It seems hard to believe that I am compiling my
final reflection to my ePortfolio! It seems as if it were just a few days ago that I was writing my
initial letter to you. However, as time has flown by, and the semester has progressed, so has my
writing. One thing that has separated this course from any other English course that I have taken,
has definitely been the free-writing and personal writing that I have been allowed to do within
the realms of this course. My writing has always been forced to be structured, whether that be by
a teachers specific rubric, a thesis statement, or the attitude of the teacher. This class is like a
free flowing river of thought, it doesnt matter what it is just write it down, is the vibe that was
given the first day of class. I have appreciated this more than what can be told.
When looking at my informal writing over the semester, I have really enjoyed most of the
assignments. My daybook entries as the semester dragged on, of course, became shorter due to
the flustering of my brain not being able to think about free writes, and of course a touch of
laziness (lets be honest, right?). However, my blog was always a place a thoroughly enjoyed to
go deep into the assignments. My favorite, by far, being the various TED talks. For example, a
TED talk conducted by Meg Jay on Why 30s are not the new 20s. Jay gives such a refreshing
perspective that this is the time of my life that I should take chances, and really make my life
what I want it to be. TED talks just seem to be a way for those with the gift of speaking in
academia to really touch me, pull me in without letting me drift off like I could with reading an
article.
In addition, my Literacy Narrative was such a joy to write. In fact, I believe it was my
absolute favorite writing assignment of the semester. Let me set the stage, two days before the
Literacy Narrative was due, I sat down at my computer in my cozy apartment, with my Yankee

Candles lit, after taking the most stressful Anatomy and Physiology test of my life. I took a deep
breath and just let my fingers unleash on the keyboard of my laptop, reminiscing of such a happy
experience of becoming literate in the physical therapy setting. Never have I enjoyed such an
assignment. It was such a relieving experience after studying for days, and being stressed to the
maximum, to just write, and write, and write some more about something that was truly a life
changing experience.
The personal connections that were made through my informal writing and my literacy
narrative were essential to my development as a learner and a person. Why you ask? These
pieces allowed me to set all other problems, homework, studying, and so forth aside and really
put forth an effort to think about how I felt about something, or communicate something I had
experienced. These assignments helped to bring me back into my work, instead of just having
another essay that was written for me by a rubric. When applying this self-expression to life, my
personal writing has helped me to remind myself that I need to let myself show though whatever
I do. Everything that is created by me needs the Caroline Stamp of Approval; not just want is
expected or what other people want to hear.
In addition, the massive undertaking of the Extend Inquiry Project has influenced my
growth as a learner and person. The project began with a Topic Proposal, which really made me
question what I wanted to study (again bringing me back into my work). I settled on a topic in
the running domain as that was my interest that took center stage though out the semester of
training for my half marathon. The Annotated Bibliography, to be honest, was one of the hardest
assignment I have ever done. It was tedious, boring, and I was in constant fear that I was going to
not do something correct and be charged with plagiarism. However, through the struggle that was
the Annotated Bibliography, my citation skills and citation selection improved drastically. I had

never created an annotated bibliography before, so the completion in and of itself was an
accomplishment. Finally, the First and Final EIP Drafts, were the grand finale of the semester. I
loved my topic which was, Are Long Distances Safe in the Long Run? Where I examined the
negative and positive consequences of long distance running. These drafts took so much time,
and research that I have to say the pride of the completion of the drafts has given me a
confidence boost as a learner and a person. There were many nights where I would read over my
drafts and think, Gosh, I just want this to be good In the end, I think they are more than
good. The end result of these drafts, has given me experience in conducting research in my field
of interest, as well as research in general. In addition, I have never written an exploratory essay
that was research driven before, so I am grateful for the experience in this writing style. Through
an exploratory format, I was allowed to ask questions and not worry about essay structure as I
would with the basic argumentative paper.
The challenge of the EIP did surprise me. Even though I enjoyed my topic, I have never
had writers block like I experienced when writing this paper. This is definitely a negative
progression in my writing experience, as I never had problems with writers block in high school.
However, I found that I was better at an exploratory essay style than I thought, due to the fact
that I loved asking questions after each point I made. The constant asking of questions made me
feel successful in this writing style.
When looking back at my writing, the strengths and weaknesses are apparent. The
strengths of my writing is my curiosity, I am a curious person whom asks lots of question.
However, the laziness of my will to write has definitely weakened my writing throughout the
course of the semester. This semester, my workload was strong and constant with very little/brief
letup. The management of my workload was also a weakness to my writing as it would force

me to procrastinate a little more than I should have with some assignments. As I look back once
more to my informal writing, I can see the most progression in my work, especially on my blog.
As I look though the semester, I am pleased to see a progression in asking questions and in
explaining answers to the questions I find answers to. In addition, I overcame the workload and
procrastination that suppressed me at moments in the semester to produce work that I was proud
enough to post on the Internet in some shape or form. My work has taken shape throughout the
semester; there may have been moments where the shape was not ideal, but a shape no doubt. I
am overall proud of what I accomplished this semester, and am grateful for the experiences
gained, my classmates, and my professor. Thanks for a great semester Dr. Campbell!

Sincerely,
Caroline Jones