Ojimadu 1

Vivian Ojimadu
Professor Douglas
UWRT 1101-800
3 December 2016
Final Reflection
Dear Professor Douglas,
This course was my college wake up call. I was the kid in high school
that never really needed to study. I grasped concepts easily I was social and
always eager to learn, school was my happy place. I was told that college
wasnt high school that you cant get by without study and applying the
things you learn and I didnt believe until I began this course. This course
challenged me as a student and as a person. As a student Ive learned
writing and literacy skills that will transcend through all of my future courses.
As a person Ive learned tolerance and communication skills that I will use
throughout my life. In wake of the recent racial uprisings in Charlotte I was
exposed to different viewpoints while in this class. I appreciated your
willingness to provide a safe zone and an opportunity for discourse to take
place concerning the issues. Following the discourse, I felt as though I had
caused a rift in our relationship over my passionate viewpoints. I respect
your intellect and your position as an esteemed Professor of literature and
writing. I am grateful for what I have learned while taking this course and for
the patience you had with my throughout it.

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The This I Believe proclamation was our first major assignment and
probably the most difficult for me because I went into the course a lot more
confident than I should have been. Rather than going into the course with an
open mind ready to acquire knowledge, I went in with a slightly closed mind
because I felt as though writing was already one of my strong suits. I
therefore underestimated the difficulty of this first assignment. The purpose
of the paper was to propose an idea that you believed strongly and why. My
first draft of the assignment was poorly developed and lacked an expanded
concept. I believe the lack of a thesis statement in my first draft was the
reason why my overall paper lacked purpose and flow. At our midterm
meeting I was told I needed to first create a solid thesis and then develop the
concept throughout the paper. My final draft had a strong thesis and it
actually had a purpose, something I lacked in my first draft. I developed the
importance of faith and how maintaining faith is one of my strongest beliefs.
I was able to incorporate the critical reading SLO when figuring out how to
improve my paper. My ability to see why things like a strong thesis and
purpose are vital to the writing of a good paper was what I learned most from
this first assignment.
I had never been introduced to an ethnography until taking this course
and I did not expect to enjoy this assignment as much as I did. I enjoyed the
observation portion of this assignment the most. I felt as though I was a
journalist on a mission to secretly get information about college students and
their involvement on campuses. I chose to focus on an on-campus choir

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because I knew many of the students in the choir and was aware of their
involvement in multiple other extracurricular activities on campus, this made
them the perfect research group. By interviewing the leader of the choir who
had graduated from the University himself, I gained insight as to why
students overload and how they are negatively impacted from it. I then
furthered my research by looking into the medical health issues that arise
from overloading. By choosing more databased sources and improving my
grammatical errors I bettered my final paper.
The slam poem was my favorite assignment because I was able to
represent who I was most through this piece. This assignment displayed the
most originality and creativity which is also why I was able to do so well with
it. I decided to improve upon a piece I started working on months before.
Lightskin is the Right Skin was important to me because it was a literal
representation of the prejudice I received from my own people. I was able to
write about what I faced and I appreciated this assignment for that. This
assignment used the SLO that incorporated composing processes. The poem
itself is a process of becoming self-aware of what I have experienced and
embracing who I am rather than hating myself. I included in my portfolio my
first draft of the piece recorded in my final draft, that I presented to the
class, I removed parts that didnt add to the theme of the poem as well as I
softened my tone. My final draft was less angry which I believe allowed for
the audience to better receive the message.

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Our pop culture literacy unit concluded with a final assignment that
again allowed us to demonstrate our creativity by creating a magazine
centered around something we are passionate about. I chose to center my
magazine around natural hair because its something that has taken over
social media, therefore I know there is a market for something like a natural
haircare magazine. I kept the text minimal, used soft colors, and
incorporated many pictures. Natural girls want to know dos and donts,
recipes, and anything else that will work to get them long healthy natural
hair and fast. This was my goal throughout the making of the magazine, my
motto was short, sweet, and to the point. I was able to put together
cohesive magazine while keeping in mind my target audience. Both the slam
poem and pop culture magazine worked to develop my creativity skills and
allowed me to develop as a writer while incorporating things and ideas I am
passionate about.
The final portfolio was not a difficult assignment for me. Allowing us to
begin working on the assignment from the very beginning of the course
allotted me time to not only gather artifacts but also design and format my
portfolio so it is simple and easy to navigate. I was able to decide what
artifacts were most important and which displayed my growth as a writer the
most over the course of this semester. The critical reflection SLO was
incorporated in the making of my portfolio because I had to not only reflect
upon but improve on every artifact I included in this portfolio. That is what
critical reflection is in my opinion, to not only reflect upon but to improve as

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well. I was also tasked with critically reflecting on my growth overall as a
writer. This was the goal of the portfolio and I do believe my growth is very
visible from the writing of my This I Believe proclamation to the writing of
this here final reflection. My ability to articulate, develop, and create a strong
paper has greatly improved over the course of this semester.
I was humbled throughout the course of this semester. The girl who
always had the right answers finally learned how to listen. The reality is that I
am not always right and that my viewpoints are not the only ones that
mattered. I learned how to take constructive criticism from my professors.
When I got my grade back from my This I Believe proclamation I broke
down and was convinced my professor hated me. In all actuality I had to be
able to see poor work for what it is and understand how to improve on that
work. This is how I developed as a student throughout the semester. I believe
I both earned and deserve a B for my efforts in this course. I did not have the
best work every assignment. But I did turn in the best of my ability every
assignment, I came into class every day with a willingness to engage and a
desire to learn. I was always interactive and participated thoroughly every
class session. I constantly asked how to improve my work in this class and
my overall grade which displayed my desire to improve the quality of work I
delivered and the importance of my grade and this course to me. I am
grateful for the semester shared and for the skills that have helped me grow
as both a writer and student. Thank you Professor Douglas.

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