Czarnecki 1

Nicholas Czarnecki

Professor Campbell

UWRT 1104

6 December 2017

Final Reflection

This semester has definitely been different for me. After all it was my first semester at

college and going into to it I had no idea really on what to expect. Everyone talks about how

much work there is, and how around midterms and finals the entire atmosphere on the campus

changes. I expected things to be different from high school, but I know I did not expect

everything that happened. A lot of new experiences and changes this first semester happened

during this semester, some good others not so much, but I learned. This semester I had six

classes Physics, Economics, Math, Freshman seminar on International enrichment, Freshman

Writing class, and a physics lab, all totaling up for seventeen credit hours. It was a lot, but I

learned a lot about myself and to be honest most of that came in my Writing class.

Now I did not expect to actually enjoy my writing class this semester. Throughout high

school I had always preferred any subject over Language Arts, or Grammar. When I had to

signup for classes during orientation and I saw I had to take a writing class, I was not real

excited. Surprisingly enough this was writing class that I dreaded turned out to by favorite class

the entire semester. Economics put me to sleep every time I walked into that class, math was a

repeat of what I did in high school, the seminar class was different, and I am going to leave it at

that, and physics and its corresponding lab just made my brain hurt. Yet the one class I looked

forward to going to was writing. Which was a surprise for because like I said before I have never
 Czarnecki 2

enjoyed any kind of writing before. This class was composed of a lot of different assignments

such as the studios, topic proposal, annotated bibliography, first Extended Inquiry Project, Final

EIP, and ePortfolio. Working through these assignments throughout the semester has an been

interesting process.

Starting with the studios at first, I did not know really know what to expect when they

were called studios the title was a little confusing. Once I read the assignments and started to

do them I realized that they were not that hard. I actually found these assignments to be

extremely helpful in working on other assignments throughout the semester. Having to do the

two studios about research for the annotated bibliography helped to get that information

organized. I think the first studio we were assigned was probably the most important one and the

one were, I learned the most about myself and how I write. The assignment was to write about

our writing process. I talked about how I often procrastinate almost all my writing assignments,

this is one is no different. Now that is not something that I am necessarily proud of, but it for

some reason is the way that I find writing to be easy. Maybe it is the pressure, but for some

reason that is easiest way for me to write. Overall, I found the studio assignments to prove

helpful for the other assignments during the semester and for myself as a writer.

The topic proposal was not something I was that excited for. I have written several

research papers before this, in high school and I never enjoyed them. I think the reason for that

though was that I was often given very limit parameters to choose our topics. I remember my

teachers would say Well you can choose any topic you would like, but it cant be this or

anything about this and you cant talk about these things. At that point I kind of just sat there

and thought well what can I write about? So, when it was made clear that we can talk about

anything, and I mean anything we want to that was a nice change. Obviously, we were suggested
 Czarnecki 3

not to write about topics that have been beaten to death like gun control, abortion, or marijuana

legalization. I was completely fine with that those topics have been written about by so many

different people, and every point of view, opinion, and thought about those is out there

somewhere on the internet I guarantee it. To have the chance to actually write about a topic that I

pick, that is not just something off a list a teacher hands to me and says here are some ideas pick

one, in my opinion was a very welcome change. It felt like for the first time I was given an

opportunity to talk about what I cared about, what I thought was important.

Before this class I had never even heard of an annotated bibliography, I had absolutely no

clue what so ever, what one was let alone what the purpose of it is. After this class I am happy to

say this was probably the most useful thing I learned all semester. While the concept itself is

simple, the purpose of it is so useful there is almost no reason not to do one when doing research

like this. I found that when I took the sources and information that I had gathered through

research and wrote it down and actually took time to break it down, it became more valuable. It

was easier for me to incorporate it into my EIP and it was easier for me to understand. With out

a doubt this was the most useful assignment that I did all assignment as I mentioned before, but it

I really did just find it that helpful. I really did not expect it to be, but it was probably my favorite

assignment of the semester.

The topic I chose for my EIP was how does censorship affect modern media and news. I

chose this topic because I believe it is issue that not enough people are talking about. It is

something that is extremely relevant today because of how connected we are due to social media,

and the internet. The media provides people with the news, and it is important that people pay

close attention to what is happening in the world. It helps them to determine how they vote in

elections and helps for young people to be able to decide where they stand on important political
 Czarnecki 4

matters that range from tax codes, to foreign affairs. It is important the public has a reliable

source to get the news from. But if the media is being censored because of political agendas or

other biases then what kind of trust or reliability can we have in mainstream media. Now I am

not some conspiracy theorist that believes we can not trust the government, but I do believe that

the public has a right to truth. The real truth, not what corporate, big-shot, CEOs believe is the

truth, but the facts as they actually happened that is what I think is fair. Now my first draft of my

EIP essay was a little shaky, I did not make my main point clear enough and I relied way too

much on one source.

My final EIP was a much more polished and revised version of my initial first draft. I

corrected the errors previously mentioned, along with a few other small minor grammatical

mistakes. I cleared up a few clarification issues, and remembered to actually put the title in. In

the first draft I forgot to put the title in, which I had it wrote down in my notebook I just forgot to

put in the document before I submitted. I believe I wrote a good essay that defended my point

and hopefully shed some more light on the topic that I chose to talk about.

The class itself was probably one of the most fun classes I have ever had. The instructor

was funny, thoughtful, but also firm. I really do not have anything negative to say about Mr.

Campbell he knows how to keep your attention when in class and he always is there if you have

questions or concerns. I learned that writing is not really that bad and after doing physics for a

semester I would take another writing class long before I ever take another physics class that is

for sure.
Czarnecki 5