Dear Reader,

As you might have noticed my portfolio is filled with an assortment of items. From things

like my extended inquiry project where I built a website all about my love for comics and the

different forms of comics you can read. To things like my research, drafts, and peer reviews

where you can get a glimpse into my process as a writer.

I’ve changed a lot over the past few years, both as a person and a writer. Just a few years

ago you could overhear me talk about how much I hated to write and how I wish I didn’t have to

take English classes. Thanks to a tutor of mine I came to realize that I actually quite love to

write. Writing has the potential to give such a wonderous amount of fulfilment, and proper

writing skills is ridiculously helpful in real world applications. During my time at UWRT 1104 I

wouldn’t say that I have experienced that much change in how I write or what I think of writing,

all it really did was solidify my love for writing.

In terms of class assignments, I’ve always found myself to enjoy the “smaller” writing

assignments much more. Examples of this being: the Maus discussion assignment, the topic

proposal, and the Live like an Italian assignments. My favorite part of the class was easily the

comics section, obviously since I’ve been reading and loving comics as long as I can remember,

so it would come to no surprise that I enjoyed a unit about them.

I’ve always enjoyed freewriting when used in English classes. It makes for a much more

engaging and engaging experience in my opinion. The other examples listed such as peer

reviews, editing, and reading I’ve never been the biggest fan of, since I don’t feel like I gain

much from doing them. Of course, it’s important for ones work to be critiqued but in UWRT

1104 I feel like we did it more often than what I really needed.
 We did a lot of various projects/assignments in the class, but I feel like that the extended

inquiry project was the most helpful of them all. I was given the chance to come up with a topic

that I would truly enjoy writing about and would give me an opportunity to look into myself as

well. While I didn’t learn a whole lot while doing it, I was able to share my joy for comics with

others and give them the opportunity to learn more about the vast array of comics available to

them. As a writer and a student I want my writing to make sense, be interesting, and if possible

cause someone to think about what I’m writing.

My writing skills haven’t changed a whole lot this semester. I went through a massive bit

of change during my junior and senior year of high school thanks to a tutor of mine that

completely changed how I approached writing. Like everyone I’ve had my issues with grammar,

but that wasn’t really my main flaw with my writing. I struggle to make a worthwhile product if I

am not inspired by or enjoying the work that I am creating. For the longest time I struggled with

this. I would enjoy creating fantasy or sci fi stories, but they always lacked proper structure and

were often nonsensical. Since then I’ve grown to quite enjoy writing and grow a better

understanding of the structures of writing. As I said before I didn’t really learn much new during

this semester, however I did solidify my already growing/improving writing skills.

As mentioned in my previous paragraph I haven’t seen much change in myself during

this semester, so I don’t think I can really go in depth on the topic of student learning objectives

(SLOs). Maybe I have changed/improved in some way, but sometimes it can be hard to notice

that, even when you try to reflect on yourself. As mentioned, before I have gone through some

radical changes over the past few years, and it’s kind of hard to look at this semester when I had

such a drastic personal change that overshadows this semester not all that long ago.
 Like many others the main struggle when it comes to writing is: “what do I want to do?”.

It can be hard to come up with a topic to right an essay or paper about. For me this is the hardest

step. Once I’ve gotten a general idea of what I want to do the rest is rather easy. I was lucky to

have such a fantastic tutor like I did in my last half of high school. Her lessons have helped make

college life so far simple and stress free. Sure, my writing isn’t perfect, and I have a lot I can

learn, but in UWRT 1104 I never found myself struggling. Am I expecting an A+? nah, I don’t

usually set my expectations that high. At least for me a B is a perfectly fine grade to be happy

about.

Writing skills don’t just go away. It’s just like learning how to ride a bike, you only need

to learn it once. It takes decades of hard work to become a good writer, and some never do.

While I don’t feel like I’ve learned much new during this class my skills have improved. Just like

everything else, practice makes perfect, and usually in an English class you get lots of practice

with writing.