Sage Baysinger

05/12/2014
Ms. Alapin
English 220

Reflective Letter
Looking back at the progress Ive made in English 220 I can say that I am proud of what
I have done. Throughout high school, I always had a problem getting my thoughts down on
paper. I could never really create meaningful thoughts or at least articulate exactly what I was
thinking. It wasnt until the end of my junior year of high school that I really came into my own.
I was taking the only philosophy class my school offered and I know for a fact that if it wasn't for
my teacher, Mr. Cash, I might still be stuck trying to get my thoughts on paper. The class
consisted of many writing assignments. The assignments were in the form of essays however
Mr. Cash made it clear that he would not be grading based on grammar or structure, but on
content. I had never had a class where I was allowed to let my mind run free. I didnt have to
worry about punctuation, spelling, or even sentence structure. It was amazing because for the
first time I was allowed to think about what exactly I was feeling.
After that class was over, writing became something that I actually enjoyed doing. It has
helped me put more emphasis on the effectiveness of communication. Writing has helped me to
realize how important being able to convey my feelings really is. That first philosophy class
helped open me up to the importance of writing, and from that class on, I have grown even more
academically. I have taken a few english classes since Ive entered college and some were more
effective than others. Ironically the last english class I needed to take before graduating college
seemed to be the most effective. English 220 allowed me to write about things that I actually had
an opinion on. We also had to read many writings that helped me with my writing as well as
other aspects of my life. Each project allowed me to create new media and still express my
ideas. Creating these projects was challenging and each differed from the last.

PROJECT 1
It was refreshing when we started the class with a reading written by Plato. As stated
previously, I find philosophy to be very interesting so being able to write about Platos Allegory
of the Cave was something I was very interested in. The most difficult part for me was finding
other writings that linked my ideas to The Allegory of the Cave. Academic papers are not
something I enjoy doing very often so when it came to siting my work I was a little rusty. After
the trip we took to the library I realized just how many sources were out there. I am positive
now that there is no shortage of ideas in the world, I just have to be willing to look for them.
Once I found my sources, siting them was simple thanks to the in class work we did. Not to
mention I had a lot of help from PurdueOwl.com.
What served as a very helpful tool was my peer editing group. It is amazing how two
extra sets of eyes can see my work so differently than I do. Elizabeth Wagner helped me to make
my paper not so wordy. I remember there was a paragraph where I said Platos Allegory of the
Cave about seven times in referring to it. It seemed fine to me but Liz suggested that I change it
somehow, so I did. After the change, that paragraph was much better. Will Scheafer was in my
group as well. Will Helped me to make my paper more understandable. There were times
where I would get so caught up in an idea that I would lose the reader in what looked like a word
jumble. Will helped me to simplify my writing so that it was more understandable overall. My
peer editing group helped bring my paper from an B to an A.
When it came to part B I knew from the very beginning that I wanted to draw something.
When the class was told that we needed to create some sort of multimedia to go along with our
writing I thought it was a really cool way to get us to think differently about the project. Ive
always had an talent in drawing but not many classes allow me to use that talent. I thought about
how The Allegory of the Cave made me feel. I also thought about how it made others feel,
mainly my classmates. It seems that we all agreed that the idea that people have to truly want to
be educated in order for it to become a reality. This idea helped me to think of drawing a person
chained to a brain. As I drew it I became more and more intrigued by the idea. Part B allowed
me to really express an idea it would have taken thousands of words to convey. I remember
hoping for the audience of this project to really see the significance of both part A and B and how
they fit together.

PROJECT 2
Project 2 was a more straight forward which I found to be somewhat of a relief after
finishing project one. It was interesting to find out some of Bill Clintons views. As a child of
the 90s the only thing I remembered about Bill Clinton is what I could remember about his
scandal and impeachment. Through creating project 2 I came to find that former president
Clinton has a lot of good ideas when it comes to education.
In order to create my project which was in a newsletter format I had to watch the video of
him speaking at the 2008 Aspen Institutes Ideas Festival at least six or seven times. I wanted to
be clear on what he really thought about what can be done to improve education. Not only did I
want to be clear but I also had to decide which of his ideas I was going to write about. His three
main ideas seemed to be well thought out but I had to decide which one I was most passionate
about, and which one would be easiest for me to write about. After taking all of this into
account, I decided to write about his idea to educate all the girls in the world.
The prompt stated that we could either present our paper in newsletter format or a blog
format. Since the program I use to write all my papers has a newsletter template already
installed, it seemed easy enough to go with that. I started my paper in the newsletter format and
was close to half way finished when we met in class to go over our progress for project 2. It was
then that I saw how many of the other students in the class chose to do a blog format. I
immediately second guessed my choice to go with a newsletter. Not only did a blog seem easier
to create when it came to inserting pictures, a blog format allowed for active links to be put
throughout the body of the paper. I looked at a couple of the blogs that were posted on the
discussion board and reevaluated my newsletter idea. I had already put a lot of work into my
newsletter and I honestly really liked how it was turning out. Even though I was a little torn
between ideas, I decided to stick to the newsletter. I did get a few good ideas from viewing the
blogs that helped me to make my newsletter a little more eye catching.
When it came to finding sources for my paper it wasnt too difficult. It turns out that
there a lot of people who agree with Clinton on the fact that we should educate the girls of the
world. Also there is a lot of evidence showing just how effective this approach can be. I just
wish I had put one of the online graphs I came across online in my newsletter. It wasnt until
after I was all finished and turned in project 2 that this idea came to mind while viewing
classmates final project. Overall I was happy with what I produced though.

PROJECT 3
Project 3 was the first assignment I had been given all semester where I wasnt sure what
I was going to do. Not only had I never written a manifesto, I had never read one either. Not to
mention I had to create a multimedia part to go along with my writing. And since I couldnt take
the easy way out and draw something this time, I was really stuck on where to begin. It wasnt
until we watched the video in class by David Foster Wallace that the manifesto idea became
more clear.
When I first started writing my piece I found that I had gone on for a few paragraphs
pretty much just writing filler. There were no sources to back my ideas, and I was not getting
any kind of point across. I revised it and kept what I could but was really waiting for my one on
one meeting with Ms. Alapin. I wanted to bounce my idea of the importance of education
through time off of her. It was an idea I started out thinking about and I just needed a nudge in
the right direction. Ms. Alapin told me to find more sources to back up my idea of the necessity
for education throughout time. Once I was given a direction to pursue, the paper started to write
itself.
Through my paper I made the progression through time beginning with Socrates,
followed by Benjamin Franklin, and ending with the civil rights movement of the 1950s. I
already knew a lot about Socrates and Brown vs. the Board of Education so I just really needed
to learn about Benjamin Franklins proposal to create an academy for higher learning in
Pennsylvania. After learning more about that topic, I was really happy with where my paper had
progressed to. Now that I had an actual manifesto I got the chance to get feedback from my peer
editing group once again. Both Liz and Will had the same things to say. They wanted me to
convey my personal feelings about education a little more. After hearing these comments I
realized my manifesto had a lot of facts but not a lot of my own opinion yet. I went back and
tried to make my opinion more prevalent in the body of my paper. I also tried to use the
conclusion to tie all the ideas of the paper together with my idea that education is a need human
beings are born with.
Now that I had my paper finished I had to think of a way to convert the ideas of my paper
to a multimedia form. I had never worked with iMovie before so I thought this was a good
opportunity to try something new. I also used garage band to create a tune to run while my video
was being played. I initially wanted to use voice over in my video but I couldnt figure out how
to do it properly since I was working with a program that was new to me. I created a collage
type video of all the ideas I had put into my manifesto. It took me a few hours to get the video
completed but I was ultimately happy with the work I turned out. It was a fun process using
ideas and programs that were new to me throughout the semester.