Aiyjalon Foose-Campbell

Course Reflection Essay

December 9, 2015
UWRT 1102

Well for starters, I thought that this essay was going to be a reflective
paper about the course as a whole. Instead, it will focus mainly on my writing skills
and improvements over the course of the semester. So in a way, you could say that
this paper is a piece of reflective writing. To me, reflective writing is a piece or
pieces of writing that shows change in a person over a period of time, or a
recollection of events. For example a diary or personal journal could be considered
reflective writing because the writer is reflecting on themselves and the events that
occurred. It can also show ones thoughts and emotions and how they changed over
time. In an academic sense, reflective writing shows how the writer has matured in
their writing and incorporated different techniques and different ways of thinking in
their writing. Compared to other forms of writing, I think that reflective writing is not
much different from them because one type of writing includes another. For
example, when writing a narrative it could be considered: expressive, reflective, and
informative. You are using the techniques from each form of writing, in other types
of writing. Reflective writing is important because it helps with critical thinking skills
and the abilities to analyze your own work. Now you are probably thinking What
does critical thinking have to do with reflective writing? Well to put together a
piece of reflective writing, I think that you should be able to figure out what
information is important enough to include in your paper and then be able to break
it down and explain the importance of that information. That is why I think this

course has an inquiry project instead of your average research paper. Research
papers just present information and your interpretation of it, whereas inquiry
projects require you to do the research, gather information and then interpret and
break down that information into baby pieces. From there you would then begin to
build up your paper and include different references, explanations and thoughts to
support your claims. It also requires you to dig deep as well. Do not just scratch
the surface with vague answers and explanations, get your jack hammer and get
the cracking with some examples, references and background information. That is
one thing I know I personally struggle with. Digging deep and thoroughly explaining
something on paper is not something I am comfortable with. But we all have to
come out of our comfort zones sometime right?
I had a rocky start when it came to my Extended Inquiry Project because, like
always, I did not know where to start and how to put it together. It was quite
frustrating until I sat down and gathered my thoughts. Finding a topic was not hard
for me to do because I decided to write about something I was genuinely curious
about and pertained to something I was passionate about. The writing process was
what killed me. First drafts are something serious and there is not a definite way to
start them, however, the proposal that was required helped out a lot because I had
a foundation. From the proposal developed some ideas and thoughts about what I
could actually look up and question. Peer workshopping was another thing that
helped me with the EIP process. It allowed me to get a different look on my ideas
and it is always helpful to get and outsiders perspective.
Looking over my work for the semester, I did notice a couple of things, but
the main thing I noticed was that I was too vague with my responses. That was
often found in my In-Class writings and a few journal entries. Like I mentioned

before, being more detailed on paper is not one of my strongest aspects in

writing. It is hard for me to free-write or to express how an article or video
made me feel because I can only explain so much before Im like Well,
thats all folks. I guess I would have to have an interest in the piece of work
in order for me to fully critique it. Or maybe it has to be a topic that I could
relate to and there were plenty of those in my writing course. For example,
bias in the media, advertisements and technology as a whole. I could express
my connection to those topics verbally and on paper because it is something
I feel strongly about. I always wonder how I can improve my writing when it
comes to responding to a prompt based on a text. The only answer I could
come up with is to practice more. Isnt the saying Practice makes perfect? I
believe that the different blogs, journals and ICWs have helped me express
my thoughts and opinions on a subject because they were all solely based on
my reaction to something.
Out of all of my pieces of writing that I did this semester, I would have
to say that my journal about bias in the media would have to be my best
piece of writing. I put my heart and soul into that paper and it was something
that was relevant to an event that I was a part of. My journal was about how
FOX 5 portrayed my alma mater, Oxon Hill High School, to the community
over a drug situation. Here is an excerpt:
Okay, so after all that, I feel a certain way about the news and now that I think

about it, I always have. That is probably why I dont watch it that often. I get the feeling
that the media is that they tell me what THEY want me to know or what they think is

best for the community to know. I believe that I have to right to know the what, when,
where, how and why. Actually, everyone does and I dont see how some people are
satisfied with what they learn
when they watch the news or
simply read an article online.
Am I the only one left with
questions or wanting to know
more? Am I the only one who
has those thoughts of I dont
know about this..something
seems off or What about the other person? Whats their side of the story? And we
sometimes we change the channel without finding out or we go online and find the same
story, with different details. Things like this make it hard for the media to seem credible
in my eyes because there are so many different versions of the same story and its like
Whats real?
I really enjoyed writing that journal entry because I was really emotional over
that incident and had a lot to say about that. Another reason why I believe
that this is one of my best pieces of writing because I effectively
communicated my thoughts and explained them clearly. This is a piece of
writing that I can say I did not have a problem with that dig deeper aspect
of writing.
For my portfolio, I would have to say I deserve at least a high B or low A.
Everyone is not perfect so Im not going to expect that high A. Plus Im a

slacker and procrastinator so who knows what I left out in this paper or even
the portfolio. However, what is included in this portfolio is a result of hard
work and a lot of effort.