Dear Malcolm, After reviewing my portfolio, I have seen significant changes in my work.

Not only have I conducted a lot of research on a topic that is of interest to me, but I have also learned how to conduct research in a more sufficient manner. I have learned how to brainstorm and get ideas out quickly, then go back and refine them. The more I refined my work, it became a lot easier for the reader to understand. In my first couple of daybook entries, I began to get warmed up to the whole idea of a free-write. I have not done free-writes in a long time. At first, I was concerned with making them perfect and make complete sense. For example, you can read my favorite free write from my daybook on what I think writing is. But then after the first few free-writes, I became less concerned with sentence structure and how my ideas flowed, and became more concerned with getting out as much information as possible. I used my free-writes as a brainstorming session. For example, you can see my daybook entry under a creative thinker where I list out a bunch of questions I had concerning my topic. When it came time to conduct research for my Extended Inquiry Project, it was very easy for me to flip back through my daybook and get refreshed with ideas that I had buried in my mind. When it came time to start creating essays and fast drafts, I was a little intimidated. I was worried because I have always been sort of a slow writer. However I realized that the reason I was a slow writer is because I tried to make my writings perfect with the first draft. I did not let my mind go free expressing ideas. I was intimated with the idea of my writings not having proper grammar and flowing ideas. When it came time to start with my essays, I took the same approach I did

with writing in my daybook. I simply just started writing down all my ideas. Although at first they all didnt flow logically, at least I had something to work with. You can see this with my fast draft. Although I had all my information, it seemed a little haphazard and not completed. I then continued to move ideas around so that everything began to have some sort of an order. When my peers critiqued my work, they were extremely helpful. They helped me see my work in a whole new way. You can reference my peer-critiqued essay and see the notes they made. Since I had been writing on my topic for several weeks, I was familiar with the terms and ideas of what I was trying to express in my essay. However, my peers showed me through peer review that some terms needed more explanation and I needed to include more examples so that readers could relate. After adding these things, I was very pleased with how my essay was coming along. During my research time, it was hard to find material that related exactly to my topic. When I first started out with my EIP I wanted to research the psychology of design and how it affects consumers. You can reference my topic proposal. Turns out this topic was very hard to research, especially in a short amount of time. It was also a broad topic to cover. After several topic proposals that I conversed with peers, I was finally able to come to a more focused topic. I decided to research Graphic Design and what goes on behind the scenes with how they research. I was able to find a lot more information in this area and it was a lot easier to organize the thoughts of my essay with this topic. You can see the progress I made in my final edited essay.

I also found my blog to be very useful as well. I found the blog assignments to be quite fun. I treated them as a sort of free-write. I did not concern myself with making my blog posts absolutely perfect, but focused more on commenting on the topic that I was assigned and then asking more questions about the topic. The blog topics were very interesting to me, none of them had a set answer. Instead, the blog assignments were very open to interpretation and should be viewed from many angles. Some of my favorite blog posts are How Schools Kill Creativity" and "What Most Schools Don't Teach." I enjoy these because they relate make you look at topics of education from many angles. The most important work I did in this class would be my EIP essay. This work is important to me because I had to use all of the skills that I learned in this class. I had to use free-writing, brainstorming, peer review, working in small groups, researching, editing, condensing information, analyzing, regrouping, organizing, and rethinking. Learning these skills and how to apply them is very important to understand, especially entering into the professional workforce. With my major being Graphic Design, I was very excited to conduct research on a topic that was of a lot of interest to me. The things I learned through my research has opened my eyes to how successful graphic designers function and how I can learn to be a better graphic designer myself. My weakness with writing used to be that I would try to make my first draft of any writing assignment perfect; I hated to edit. I disliked going back and revising my work, because I used to spend so much time trying to make it perfect on the first try. However, I have learned how to do free-writes and how it is important to just

get all your information down on paper. Practicing these skills has helped me tremendously. I now enjoy writing my first drafts very quickly, then going back to edit and revise my work. I no longer dislike making revisions, but I now find it super helpful. I now think that my strengths have become being able to make a fast draft actually fast. I have learned how to conduct research and how to condense my findings so that I have a focused topic. You can reference my first topic proposal and compare it with my final draft. I started out with a very broad topic, but with help with peer review I have learned how to focus in. With this, I have learned how to take one area and dive deep into the topic. This has helped me keep my essay focused and not bouncing all over the place. Through the inquiry process, I found that it is not actually as hard as it sounds. Every time I hear the word research I tremble a little bit. I used to fear research because I would select a topic that was entirely too broad so it took forever to find all the information. When I learned how to focus in on a specific topic, I found that researching was not that bad. I was able to search specific key word searches using the UNCC library and I was able to filter out all the extra stuff and find resources that related specifically to what I needed. You can see all my research in my Research Proposal. I was surprised with how well my research went, it was not as painful as my past experiences had been. The Topic Proposal was using a format that I had never done before. I was a little skeptical at first, but after completing it, I found it to be very helpful. I was able

to see exactly what information I had and what information I still needed to gather. The topic proposal helped me see that my initial choice of topic was too broad. The Research Presentation was another activity that I had never done before. I found this assignment to be the most helpful because I was able to lace all of my research together and form a strong skeleton for my later drafts. Reviewing all of my research helped me gain a better idea of what exactly I was trying to say through my essay. I would say that this was my favorite assignment. It helped me tremendously with completing my EIP essay. The Extended Inquiry Project was a very exciting project to me. I am glad that this was not just a research paper, but a paper that I could really dive into. I enjoyed being able to select my topic and not being assigned to one. I was able to build a relationship with my topic and find it to be a lot of fun. I found all of the research that I did for my EIP to be extremely helpful, not only for completing the assignment, but for what I was wanting to do with my major. I would say this was the most challenging assignment because it was very time consuming. However, I was surprised with how well everything ended up working out. The only thing I would change is maybe trying to focus my topic sooner so I would have more time to gather research pertaining to my condensed topic. That way I could go into more depth. With this class, I have learned how writing and research is only as painful as you make it. I have learned how to be more efficient in my research so that I can produce an essay that is focused and not so broad. I have learned the importance of free-writing and brain dumping ideas. I am very glad that I have finally realized how

to use these skills, for they are extremely important for me to use in all of my classes and future professional career. Thank you for all of your help Malcolm, I really appreciate it! ~ Aerial White