Sydnie Rogers

UWRT 1102-040
Professor Ropko
21 April 2016

Reflective Letter
Writing? Probably one of my least favorite things to do, but if I am forced to write
something, I prefer for it to be something that I can relate to. When I was informed about the
topic we would be writing an inquiry paper on, I became interested because the topic was very
relevant in my life. As a researcher, I learned that I was not able to gather all my information as
quickly as I thought I would. I just Googled my topic and selected the websites that looked
interesting to me. It wasnt until after I read through each website that I realized whether or not
they were credible. My need to research grew more and it led me to discover deeper topics
within my question. Usually as a researcher, I only use internet sources, but with this project,
Ive stepped out of my comfort zone to watch videos and gather information from printed
sources. As a reader, I learned that I am engaged in essays that are written in first person point of
view, or that include personal experiences. I feel that it is easier to relate to and it adds depth to
the essay as a whole. As a writer, I learned that sometimes I do not open my mind and because of
this, sometimes my writing is one sided. I try to incorporate rhetorical devices in my writing now
and I try not to make my writing seem repetitive. I learned also that writing contains many
genres that can apply to anything and that all genres are connected in some way.

The most difficult portion of this project was coming up with a good inquiry question to
research. I wanted a question that would require a lot of research to be done in order to fully
answer the question. Choosing a question that I would be able to connect both the past, present,
and future of higher education was the goal when choosing the best question. The least enjoyable
part of this process was condensing the amount of research I found. This was difficult because I
did not want to eliminate a portion, or topic in my paper that could have been use to enhance it,
nor did I want to have too much information and the essay become long and tedious. I enjoyed
actually finding the research on my topic. I learned a lot in this process, and it opened my eyes to
issues that I had not been introduced to, or issues I had not looked in depth to. I like the question
in general. I liked the idea that I was able to research information about the past, present, and
future of higher education. There is a correlation between each and it helps to shape our society
in unique ways.
There are spots that I would like to go back and revisit to gain more information. I would
have liked to focus more on the race aspect and compare it to how diverse it was in the past and
how it is now. I think this would have added more depth to my paper. If I had more time to work
on my project, I would want to add more of the genre aspect to my paper as well. I want to create
a poster that shows the top colleges and universities in the United States. Along with this, I
would like to include why these college and universities rank where they do, and what their
admissions process consist of. I wanted to also include a survey. This survey would consist of me
interviewing people of all ethnicities and asking the question whether or not they thought college
was an equal opportunity for everyone. When they provide their answer, they will elaborate in
detail why they feel the way that they feel. This would give a firsthand look on how the present
generation feels about this issue.

I added quite a few changes to my final remediation. Some of the sentences I created
were difficult to understand, so I went back and rewrote many of the sentences, condensed some
of the large paragraphs, and made sure that all of my incite citations were included. By provided
examples for the topics that I was writing about in each paragraph, it helped me to get my points
across more effectively. Making sure that the charts were relative to what I was discussing was
important as well. I added more rhetorical devices in my final remediation. By adding first
person point of view into my essay, my audience would be able to connect with me better and
they could see the project from my point of view.
I learned that my peers and I all have unique writing styles. Reading each paper was
enjoyable because I got to see how they incorporated different genres in their project and what
questions they decided to choose and the approached they took with the question. Throughout the
project, I learned that it is best to be the reader and not the editor when reading a peers review.
Peer reviews can be helpful and it is good to have people the same age as myself provide me
with feedback.
This was overall an enjoyable process, and I am grateful that I got to further my
knowledge through learning about the past, present, and future of higher education and how it
has shaped society. This has helped me to grow as a writer and it has helped me to better analyze
sources. Thank you Professor Ropko for this opportunity and for helping each and every one of
us grow and to expand our minds to think outside the box.