Barker 1

Final Reflective Letter Dear Malcolm, What to say about myself? That was the first sentence that I wrote for this class and was just the beginning of a semester-long inquiry. This class led me, not only in inquiry into a chosen topic, but also, into my own life. Initially, I was intimidated by the prospect of a college level English course. English had never been one of my favorite subjects and writing was my least favorite school activity. I assumed the worst for the class, which was an endless amount of grueling essays and papers. Fortunately, the class surprised me with only three essays through the entire semester. Yet, these three essays were more meaningful than any amount of grueling essays. These three essays were all pertinent and purposeful. They granted me a more in-depth analysis of the writing process. The class, as a whole, encouraged me to be creative, analytical, and reflective through various and diverse assignments. At times the work was difficult and time consuming, but ultimately, all my work paid off in the culmination of this E-portfolio. This Eportfolio contains my Dear Malcolm letter, literacy narrative, blog, five daybook entries, topic proposal, research presentation, fast draft, rough draft, revisions, final draft, and most importantly, this reflective letter. I put all my blood, sweat, and tears into each assignment and hope that it shows in the end. The compilation of this E-portfolio began with the conception of my Dear Malcolm letter. It was a simple enough assignment that merely required us to describe ourselves to our teacher. Simple as the assignment sounded, it did require a certain level of forethought and selfanalysis, in order to choose the most important pieces of our personality and life to express. Beginning the letter was the most difficult part for me, as it is with all my writing assignments.

Barker 2

In the letter, I discussed my feelings about writing in general. Although I do not feel that this class altered my opinion of writing, I do believe that my writing process and skills have improved quite a bit. The Dear Malcolm letter was just the beginning of my writing experience. The next composition assigned to me was the personal literacy narrative. This assignment was designed to have me reflect upon my past history with reading and writing and regale my teacher with a story of a meaningful experience I encountered with literacy. I considered simply going with the typical my mother read to me when I was little story because this nightly occurrence did encourage me to pursue reading. However, another event came to mind that had a much more profound effect on my opinion of reading. This was the story of my days of reading and writing in elementary school. It was interesting to reflect on my elementary school days and to actually see how my elementary opinions remained relatively constant throughout the years. My literacy narrative is a testimony to the profound effect that childhood experiences can have on ones future self. The narrative, also, led me to the realization that I have not been reading for fun as much as I would like to anymore. After graduating from middle school and moving on to high school, it just seemed like I could never find the time. When I was reading, it was always the material that was required for my English class, which (no offense to the classics) were not necessarily the most interesting books. I hope in college that I can find the time to enjoy a good book every now and then. Throughout the semester, I was required to keep up with both a daybook and a blog. In the daybook, I was supposed to respond to free write prompts that were provided in class and record my thoughts on the various assignments that I was completing at the time. This Eportfolio contains five of those entries that serve to represent how my thoughts expressed various

Barker 3

ways of thinking, such as creative, analytical, and questioning thinking. In the blog, I was supposed to respond to various prompts provided by the teacher and also, provide comments about the activities being done in the classroom. The E-portfolio contains a link to that blog and also, lists two of the articles that were the most meaningful to me. Overall, the recording of dayto-day events has been a new experience for me. I have never kept a journal and never record my opinions or activities online. I do not have a Facebook or Twitter or Instagram. So, for me these assignments may not have felt as comfortable as they did to other classmates. However, I feel that as the semester went along, the writing began to become easier and more comfortable. I noticed in my daybook that the further in the semester we got, typically the longer my free writes became. It was interesting to read some of the free writes from earlier in the semester and see what I was thinking at the time. For example, in one free write I wrote an outline for what I thought my paper was going to look like, but my actual paper ended up differing greatly from this outline. These daybook entries proved useful to me, as it made describing my process much easier. Both the blog and daybook were fun while they lasted, but I do not think that I will continue to keep up with the two. At the center of this class, was the extended inquiry project, which was essentially, a semester-long writing process centered around a topic of our choosing. The process began with a topic proposal followed by a fast draft, research presentation, rough draft, peer review, and finally after some revisions, a final draft. Being the business-oriented person that I am, I decided that my topic would be e-commerce because it is an up-and-coming business field that none of my classes ever fully explored. The topic proposal served to identify my topic, discuss the questions surrounding it, and explain the relevance of the topic to society. This topic proposal was essential for documenting the ideas and questions that I would need to investigate. Also, it

Barker 4

helped me identify my audience, so that I knew how my paper should be written. It is interesting to look back at my topic proposal and see how my topic evolved after further research. Initially, my topic was just going to see how e-commerce was going to effect the economy, but after finding the study done in the Journal of Leadership and Organizational Studies, it shifted to focus on the new niche theory and creative destruction, which if you want to know more about feel free to read my final extended inquiry paper. After identifying my thesis, I constructed the fast draft around that idea, which was a good beginning to my paper. It focused mainly on the facts and the study. The fast draft provided a solid core for my paper and honestly, was the hardest part of the process for me. First drafts are always the most difficult part of the essay writing process for me. Fortunately, this class firmly emphasized the idea that it is okay if your first draft is awful. This fact provided a certain level of comfort and eased the strain that I typically place on that first draft. After completing the fast draft, I realized that my paper needed some specific real life examples and also, more sources to rely on. So, for my rough draft I added two differing articles that both discussed the rivalry between Walmart and Amazon from different points of view. In addition, I added a paragraph about my opinion on the rivalry. From this rough draft, I crafted my research presentation, which summarized the main points and later, I added in commentary on my sources. My rough draft was, then, peer reviewed by one of my classmates, Stirling Menzies, who offered insightful and helpful feedback. The rough draft was, then, turned in and I received feedback from you. You commented that more quotes and more commentary would be beneficial to my paper. In addition, you suggested that I enliven the paper by better incorporating my sources into the paper. The revisions were more difficult this time, but in order to accommodate these recommendations, I added a paragraph from a new source, interpreted

Barker 5

some quotes with my own commentary, and better integrated my sources into the essay. These steps of the writing process were essential to making sure that my paper was as good as possible. This extensive writing process differed greatly from my usual writing process. I normally write all my papers in one sitting. I sit down, research the topic, go through and write the entire paper, and then simply reread over the paper and make corrections. This is my usual writing process, but this extended inquiry project opened my eyes to the possibility of how extensive and thorough a writing process should really be. Of course, I will not have a semester to write every paper for my college career, but I think that this project has at least encouraged me not to procrastinate as much. I learned that this is a key step in producing a quality essay. I, honestly, am quite proud of the way the essay turned out in the end. Looking through all the various steps, it is nice to see how the essay progressed through the different stages of its cycle. I believe this essay was the most important work that I completed during the semester. The writing process that I have developed from this project will be essential in my years to come as a college student. I feel that this class brought to the forefront both my weaknesses and my strengths. An example, of both a weakness and strength, is how analytical I am. This is useful for writing factually-driven essays and in some regards, that was incredibly useful for my extended inquiry paper. However, this also leads to the tendency for my essays to lack personality and creativity, which is what engages the reader. In this essay, I tried to add some of my own personal commentary, in order to draw the readers in and I hope that shows in the final paper. Another weakness for me is the challenge that always arises at the beginning of an essay. I feel that this class aided me in that regard, and made it just a little easier to start my essays.

Barker 6

What you see before you, displayed on this website, is a compilation of all these assignments and essays. I have spent hours upon hours with this essay and website, but now it appears that it is about time to say goodbye to my extended inquiry project. I will never forget the long hours I spent with it and I am almost sad to see it go, but not quite. I know that more essays similar to this one will arise at some point during my college career, but now I am fully equipped to tackle these essays head on and put into practice the new writing process that I have within my arsenal. Not only will I display my analytic mind within that essay, but also, my creative and reflective mind will be evident. It is crazy to think that this could be the last English class that I will ever take. I enjoyed the class and you as my teacher. I hope you enjoy my Eportfolio and all the other ones from my class. In the words of Forrest Gump, Thats all I have to say about that.

Respectfully, Layton Barker