Dear, Ms.

Hoffman Class A reflection to me is a chance to think about and dissect the work i have done so far, and is also a time for me to propose ideas that could possibly better my writing. This reflection will hopefully, give you as well as myself insight into my world of writing. There have been many readings,conversations and other works that i have enjoyed so far into the semester. ne of my favorite readings or conversations has been the conversation about how the !hinese culture viewed the T" show #$riends.% This was initially interesting to me because i love this show and watch it pretty fre&uently. 'e discussed the reason why the !hinese love this show and it is because it brings them a sense of hope about a lifestyle that they do not own, but that Americans own. 'e spoke on the cultural differences and aspects of this show. 'ith this is mind, they valued this American lifestyle because there was a sense of freedom that again they did not own. This became relevant more so in a informational aspect than in a writing aspect. (t revealed knowledge that i was unaware of, about the culture of the !hinese,which i can always refer to in future writings. Another reading that stuck out to me was the # 'hy go outside when you have an i)hone*% (t stuck out to me primarily because of the title which included a technological subject that i am familiar with,which is the i)hone. As i read through the article, most of the information became more about +ational )arks and the lack of young people attending, than about the i)hone. As a class, we spoke about how misleading the title was, and i immediately pertained this to a researching e,perience. -ometimes it be easy to just choose an article because the title seems to fit your topic, but the article could possibly have a twist in it, such as this one. -o this article taught me that it is important to really pay attention to detail and to read through an article thoroughly before choosing it as a credible source to write on. Along with these two writings, there have been many others that have sparked interesting conversation between my partner and (. My partner has been -tephanie and we usually do our best to both get our individual ideas across and then wrap up by agreeing on which ideas we feel are in correlation with one another. 'ith it just being two people, we are able to get out more information, and -tephanie tends to do good job with elaborating on her ideas, while i am very promising with connecting the ideas to something inside the te,t. 'e also do very well with connecting ideas in the reading, with personal or realistic e,periences. As a group, i feel that we contribute very personali.ed opinions to the class, where we share personal e,periences in connection to the topic we are speaking on. As an individual i do feel that i could contribute more, but i mainly just contribute inside my group. ( don/t talk much in class discussion, so one way of improving my participation is maybe asking &uestions or even providing suggestions that correlate with an idea of my peers. ( could also provide personal e,periences of my own, making it easier to speak because i will be familiar with the subject. As my participation in discussion increases, i feel that it would be easier for me to share my ideas that i write down, with my class. The in0class writings that we have done so far, i have actually enjoyed a lot. The first in0class writing that we did was writing about a peer within our class. 'e had to converse with a partner and ask &uestions about their likes or dislikes, hobbies, etc.. This in0class writing was easy but through this writing i got to see my writing skills in action since my 1nglish 2232 class. ( got to view where my level of writing was and if i had used any skills learned previously, to write a simple but purposeful piece of writing. ne in0class writing that i enjoyed was the response to the $isherman -tory. ( thought the reading was

interesting because it had many hidden messages that could be pulled out, and this is kind of what the writing consisted of. 4uestions that we were asked to think about was what the message of the story was and also what were some &uestions that could be raised from this reading. This particular part of the writing allowed me to get used to constructing researchable &uestions or &uestions that could be answered. 5allenger as well as the class spoke about constructing researchable &uestions first, because that gives you a foundation for writing an effective paper. Along with this in0class writing another one that i enjoyed was the writing that included us describing and relating a brought in object of our choice to a certain type of culture that we were apart of. ( really enjoyed the discussion part of it because i was introduced to so many cultures in just a matter of forty0five minutes. A helpful part of this writing, was the task of connecting our descriptions to a specific topic or culture. (t forced me to pay attention to detail and how this detail connected to a bigger picture, which in this case was culture. Most of my in0 class writings have been written in my notebook, mainly because i am used to doing classwork in my notebook and homework on my computer. ( really like writing in my notebook because it is tangible and i know that it will always be a there for me to go to as a reference, if something was to happen to my computer. ( would say that when typing my writings on my computer, i seem to think faster and put ideas on paper a lot faster than i would if i was writing in my notebook. $or an e,ample, most of my writings in my notebook are somewhat short but many of my writings on the computer are a tad bit longer, including more information.'riting in my notebook is kind of my comfort .one but i think if i typed more on my computer, then ideas would flow a lot &uicker. Also typing on my computer would be easier for me to transport information into my end of the semester portfolio. verall, i think writing in my notebook as well as on my computer with be beneficial to me, because with my notebook there is comfort, allowing me to write freely and with my computer there is &uicker processing of ideas. ( have been in attendance for all the in0class writings and have yet to miss a day of class. (n correlation to the policy i feel as though i am in good shape to keep my grade very high. ( have also yet to be tardy which according to the policy could affect your grade as well. (f i continue attending classes daily and participating in class, i feel as though my grade will be satisfying. Outside-Class Writings Alongside my in0class writings, are my writings outside of class, which include a lot more in depth writing. Most of these writings have been submitted as homework grades, and so i feel as though i put a lot of thought in making sure that they cater to the criteria given. -ome assignments have been easier than others, but i essentially tried to include as much detail as possible. The three writings i/m choosing to write about is the introductory letter about ourselves, the #!losed for 5uisness% response and the response to the curious researcher introduction. ( chose these writings because they definitely reveal the process of my writing from where i first began writing and so on. They are also very diverse writings that again reveal how i mold and shape my writing to different subjects. The introductory letter was very similar to an assignment assigned in my 1nglish 2232, where we had to write about ourselves, along with other factors included. -ometimes people find writing about yourself an easy task, but it can be challenging because you have to think about what you want to say and how you want to portray yourself in your writing. My thought process when writing this letter was to tell as much about myself as possible but in a way that was concise and interesting. This plays a lot in writings, where you find ways to appeal directly to your audience. verall i enjoyed writing this letter because it allowed my audience to get to know me through my writing.

A few days after this assignment we had to write about our views on -undays and how they have changed or either stayed the same. 'e also had to discuss our views on the businesses closing in $rance on -undays. This topic was interesting to me because i am strong in my faith as a !hristian and -undays have always been of great importance in my home. As i talked about in my writing my views or activities on -undays fluctuated between the years but recently my view of -undays have greatly increased and become much stronger. (n my writing i wanted to make clear how my views evolved as i grew older. This piece of writing i feel helped me with the practice of structure and placement of events in my writing. (t probably would have confused my reader or would not have made much sense to start with my views in middle school, then in elementary school, following high school. This structure could have been used but it would not have been as efficient. The last piece of writing that i have chosen to speak on is the response to the #!urious 6esearcher7 (ntroduction.% 'e were asked to write about our past e,periences with research papers, our concerns with research papers, helpful information from 5allenger, etc.. ( chose to speak about this response primarily because it connects so heavily to the agenda of this class, which is research. ( think this activity was important for us to do because it allowed us to pick out our &uestions or concerns with writing research papers in hopes of answering those &uestions and easing those concerns. 6eading the introduction to 5allenger/s work, gave me insight into ideas that i was afraid to bring up. An e,ample that i spoke about in my writing for this piece was 5allenger/s idea of one/s opinion not totally being blocked out in the mist of the research. (mmediately when i think of a research paper i think of facts, and other peoples research as well as their opinions rather than my on. 5allenger lets her readers know with the &uote # ...+o matter what you are writing, you should feel as if you are apart of an ongoing conversation...,% that one should feel comfortable and confidant when writing. This insight diminished my worries about writing research papers. Inquiry Project Work To continue with this topic of research, as i am in the process of preparing for my research paper, i am trying my best to keep everything that i/ve learned so far in mind. $rom paying attention to detail, elaborating on the detail, connecting these elaborations and structuring them in a way that will make sense to my audience. At this point i am just in the process of research and i have found just a few good resources from my research. ( do feel as though i have a lot more research to do, and for it to be more specific than my previous research which has been very broad. ( know for sure that i want to commit to this idea, and i am now trying to focus on getting enough detail to include in my paper. As i do more research i am definitely learning that there are pieces needed for this pu..le and that you wont find information for your topic all in one place. ( have also learned that there is a great amount of patience that comes with researching and really finding credible sources. 'ith there being so much information out there, there are also so many opinions along with a great deal of facts. 6esearching allows one to see what other &uestions are being raised about their topic, where my ultimately my &uestion lies. This &uestion is 'hy do the educational systems between the 8nited -tates and 9apan vary in their values so much* (n relation to my topic and this &uestion, there are other thoughts brought up. ne article that i was looking into, brought up the specifics of the education system, that being test scores, and why 9apanese students do better on math and science portions of test than American students* (n another article it spoke specifically on the motivational differences behind education in the American school

systems and 9apanese school systems. A &uestion raised from this is simply, 'hat motivates the students and how do they adapt these motivations to their educational performances. 'ith other research, many of the voices behind these articles have pushed me to dig a lot deeper into the History of education in both the 8nited -tates and 9apan. Another &uestion that i have is whether government has a huge affect on the values of the education systems* These &uestions come solely from wanting to dig deeper into the conte,t of my topic and finding information that will connect the audience. This is one way i hope to make my paper a little different, and that is really speaking to my audience through personal e,periences, opinions and of course facts. Another way that i want my paper to be different is just from the outline and the typical introduction, body paragraphs and conclusion. (n reference to 5allenger/s comment about making the paper seem like an ongoing conversation, this is e,actly how i want my audience to feel. ( want them to feel as if they are having a conversation about something that is both informative but interesting. The risk that i would be taking in this paper is really taking away the formal characteristic of a research paper in some way, and making it more informal. This particular topic can be very interesting on many different levels. $or on, it speaks of education which a lot of people are familiar with and care about because of many different reasons. Also, the global aspect to it, brings in more of an interest because it is a curious topic as to why 9apanese students e,cel so much better than American students in certain subjects. This topic draws in educators, students, parents and the two demographic groups. ( feel this topic will bring insight into how important education is all around the world, and will maybe motivate individuals to push to e,cel even more, knowing that there is competition in some way. My research paper could also possibly open the eyes up to parents, and the view of their involvement in their child/s education. This insight can also be good for teachers and the view of how much time they invest into their students education whether it be too much or not enough. My topic has already opened my eyes to how much education can vary globally and because i am big on studying abroad, and it just encourages me even more to want to study abroad. Thinking Ahead As the semester goes on i hope to improve in every way possible with my reading, writing and even comprehension skills. My reading is in connection with my comprehension, and interpreting ideas from a te,t thoroughly. ( feel that when one can interpret their reading then they gain their level of writing because they see how others write. ( think what helps me comprehend many readings is using tools such as highlighting, discussions and taking notes. 'ith my writing, my goal is to improve on writing in a concise and clean manner and not overloading my audience with unnecessary information. 'hen i write i tend to write a lot but some of what i write is not always needed. This is where one of my &uestions derive from and that is How do you know when you are saying too much or too little when writing anything* this involves detail, opinion, etc... Another &uestion i have is How much of an opinion can you have in research papers or does it even matter* :astly, what role does reading play when learning how to write efficiently* 'ith these &uestions, along with many others i hope to find the answers, allowing me to gain both a foundation and love for writing and literature.