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Dear Malcolm,
I would like to start off by thanking you for all of the insight that you have provided me
with and for making up for all of the offensive language that all of my other professors lack. You
are a truly interesting professor and have the ability to affect students of any kind. I have enjoyed
every aspect of your class from beginning to end. I specifically enjoyed how you forced me to
think about controversial topics and allowing me to logically form an opinion about them. I hope
to encounter more professors like you in the future.
Over the course of the semester my favorite kind of activities that we did were the ones
that required us to analyze pictures or writing and then have the class form an opinion about
them. The activity that was the most memorable to me is when I was required to view a part of a
picture and assume things about it then we were show the rest of the picture and more often
times than not we were surprised at the full picture. The most surprising picture to me was the
one of the two boys holding up a gun to an un-armed boy. My initial impression of the part of the
picture that was shown to us first was that it was not a gun being held up to the boys head
because I prefer to have an optimistic outlook most of the time. However, I was completely
wrong. This picture opened my eyes to how evil the world can be and made me think of how
good I really have it, this assignment affected the way I think about my complaints in the world
and I am happy that it affected me this way. It was very enlightening to realize the blessings that
I have in life and to know that everyday could be a struggle for survival.
As the semester began, I did not completely understand all of the assignments that you
required us to complete, and why you had us complete them. The assignment that I had the most
difficulty with this semester was defiantly the literacy narrative. I found this assignment
exceptionally difficult because I personally have not had a defining moment in my writing career

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when everything just seemed to click. Since I was not as passionate as some of the other students
about this assignment I became discouraged in the writing prompt and had an even harder time
being able to write about an event that I did not truly believe had any relevance in my writing
career. After thinking about this assignment more in depth I realized that the main point of it was
not just to recognize a time in which I felt that my writing really progressed. The purpose of the
assignment to me was to see if I could learn to describe a time in the past that might not have
been an exciting action such as playing a sport or another physical activity. Once I discovered
that this assignment had a much deeper purpose all of the other assignments that we were
required to complete mad a lot more sense to me.
I really started to become interested in the class when we were assigned the interest
inventory. This assignment allowed me to open up my mind and really explore my interests so I
could find a topic that I would like to research for the rest of the semester. My main goal when
completing this assignment was to find an interest of mine that I could study that was not
commonly used by other students in their EIP projects. Due to me being a computer science
major I really wanted to have my topic relate to technology. Narrowing down my options by how
common they were used was really helpful to me because it forced me to research topics that
would overall be more interesting that most people do not have a vast knowledge about. Through
hard thinking and a lot of suggestions from my friends and family members I was able to narrow
my topic down to space exploration. This assignment improved my ability to creatively think and
logically think by making me come up with unique topics that not many people have researched
but also taking into consideration the amount of information that I could find on each topic.
Once I narrowed down my topic to the one that I was the most satisfied with (space
exploration) we had just received the Topic Proposal assignment. At first, I questioned the

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purpose of this assignment because to me writing an essay about why we want to research
something seemed very odd but from further explanation from you and some of my friends the
assignment made sense. I realized that you wanted to make sure that we chose a good topic that
could hold our interest for the entire semester that we would not change because we have either
become bored with it simply could not find enough information on it. As I began my topic
proposal I gained more confidence in my writing because I was able to find a lot of reliable
information on my topic. The topic proposal also made me more interested in my topic because I
was learning a lot of new information that I have never heard of before or come across. Once I
completed my topic proposal we had our first of several peer review sessions in class. I can
confidently say that until this point I had not had a productive peer review session in my
academic career, so I felt very uneasy coming into class that day. When the class was over, I felt
a wave of relief come over me as all of the members in my peer review group had given me a lot
of positive feedback and constructive criticism that I could use to make my paper better. Using
the suggestions that my group members gave to me I was able to complete my topic proposal and
be proud of my completed work.
I found the annotated bibliography rather easy to complete with the helpful guidelines
provided by you paired with the vast amount of reliable sources that my topic had. I enjoyed
justifying how reliable a source was and to which audience I think that information was directed
toward. I personally would not choose to research a topic this way all of the time but I think that
it is a very helpful skill to know and it is a good starting point if one does not know how to
research a topic. The completion of the annotated bibliography made starting the first draft of my
EIP easier because of the information that I was able to collect. For my EIP I chose to create a
website because I felt that it was a better way to represent the information that I researched and it

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provided users with a direct opportunity to get involved in my topic. Thinking back on it now I
would not change my decision to create a website instead of a traditional paper because I enjoyed
creating a website a lot more because I am a visual learner who likes to see lots of graphics and
statistics in order to learn about a topic.
When I completed the first draft of my EIP I had felt that I included all of the information
that was necessary to get my point across to readers and persuade them to support my topic.
After I received input from my fellow classmates and you I quickly realized that I needed more
information to make my argument more clear. I looked at the comments made on my original
paper from you (Professor Campbell) as a starting point for me to begin my second draft of my
EIP. I conducted more research on your suggestions and furthered my argument by using graphs
and information on other aspects of space exploration like commercial space companies such as
SpaceX. Once I completed this research I felt that I needed to reorganize my website so that the
information made sense to the reader. Once I completed the final draft of my EIP I felt a lot more
content with my work even questioned myself on how I could have been as confident as I was
about my first draft.
While all of this revision was going on we received our ePortfolio assignment. Honestly,
I did not think that the assignment was going to be as much work as it is but I soon realized that I
could not procrastinate this assignment so I began to collect all of my work that the assignment
required and start to create my website. The topic of my ePortfolio website is the road less
traveled because throughout my life and this class I have tried my best to think outside of the
box and challenge myself. Once I completed the ePortfolio assignment I was able to appreciate
the amount of time and effort that it took to create it. I especially like how it accurately displays
the amount of work that I have completed of the long semester. It shows all of the hard work that

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students have put into your class (or have not put into your class) by asking the student to create
a website from scratch that shows their progression in the course.
Overall, I am grateful that I signed up for you class because it challenged me, as well as
helping me develop my writing. I think that I am a much stronger writer, thinker, and reflector
after completing your course. I hope that you never change and keep inspiring students the way
that you have inspired me.
Thank you so much for all of your help and insight
-Drew Russo