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Farideh Ari
UWRT 1102
Instructor: Fran Voltz
9 December 2015
Course Reflection
No pressure! Thats exactly how I feel about writing this paper. But since I have to write
this paper I am going to reflect deeply into UWRT 1102. From the surface this class ended up
very well for me. By this I mean that now at practically the end of the semester, seeing all my
assignments come together I believe this class wasnt as bad as I thought it would be. The way
the class was structured made it very easy to stay engaged in an early morning class. One
examples of this would be videos we watched in class, even though some were better than others.
Another example was the music played while we completed some of our ICWs. However there is
one aspect of this class that I do not completely see the point of doing it.
Reflective writing is a mandatory type of writing that we have to complete in this class. I
do not see this type of writing as necessary. But before I talk about why I do not find it necessary,
I am going to discuss what reflective writing is in my point of view. I define reflective writing as
a type of writing were one reflects on an important personal event or another past piece of
writing they have done, then they write about those reflections. Reflective writing is not like
other types of writing. Unlike a research based writing or writing a story, were it is based in a
way on facts, reflective writing is mostly opinion. Reflective writing is basically writing your
emotions of something that happened or that you created in the past. However, like I mentioned
before, reflective writing is nonsense to me. Reflecting on a past writing assignment or event is
a great thing to do, but actually writing your reflections do not seem necessary. Instead of writing
about my reflections, I rather both go back and fix what I did, or look over what I did wrong in

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my writing and not do it again. But most likely college students will not go back and fix what
they did wrong or not do it again; I can see why making reflective writing mandatory. Majority
of college students today are lazy but if we werent lazy I do not agree with writing your
reflections.
In addition to reflective writing, there is an inquiry project in this UWRT class. At first I
did see this inquiry project as a research project, but as I was looking more into an inquiry
project I did see a difference. If I had to define a research based project I would say, it is most
likely a paper about ideas or things that you already knew about. But what you are required to
look further into the topic. A research project is also something that most likely has no
personality, just all facts. On the other hand, an inquiry project is something that you personally
want to look further into because you know nothing about it. As mentioned before, a research
project is a paper most the time. However an inquiry project can be a presentation, your own
website, or an image with a caption. I am glad this class required students to make an Extended
Inquiry Project because I get to use some of my creative thinking into it.
The Extended Inquiry Project was something I enjoyed doing but there was a few
things I had a hard time with. The hardest part of the Extended Inquiry Project was writing it.
Trying to find a topic was also hard. I remember when I was looking online for interesting ideas I
wanted to learn about and found nothing. However, one morning I made my cup of coffee and
went straight onto the computer in hopes of finding something interesting. But then as I was
losing hope I took a sip of coffee, then bam! I was going to make the Extended Inquiry Project
about coffee. Then I struggled with something else, what about coffee was I going to inquire
about? Thats when I went back to the internet and found all these incredible ideas about coffee.
The one that interested me the most was the different historical effects of coffee on different

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cultural. After I have gathered all my information for the Extended Inquiry Project, I found
that the countries I researched have the same ideas about how coffee began. I then decided to put
how coffee came about in its own paragraph in the paper. During the process I have found the
most exciting part was finding the research and designing the Extended Inquiry Project. For
example, the layout and the pictures were very enjoyable. The most satisfying part was the
finished product and having an increased knowledge about coffee. Before I just saw coffee as
something I needed to drink to stay awake, now it is more than a drink. It has history that has
effect many cultures and peoples ancestors.
Not only was the Extended Inquiry Project satisfying but after viewing all my work in
this class, I am very satisfied with my work. I did see a pattern. The pattern was that in a lot of
my work I let myself be deep into my thoughts, which is what makes it satisfying. However at
the beginning of this class, I actually had a tough time with letting myself just express what I feel
on paper. I believe this is because at the beginning of the class I wasnt sure what the professor
expected. Another reason is maybe because I just wasnt too happy in the beginning of the
semester to be in a morning writing course. After receiving two B on my ICW I realized I need
to allow myself to be deeper in my thoughts. I also figured out that if I plan ahead with my
writing, especially my journals, I found it easier to get it down on time. Mapping is an example
of what I used to help me prewrite for my assignments. It saved me some time while I was
writing the final draft. The time I saved allowed me to think deeper into my thoughts. Journal
number two or the five minute mediation journal was one piece of work that I am proud of. This
was the first one that I used the techniques I talked about earlier. Also because I didnt leave this
journal entry till a couple of nights before, my best work came out. It is my best because I was

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surprised what thoughts were like in those five minutes of meditating. This journal entry required
me to reflect and think deep because it made me in a way listen to my deep thoughts.
Besides mapping and learning that I need to start my journals a week in advance to get
the grade I want, I did learn a lot from this class. Even though this is a writing course, I learned a
lot about society and the world around me. One example is the when we talked about bullshit.
The world including myself sees so much of it that it starts to seem like a natural thing. But after
learning about it, I am a lot more aware of it. Learning has also benefited my writing. It has
taught me to allow myself to not just write bullshit because that is what people want to hear,
but instead to be true and deep with my writing. Even if it is something someone else doesnt
want to hear. This leads me into the grade I think I deserve on my portfolio. I do think I deserve
an A because I have put a lot of time into it. Also because I tried to be as true to myself as
possible. Based from my past assignments and grades, I have done very well. Even though some
assignments were harder for my brain to dig deep into thought, I do find those the most helpful.
They allowed me to be a better learner and student. Coming out of this class, I believe I have
more passion in my writing.