Dear Malcolm,

I cant believe that its that time of year again! It seems like a few weeks ago I was writing my first letter to you. I really struggled with that one; I didnt have the slightest clue of what to write about. Frankly I found the whole process to be a bit awkward, writing to my new professor and tell him very personal information? It seemed a bit odd. I found comfort in the fact that you too had written us a letter, it made my release of personal information, like my hopes and dreams, a lot easier upon reading about your personal life away from the university. After I started writing that letter I actually enjoyed it, I found out a lot about myself and my writing style, which Im sure, will come out in this letter. I cant help but bring up the daily thinkbook entries. I found this practice very beneficial, much more beneficial than similar practices required for other classes. I loved how they made me think. They made me reflect on things I just learned, reador didnt read (sorry to say it Malcolm, I did skip a few readings) and do on a day-to-day basis. I particularly enjoyed the Digital Spaces and Places freewrite, where we created a list of websites that we have accounts on. I think the word Dam(n) (a barrier constructed to hold back water of course) comes to mind when looking back on that list. You can see that list in the Informal Writing section of my e-portfolio if you dare. On a serious note, I did most, if not all my planning and thinking in that composition book. In previous English classes ranging from high school to college, my thinkbook-like composition book would lay untouched with nothing but the first few pages written on, unlike my thinkbook from this semester. My thinkbook this semester looks like it went through a war! Pages crumpled and torn out, sticky notes litter the pages and the covers are in tatters! Im ok with this for one reason: It did its job wonderfully. This thinkbook single-

handedly helped me plan and organize more papers after midnight than Id like to admit! You can see our fantastic friendship in action in the Late Night EIP Outline entry in the Informal Writing section of my e-portfolio. It was in these pages that a fantastic EIP (Can I say that?) was born. I worked my thinkbook like a dog during my inquiry process! From freewrites like When Im bored to What I Wonder to the more obvious freewrites like EIP Ideas they all helped in the inquiry process. When you first mentioned the extended inquiry project, I thought What the hail? Im not interested in anything enough to do a semester long paper about! So into my thinkbook I dove! I combed my thinkbook entries looking for a common theme. I found possible inquires like online crime, online revolutions and movements, online security, and catfish; but could I do a whole semester studying any of these? Probably not, so I went deeper. How art/design/music was changing in the digital age, even How creativity was changing with the digital age, the answer was still no. Then I started think that maybe ADHD and multitasking in the digital age could be a good topic, but since I dont have ADHD I discarded it. Then it finally hit me: How Instagram is changing photography! How could I have overlooked it? I love photography, mobile technology and the online world. After days of thinking, I finally had my topic of inquiry! My journey didnt end there, I had a ton, and I mean a ton of research to do. To my surprise the research was the easiest part. Because I had picked a topic that I was genuinely interested in and actually wanted to find more information about, the research was a breeze. It didnt feel like research, it was just me exploring a topic no different than me exploring why people yawn or any other inquiry I had in the spur of a moment, I was simply curious. I jokingly wrote in my thinkbook one day Is it really research if you actually are interested in the topic?

The answer is yes, but not in the conventional sense. When I think of research, I think of late night Google searches, skimming websites and sayings like This will do, I guess I could squeeze this in, and This relates right? My research took an entirely different path. I couldnt get enough information, I kept bookmarking page after page, article after article in my search for knowledge. I actually read articles thoroughly and searched the internet, library and encyclopedias in my free time looking for answers. The poking and proding of sources was taken to a new level with the annotated bibliography assignment. To start off, Id like to tell you that I had never even heard or done anything similar to an annotated bibliography, and boy was I missing out! The annotated bibliography opened my eyes to a whole new side of sources I had never seen before. This assignment helped me pick and choose what sources I would use, why the author or source was credible and how I was going to use the source. It helped me rake through my sources and pick out the sources that were actually relevant to my topic. This was especially helpful because after a while of researching something youre so interested in, you can begin to lose sight of the end goal, which thanks to the annotated bibliography, I found happened to me quite a lot. All-in-all the assignment taught me to think critically about my sources; what is a good source and what makes it a good source to use. As you probably remember, we didnt just find a topic and jump right into research, we wrote a topic proposal. Like most of the assignments in this class, I didnt really like it at first, and then I realized why you had us do it. The reasoning behind the topic proposal was simple, to get a general idea of what kind of research we, as students, will have to do, find out what discussions are currently going on about our topic, and to find out if our topic was broad enough to do a whole semester of research on. Not surprisingly thats exactly what happened. With the limited time for research I had before the topic proposal was due, I found out that there had been

a reasonable amount of discussion about Instagrams filters and how the app were changing photography. From testing the water of the pool of research (I know deep right?) I found out that I would have enough sources to research my topic thoroughly. I also found out that I would not be able to find any books on the subject of Instagram; it was too young and developing too fast for books to be a valuable research tool. Not only were books out of the research plan, but the librarys extensive database wasnt extensive enough and provided me with useless sources, so news and blogs were my only valuable research tool. But none the less, my initial research proved that I would not only have enough sources and information for my EIP, but that my topic was indeed broad enough to write a thorough explorative essay. The thoroughness of my topic proposal, annotated bibliography and most importantly my research was extremely helpful when it can to writing my EIP. I had bits and pieces of my paper jumbled in my head. This is where my thinkbook (now considered my bible) came to the rescue. As you can see in the Late Night EIP Outline entry in the Informal Writing section of my eportfolio, the thinkbook was a place that I could organize the main points I wanted to make and move them around until they were in a logical order. After reading Friends with Benefits, I decided that I wanted to have an explorative undertone in my essay, because after all, I wasnt trying to prove a point, I was simply trying to describe what I had found through my research. I really enjoyed writing my EIP; it was my favorite assignment the whole year. Is that weird? I really enjoyed putting all my research and findings into one essay and Im really proud about how it came out. I really liked that some of my research was just my common knowledge. For example, in my EIP I talk about the Nokia Pureview, I never researched that phone in the conventional sense; I just read the news website that I read every day. It was the same case for the Samsung Galaxy Camera. I also didnt research the Sony NEX cameras because I own the

NEX 5N, so I previously knew the features of the cameras, after all they were the reasons I bought the camera. I think that the fact that I was able to use my prior knowledge about cameras, cell phones, applications and computer programs goes to show that I picked a topic that I was really passionate about, which in turn made my final EIP go far smoother than I expected. I have definitely changed this semester. I may not have become a better writer, but I have improved in other aspects. I have become a better researcher, and investigator. The most important thing, at least in my eyes, is my questioning ability and not just my ability to question, but to find the answer to those questions. These skills will prove useful in far more than English classes down the road. All-in-all, I really enjoyed this class. I really liked your laid back, but serious teaching style. I also really liked that you remembered things from students personal letters to you. I liked how everything was presented in the class. I however, did not like the peer editing. I didnt really gain anything. For example (I dont want to get anyone in trouble, so dont hold this against anyone), I turned my EIP into my peers after spending hours working on it. When we met up in class a few days later, they hadnt even started reading it, and the comments were on the lines of I like this example, Good introduction. When I received my nine page essay back, it was clear that they only read through the first few pages because even the compliments stopped after page four. Not to be rude, but I didnt need the confidence boost and they could of at least read through the whole thing. I find it hard to believe they couldnt give me more than one recommendation; their only suggestion was to define the term DSLR. I know it is partially my fault because I did choose them as partners. I think that the peer editing would have been better if the groups were bigger, or if we did them as a class. Other than that I really enjoyed the

class. I think youre a fantastic teacher, I wish I had you for 1101. Thank you for everything you have done not only for me personally, but for my classmates. I hope you enjoy my e-portfolio.

Sincerely, Scott Bader