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Mary Andrus
English 1010/Kilpatrick
Reflective Essay
4/24/19

One of two classes I took at Salt Lake Community College this semester, English 1010,

taught me so much more than just how to write. I learned how to set and accomplish goals

successfully, how to plan and complete a research project, and how to be a better college student

in general.

Goal Setting

One of the surprises I encountered in English 1010 was that the course included more

than just writing. Professor Kilpatrick wanted to make the class applicable to her students’ daily

lives, and one way she did this was by creating goal-setting assignments. Each student was given

tips and requirements for effective goal setting and, in addition to writing about our goals, we

each met with Professor Kilpatrick one-on-one to discuss our plans for completing them. This

was helpful to me because I was reminded of what I really want to accomplish through my

higher education: I want to gain the tools to be a well-versed, contributing member of society

with a successful career and family life. To do this I want to graduate from BYU with a

Bachelor’s degree or higher in both Harp Performance and English. One of the ways I am

working toward this goal is attending GenEd classes at SLCC with the plan to transfer to BYU in

a year. To be successful in this my three main goals this semester were to:

1. Get a grade no lower than a ‘B’ in any class, and get an ‘A’ whenever possible.

2. Practice the harp effectively and with focus for a minimum of 12 hours per week.
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3. Before October of 2019 talk to an academic advisor (preferably at BYU) about my

educational plan and about receiving scholarships.

For each of these goals I made a sub-goal that would eventually lead me to success in completing

it. I also listed possible situations that could impede the completion of my goals and wrote what I

would do to counteract these compromising situations.

Writing out my goals was the easy part; the hard part was doing them. It was easy to

forget what my goals were if I didn’t review them regularly, and my busy schedule made the

level of difficulty in keeping them fluctuate. Luckily, there was a follow-up assignment that

reminded me of what I was trying to accomplish. The goal that was easiest for me to work

towards was getting good grades in all my classes. This commitment to my education has been

ingrained in me from my childhood, and my family has always been committed to producing

quality work in all aspects of life. I know that in order to get good grades I must participate and

be respectful in class and get coursework finished on time. This was the easiest goal for me to

reach because it was something I already do.

My effectiveness and frequency of harp practice fluctuated during the semester; some

weeks I missed multiple days of practice and others I got four hours of practice a day. Overall I

think my practice did become more focused and frequent over the semester, but I am still not as

consistent as I would like to be. One thing that helped me get better at practicing the harp was

that I am participating in the American Harp Society Competition this year. Since January of

2018 I have been learning and studying three different pieces of music, and I had to turn in a

perfect video recording of each by April 15th to participate in the first round of the competition.

As the deadline got closer, my practice improved. I started practicing for four hours a day and
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doing much more focused and detailed work. I started to find that practicing with real effort is

exciting!

Surprisingly, the goal that was hardest for me to accomplish was that of meeting with an

academic advisor. When I started the semester I wanted to meet with an advisor from BYU, but

as I got more busy and the semester flew by I realized that I would have to meet with an advisor

at SLCC; not only was the meeting one of my goals, but it was also an assignment for this class!

At the very end of the semester I was finally able to call the academic advising office and find

their walk-in hours. Unfortunately, the meeting was not as helpful as I had hoped, but I did learn

a valuable lesson in preparing for academic meetings.

I think the most helpful part of this assignment was the writing--both the goal-setting

assignment and the goal setting update. One can only accomplish a goal if he actually knows

what that goal is, and these assignments helped me clearly define and outline my goals! The

academic advising wasn’t very helpful to my success this semester because I waited so long to

see an advisor and she wasn’t trained in assisting homeschool graduates, but I now have a

strategy for future meetings. The best part of the goal-setting portion of English 1010 was that it

helped me not only become a better writer, but also a better student!

Final Project

The longest and most time-consuming part of this class was our final project (as well a

final project should be). The coolest thing I learned from it was the value of research. When

writing previous research papers the only thing I really cared about was the conclusion, or the

answer to my question. But as we discussed this assignment and the topic of “wicked problems”
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in class, I realized that my professor was more interested in the journey of our research than the

result. As I started my research about the mind-body connected in regards to health I began to

think about what I was ​doing, n​ ot just what I was ​finding.​ I kept greater notes on how I found

sources and how my thought process changed over time. I learned that sometimes the ​way​ you

find something can have an even greater effect on you than ​what​ you find and that ​research​ can

be just as important as ​information​.

Some of the assignments in this project that changed my view of the world were the

peer-review assignments. When reviewing others’ work I not only observed many different

writing styles, but I also got a glimpse into other people’s lives and thought processes. I saw

what they chose to research about and what it meant to them. This gave me a greater appreciation

for the differences we each have and for the variety of people in the world. My assumptions

about what interests or careers are worthwhile were turned upside down. Whether reviewing

work about video games or music therapy, I saw enthusiasm and passion from others in the class.

I realized more than ever that if everybody had the same interests not all needs in the world

would be met, and that even if I don’t care at all for, say, video games, there is someone out there

who can use their passion for them to change the world. How beautiful!

One of the greatest challenges in finishing this project was finding my four sources and

finishing my annotated bibliography on time. Not only do I prefer reading in a very thorough

way (which was not practical when one of my sources was a book), but I also got very sick right

before I was supposed to turn in my bibliography. Both of these issues created a problem with

time: there wasn’t enough of it. When I had wanted to visit the library in person to find my third

source, I ended up reserving it on the library’s website and letting my mom pick it up for me, and
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instead of reading the whole book through I had to read only the most applicable sections and

skim over the rest. I also didn’t attend a regular social event for two weeks in a row because I

was sick and I needed to finish my bibliography! Even though it was frustrating not to complete

this project in my ideal way, by cutting back on non-essential activities and carefully planning

out my schedule I was able to finish my annotated bibliography on time! In addition to being the

most difficult part of this project, completing my bibliography was also the most rewarding part!

Because I had struggled and worked so hard to finish it, printing out my finished bibliography

was one of the most fulfilling parts of this project!

English 1010 as a Whole:

I have always loved poetry, and I most often respect and value a piece of writing because

it is poetic. For most of my life I have viewed the written word as a form of passive artwork:

something beautiful to be looked at and not touched. Of course, there were powerful books such

as ​Uncle Tom’s Cabin​ by Harriet Beecher Stowe or ​A Tale of Two Cities​ by Charles Dickens, but

as I read them my life stayed largely the same. I didn’t think much about the power of writing

beyond making someone cry or smile. Until this class. As we learned that writing can be an

action, and that it should be a deliberate act, my perceptions changed. I began to realize that I

actually have the potential to change people--to change the world--through just the words I put

on a page. When writing my Community Discourse Analysis I learned that I could change

another’s ideas about a community by taking action and writing about it. In writing my annotated

bibliography for our final project I learned that there are specific tools in writing that one can use

to act, including focusing on pathos, ethos, and logos. From reading different kinds of sources I
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learned that different people are influenced by different forms of writing. For example, scientists

will most value facts and statistics, while I most value appeals to emotion and belief.

Over the course of the semester I also learned about deliberate writing. In the past most

of my writing started with a blank page and an idea. I sat down at the computer and just began to

write--no plan, no requirements. The concept of planning out a piece of writing prior to actually

starting it was not foreign to me, but in English 1010 I learned how to actually do it. Professor

Kilpatrick gave each of her students specific outlines and requirements for planning out our

assignments before we started writing. One of these assignments was the Personal Narrative. Not

only did the maximum word count of 750 force me to include only the most vital and interesting

information in my story, but I also had to learn how to communicate with few words and in a

clear way. The requirements for variance in sentence structure, exposition vs. description, and

different images gave me pause, providing the opportunity for me to write a well-rounded and

interesting story. I learned that it takes much more than a good idea to write a piece of art. I also

practiced these skills in planning out the annotated bibliography and exploratory essay for my

final project. Instead of simply writing about what I liked or didn’t like or learned or didn’t learn,

I had a very specific format to follow, which helped me keep my thoughts and writing organized.

In both of these assignments I looked at the different sections that I needed and decided on an

order for completing them. This gave me a clear route to follow in my work. In the future, I

intend to plan out my pieces before I start them.

In addition to planning out my work and using writing as an action, English 1010 also

taught me how to understand and apply the underlying aspects of writing, including analysis,

summary, and self-assessment. One of our first assignments in this class was to summarize an
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essay by Joan Didion titled “On Self-Respect.” At first I really struggled with being completely

objective; in the past most of my writing has been about how something applied to me

personally. As I analyzed and revised my work I learned much about the differences between

objective and subjective writing and my familiarity with objective writing increased. I also

learned about analysis, which I practiced in the Community Discourse Analysis and in my final

project. In the annotated bibliography I wrote a paragraph of rhetorical analysis for each source,

and then in the exploratory essay I analyzed their content. Because of this class I started taking

markers to my writing to highlight the different parts of each paragraph and work. This helped

me see my own writing in a more objective way, opening my eyes to what I do best and what I

should do better in my writing.

Two of the SLCC learning outcomes I made significant progress toward this semester

were ​Students Think Critically and Creatively a​ nd ​Students Develop Computer and Information

Literacy​. Throughout English 1010 the students in my class spent much time analyzing sources,

situations, writings, and communities. We connected this class with our wider life when we

practiced goal setting, as mentioned above. In our personal narratives we used different forms of

expressing ourselves, including exposition, description, reflection and images. We used a

synthesis matrix during our research for our final project, inserting the information discovered

there in the “melting pot” section of our Exploratory Essays. The Exploratory Essay was also

where I practiced thinking critically and creatively the most. To begin my research I first had to

think of a “wicked problem”--a question or problem that does not have a clearly defined or “yes

or no” answer. I then did research surrounding that question until I was satisfied both with my
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answer and the journey I took to get there. This process was similar to the scientific method: I

had a question, did research, and came up with a more solid and reliable answer.

I didn’t expect to learn much about computers in an English class, but I was proven

wrong. We learned how to use boolean operators in our online search for sources for our final

project. We also learned how to distinguish valid sources from questionable ones, particularly

with sources online. We learned about and were corrected in citing sources in the MLA format,

both in-text and in a bibliography. We were also coached in developing an eportfolio and

connecting it to our MySLCC accounts.

This class has been more applicable to my life and other SLCC courses than any other

class. Not only did I gain skills for composing better college-level papers, but I also became

much more familiar with the SLCC policies, goals, student outcomes, and just how the school

works in general. This class felt almost as much like a “welcome to college” class as an English

class, though I did learn a great deal about analyzing and writing. The other class I took at SLCC

this semester was Intro to Astronomy. Both this class and English 1010 required a research paper

for their final project, and although these were similar assignments, they also held many

differences. These differences all stemmed from one major dissimilarity: the reason for the

paper. Like many other papers for science classes, the purpose of my Astronomy paper was

essentially to research one thing, read multiple sources about it, and regurgitate their information

in my own writing while citing them correctly. But in English 1010, my professor cared less for

what our conclusion was or what our sources said, and more about the journey we took to get

there. I found that having both of these classes at the same time helped me to see both of my

papers in a broader way than I would have otherwise viewed them. Instead of only seeing
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information while researching for my Astronomy paper, I also began to pay attention to my

research process; instead of only seeing the research process of my English paper, I also

analyzed the content of my sources.

Something else I learned about in English 1010 was Kairos, or the study of time and

place. This directly relates to the American Civilization class I took last semester. In that class

we focused on learning about events and dates--what people did and experienced--while in

English we focused on what those people ​wrote​ because of those events. We also learned about

how the meaning of a work changes throughout time and how the reader might perceive its

message differently if they consider the context in which it was written, which is similar to how

happenings in history often make more sense when looked at from the perspective of that time

period.

I learned so much more than I thought I would in English 1010. I feel more prepared for

future college classes, and I now have much more experience in making goals, doing research,

and participating full-force in a class. Not only did my writing and analytical skills improve over

the course of this semester, but my understanding of Salt Lake Community College and higher

education in general was also supplemented.