The student discusses how their writing class this semester differed from previous classes which focused solely on essays. This class incorporated a variety of assignment types including group projects, blog posts, memos, and multimedia presentations. The student found this approach more interesting and helped improve their writing skills. They particularly learned from a project where they researched a topic of their choice and created a website to showcase what they learned. This helped them understand how to conduct research beyond just searching online. Overall, the class challenged the student to learn new writing styles and they feel more prepared to apply these skills in other classes and careers.

1. Dear Rebecca,
Before I took this class all of my previous writing classes were extremely essay based. There
were not many different assignments given at all. It was always some sort of long, tedious,
essay. Coming into college I expected that my writing class would be even more essays that
were longer and harder. However, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the majority of the
assignments given were all different. For example the literacy map in which the groups had to
draw a metaphorical map about the life of a book character. Also we were assigned a genre
piece project in which we were able to pick what kind of format we wanted to present with
(YouTube video, website, Prezi, speech, etc). The class regularly wrote journal/blog entries,
worked in groups, wrote memos, and wrote a bibliography. Having most of the projects be
different than just a boring essay made the class more interesting and helped me be able to
understand the material better. These different project types also helped me be more
proficient in figuring out the best way to portray my ideas. In the genre piece it was up to me to
decide if I should display my topic as a video, website, Prezi, or speech and I think this helped
me as a student learn a valuable skill of being able to make decisions about how to go about
describing information.
As this class comes to end I have realized that the most important thing I have learned is the
value of inquiry. Being curious and wanting to know more about something is a great
characteristic to have in order to expand my knowledge. The genre piece was the project I did I
which I displayed my finding about my inquiry involving YouTube fitness communities. This
project helped me develop as a write because it forced me to go out of my comfort zone of
writing essays and learn how to write/take notes on an interview, do my own research, write a
memo, write a bibliography, and make a website to show all that I have done. This project
helped me learn the skills of creating different writing that were not just the run of the mill
essay. I can actually use the things I learned how to write in my other classes and future job(s).
In fact, I have used the inquiry proposal memo I wrote as a template for writing other memos in
my ENGR 1201 class. This project also taught me how to go about researching my curiosity
about a certain topic. It taught me that you cannot just google what you want to know but you
have to go out to observe and interview the more complex topics that need specific research
findings as well in order to gain a true understanding of what you are trying to learn about.
I definitely believe that this class helped develop my writing skills in a whole new way. I proved
that I already know how to write essays just by being let into 1103. This class challenged me to
learn all the other different types and styles of writing that I really had not given much thought
about. I am grateful I got to experience all of what I did and now I can go and apply what I
learned to other aspects of my educational and personal path.
Sincerely,
Joe Vergato