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Anna Massey

Professor Raymond

UWRT 1102-003

1 May 2016

Course Reflection

Throughout this last semester of my freshman year here at UNC Charlotte, I have really

enjoyed this class. I was given an excellent education from my previous school, Wesleyan

Christian Academy, however, I did still take away some great stuff from this class. My high

school always stressed the importance of writing and I have always tried to develop in this area.

This class has helped me feel as if I really did develop and can take away things that will

help me later on. I believe I have really grown as a writer during this last semester. Specifically, I

have learned how to approach things from different perspectives. I’ve learned how to get to

know and understand my audience and prepare my work accordingly. I’ve learned the

simplicities of giving good oral presentations and how to write letters and memos, which will

continue to help throughout the rest of my years in school, as well as in the business field.

I haven’t experienced many struggles this semester, but some that I have endured include:

researching topics, looking at assignments from different perspectives, and really understanding

the student learning objectives. With the semester long project I have dealt with all three of these

struggles. I’ve had to dig into my research and scope out the information I needed. I have also

had to look at this project from a different perspective. My audience had close to no knowledge

of my topic, the Stonewall Jackson Youth Development Center, and I had to make sure my

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presentation would inform them and give them the information they needed. Also, I had a hard

time at the beginning of the semester understanding some of the student learning objectives.

However, of the course of the semester, I have gained a better understanding of these objectives

and can now apply them accordingly.

Like I previously stated, my high school equipped me for future writing in college. I had

many strenuous projects and papers all throughout my high school career. However, looking

back I am very grateful for the knowledge I gained from all those assignments. Also, UWRT

1101 also helped me be prepared for the oral presentations. I gave several presentations to my

class last semester, and it helped me start developing a comfortability with public speaking.

I’ve thought through many of the decisions I’ve made on different assignments during

this last semester. With every daily writing or writing prompt, I have always tried to be thorough

and very descriptive. I didn’t see these assignments as just busy work, but as an opportunity for

me to grow as a writer and express my opinions. I made the most decisions when dealing with

the semester-long project. I found myself modifying the research component from my initial

proposal. I found topics that I didn’t even know existed when it came to the Stonewall Jackson

School, so I started looking more into information that I had previously not intended on speaking

about in our presentation.

Furthermore, when comparing all of the projects and assignments we worked on, I think

they all have benefited me as a student and a future business woman. Like I previously stated,

this class has helped me get to know and understand my audience, causing me to look at my

assignments from different perspectives. With a better understanding of my audience and the

ability to look at things from different perspectives, I have been able to give better presentations.

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All of these developments I’ve made this semester will continue to grow into the future.

With planning to be a business woman all of these will impact me, as well as any business I work

for. All of the student learning objectives will help me in the future and will also be improved

later in my life.

After analyzing all of my work from this semester, I believe the semester-long project has

been by far my best work. I’ve learned how to dig deep into my research and how to organize

and put together information and facts. I spent a lot of time on this project, so I would expect it to

be one of my better pieces of work. Most importantly, however, when working on the semester-

long project I developed a passion for my topic and really cared about my work.

From looking over my entire last semester of my freshman year, I can definitely say the

greatest thing I learned was to have a passion for what I learned and wrote about. This semester

you allowed us to write about anything we cared about, which sparked a passion in my writing. It

allowed me to choose what I thought would be interesting and what I already had a passion for.

You didn’t restrict us from writing about what we wanted, and every chance you had you always

wanted us to share our thoughts and opinions. This really helped me grow as a writer and let my

passion for my work grow.