Final Reflective Letter
Shannon K. McMeans
Professor Marlen Harrison
English 101-013
April 6, 2009
Dear Marlen:
I want to start off by thanking you for an awesome learning experience this semester. I am going to be honest, the first day of class I had a completely different opinion and mind set as to the one I am going to be leaving your class with. English has never been my favorite subject, I usually associate it with rules upon rules of grammatical dos and don’ts and the typical two-page double spaced research papers. Can I just say, you have definitely opened my eyes to the wonderful world of writing.
The two books and pieces of writings you chose for this course, throughout the semester were unique in their own way, while teaching me different genres and tools along the way. I do not learn anything if I am not completely interest in something, which is sad to say but the truth. The way you integrated blogging into the everyday assignments for class was a interesting way to modernize the class.
The freedom I was allowed to have with all of my essays, helped me actually be interested in what I was writing. None of my writings are the same, which is not normal for me. Before this class, I was used to the specific requirements, and that was it. No personal thought was put into any of the pieces. Now, I can honestly say, each piece of writing I have completed had a personal note in them in some way or another.
As I completed my portfolio and my autoethnography is when I realized how much I have benefited from this class. I look back at my first handful of blogs, and how obvious it was that I was not putting my full thoughts on to the paper. The question, ‘what is I?’ was something I never really thought of, and when asked the first time I honestly had no idea. Even though I do not think I will be able to ever explain on a sheet of paper that I am as a person, I do have a better idea of what the answer is to that question. Your class helped me realize this within myself, as a writer. I am a writer. Before I always thought there were the writers and there were the non-writers. Of course, I was in the non-writer category, because I just never thought I wrote well. Well I was wrong; everyone can be a writer if they want to be.
With all of this said, I just want to thank you for a very creative, informative, all around great class this semester. I have learned a lot in this class and had a great time while doing it. I was able to actually know the names of my other peers that I sat with every day in class, unlike pretty much all of my other classes. Wow this sounds like a really big suck up letter, trust me it isn’t, it’s all true. My voice mattered, and that is a great thing to have within a classroom. Thanks Marlen!
Sincerely,
Shannon K. McMeans
