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Kayla Burr
UWRT 1102
Instructor: Fran Voltz
29 April 2016
Goodbye, So Long
After three semesters of college, I decided to move with my family from Buffalo, New
York, to Charlotte, North Carolina. I had been planning on changing schools and majors before I
knew about the move, I just didnt expect it to be in another state. I figured that since my entire
family moved to North Carolina that I would be eligible for instate tuition since we established a
permanent residence. This was not the case. I had to be living a full year down here before I was
allowed instate tuition. I had already taken one semester off from college and did not want to
take off three more, I decided to take one class each semester in order to stay on track. I was
afraid that if I did not partake in my schooling for an entire year and a half that I would not
return. This year was my first year with a complete course load since 2013. I found that I was
promptly laid out on my ass last semester. Even taking those two classes, I was completely
unprepared with juggling five classes again. This semester has been much better than the last. I
have changed my major for the third time and I am more equipped to handle the course load.
Your class is in my top ten for my college education. It is tied as favorite for this semester. I
promise that I am not kissing ass, it is the truth. My favorite classes usually are writing and
literature classes, even though I am not always fond of writing. Your class was the carefree, easygoing environment that I thrive in.
A research essay requires you to research and analyze facts for the topic whereas a
reflective essay requires you think back and analyze your past experiences for the topic. I believe
reflective writing is easier because there is no wrong answer, there is no two sides, or objective
thinking. This is an analysis of my own personal experiences. It actually is a better display of a

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persons writing style and grammar than research-based papers. There are less rules to hold back
their writing. You can use personal pronouns and other forms of casual writing. I am at the
beginning of my second page and have already used two curse words in this essay. I do not need
to cite sources unless they are outside visuals. However, it is not required that I have outside
visuals. Not to mention, typically after the conclusion comes the portion of the essay I like to
refer to as the how do I stretch this into another half page paragraph. For those not aware, this
is the place where you restate the same sentence over and over again with different word
placement. It may also contain an over emotional argument that probably does not belong in a
factual essay, but by then you are just praying that the teacher is so bored they give you a passing
grade and dont notice that writing atrocity attached to your conclusion. That is why it is so
important to a writing course. Papers like these do not always have a word count or page
minimum or if they do it is tolerable. I could write a six page reflective paper over my own
personal analysis of the themes in the Disney movie Frozen. It gives you the ability to see how
a student expresses their perspective through organized writing without all of the bullshit
involved in typical essay writing.
A textbook definition of inquiry is seeking information through investigation. You could
easily switch out the word inquiry for research in the above definition. From my personal
experiences with research papers, I have to scour the internet as well as the library looking for
valid sources for my paper. When this project was first mentioned, that is what I expected. It took
me some time to realize what the difference is between the two. In a research paper, I must be
objective and display facts from each side of the argument as well as possible compromises. The
inquiry project is a somewhat subjective, almost entirely one-sided argument. My inquiry project

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is about the deplorable sex education or lack thereof in this country as well as possible solutions.
I do not discuss the opinions of people who agree with the current sex education in this country.
When it comes to my writing process, the best description is procrastinating myself into a
zone of concentration. I am not big on outlining papers or first drafts. I think they are pointless.
The closest I get to a first draft or outline is when I have a partially finished paper or when it is
required. As I wrote in my ICW #10, I would either purposefully leave something out of my first
draft so that I could turn in different copies for the first and final drafts. When it comes to
outlining, I am more likely to do my outline after I have completed my final copy. This goes for
notecards as well. If I do my outline beforehand I feel the need to change it to match the order of
the paper. It causes me more work in the long run. As for my topic, it has been on my mind ever
since August when I saw that John Oliver video. When I first saw this, I was stunned and wanted
to share it with anyone who would listen. I wanted my family and friends to feel the same way I
felt which was a mixture of outraged and flabbergasted.
My strongest writing is on topics that I enjoy. Ones that I do not need to research or credit
to others. I feel like I can write freely without having to make sure that I am not plagiarizing
other people. The more passionate I am about something the better the resulting paper will be,
not mention thorough. I believe the enthusiasm I hold for certain topics can be felt when I write
about them. This is prevalent in Journal #4. I feel very strongly about how Barbie is degraded
when in reality it has been an uplifting image to young girls since the fifties. My biggest
weakness would be my procrastination. At the same time it is a helpful asset in its own way.
Obviously procrastination causes me a lot of anxiety, however I seem to have a super focus that
allows me to get my work done in record time. I found this saying on facebook and it fits my

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style very well: I can fit thirty minutes of work into eight hours, and eight hours of work into
thirty minutes. While I am not as bad as I used to be, my battle is far from over.
I think my best piece of writing in this class was Journal #8. It was a close call between
Journal #4 and Journal #8. What typed the balance in Journal #8s favor is that I was able to
relate the topic back to what I experience in my own life. It also made me feel validated. I have
struggled emotionally over the fact that things, especially pictures, do not always phase me. I
hear and see such horrible things in the news and horror films that what others find gutwrenching, I feel little for. An example would be when we had someone come in and talk about
the child soldiers in Africa. While I think it is terrible and despicable what these children are
being forced to do, I dont feel it. It is like looking into an enclosure in the zoo. Sure I can see the
tiger, but it is fifty feet away from the scratched up glass. There is no connection. This is what
Sontag predicted what would happen and it is only getting worse. She put a name to a feeling I
have been trying to explain to myself for years. By having my answer I felt as if I my emotions
or lack thereof were validated. I felt that this passion was leaked through in to the pages of my
essay.
Overall I have learned many things from your class, however, I dont think what I learned
is as important as what has been reawakened. I have not done any real writing since my last
semester at Canisius College. With that in mind, I had not done any writing I enjoyed since the
semester before that one. This semester I have done writing in your class that I actually enjoyed
doing. I was able to form papers around a well thought out thesis. To me what I learned is less
important than being able to create educated, written arguments. I believe that I deserve at least a
B on this project. I personally dont like assigning myself grades because it makes me feel
entitled. I dont want to grade myself too harshly, but at the same time I do not want a bad grade.