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Chris Epting
Professor Connie Douglas
UWRT-1101
9 December 2016

Final Reflection.
Looking back at this semester I can see how beneficial this class has
been. The educational piece alone has shown me how to properly format papers and
use correct grammar. Believe me, being out of school for as long as I have this was not
easy in the beginning and I still make mistakes. I am in a much better place than I was
back in August. I feel the biggest reward however is the amount of excitement and
creativity this class pulled out of me. I look at things differently now. I have a better
perspective of what an education is and how it can be used. I have also discovered that
I really enjoy writing in general.
The first assignment we did was the This I Believe Proclamation. Going through
the process of drafting and peer review was both a positive and negative experience.
On the positive side I learned how to get my words on paper and communicate my
thoughts and feelings. The downside of this for me was the peer review process. Do not
get me wrong, I agree that it is beneficial, but the group I was with all felt they did not
need advice or that they already knew everything. The critique they gave my paper was
not very helpful. If anything, it made me doubt my work even more. In the end I revised

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the paper several times on my own to get to my final draft. I feel it was an average
paper at best. I was pleasantly surprised at my grade and used the input I received to
make further revisions. I still feel it is an average paper, but I am proud of what I
produced. Not bad for my first paper in over twenty years.
The Ethnography project was on of the most enjoyable. I work in technology for a
living so I realized early in the process that I have pretty strong feelings about how
technology is being used. I did not intend on writing this paper with technology in mind
however. After my observation the effects of social media on public perception just
jumped out at me and it grew from there. The interview gave me even more insight to
the subject. The feelings and insight that Jason conveyed about the incident at Virginia
Tech provided me with the support I was looking for to further support the overall theme
of my paper. I was able to produce six pages of compelling information that I feel is
informative and entertaining.
Slam poetry? Did she really say slam poetry? That was my first thought when we
first starting talking about this project. The first few days we worked on it I was lost. Our
group discussions did not help at all. I am pretty sure no one wanted to do this. I could
not stop thinking: I am not a poet. I went through probably twenty different ideas and I
hated them all. I then pushed all of my previous ideas to the side and realized that I do
not have to write about anything personal or anything that is actually true. Once I came
to that conclusion the ideas started to flow. I then came to the next realization: It is a
poem, probably the only assignment where I do not have to use complete paragraphs or

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even sentences. It was a real chance to be creative without the rules of proper
grammar. I settled on a subject that I felt would impact the audience and maybe strike a
nerve in a few. I wish my presentation would have been better but I think I was able to
tug on the emotions of the class and successfully convey my message.
The digital literacy module was the easiest to me. Using the different modes of
persuasion was enjoyable. I really enjoy how you can manipulate someone's thoughts
with certain words or pictures. I used the current political environment as the subject of
two of my MEMEs. This was intentional because they are relevant to the time were are
in right now. Another reason I really enjoyed this was because of the creative aspect. I
have experience in commercial art and graphic design and I also have an artistic
background. This gave me the chance to use that experience to my benefit. The word
clouds are just fun to create. I would love to list out a long complicated process for the
creation of mine but there was not one. The websites provided made it really easy to
create and I have created them in the past for meeting so this was an easy project for
me.
I did not think the pop culture module would have been my favorite but it was
absolutely my favorite by far. There are many reasons for this. First of all, I have created
magazines in the past. I have also done hundreds of projects that involved page layout
and design. This entire module was a creative free for all in my mind. Secondly, it gave
me a chance to use my own original material. I did not use or borrow any graphics from
anyone. Everything was original or free to use clip art, and I only used that for the

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borders in a few places. The magazine gave me an opportunity to use different literary
techniques to draw the reader in. I created my layout first. All of the pages and the cover
were designed a specific way. I wanted to appeal visually to the reader. The goal was to
catch their eye with the design to draw them to the articles. The other projects in this
module were fun also. I really enjoyed the pop culture dictionary group project. It made
me feel old and lucky at the same time. I realized that at this point in my life I dont have
time to create a new language or worry about kanye West. I also enjoyed the bonding
with the students.
My participation in class started off slow. I am an introvert and talking to anyone
new or putting myself on display is hard at times. I am fine once I get going though, and
sometimes I just need a little push. I feel that I participated more than many others did
and I was able to contribute to the class. The last few months I actually found myself
helping some of the students. I even had a few of them coming to me for advice. I had
no issues with canvas and getting my work completed on time according to the direction
provided was not a big deal. I feel I was able to follow direction, participate and succeed
in this class. I gave it my all and I am proud of my results. I still make grammatical errors
but that will continue to improve with practice and future writing projects. I am excited for
what the future holds and look forward to next semester.