Radhika Patel

UWRT 1102
Fran Voltz
4/29/15

Course Reflection Essay

Reflective writing is a way of writing in which the writer describes a real or

imaginary scene or interaction that has occurred in their life and reflect on it. By
reflecting it mean to add personal feeling/ meaning on that memory. This is a great way to
visualize how much a person has improved from previous times. Reflective writing also
requires you to use reflective thinking. Reflective thinking helps relate new knowledge
to prior understanding, and also allows them to thing in both abstract and conceptual
terms. I think that reflective does differ from other types of writing because it encourages
you to reflect upon your own thoughts and actions. In reflective writing it helps you
recognize the connections between what you already and have experienced and what you
are in the process of learning. In any form of writing, I feel that reflective writing is
really important because it allows you to grow as a writer and it also allows you to
visualize the connections between the theoretical aspects of the course and situations that
you were exposed to.
As part of a writing course, I think its important to include reflective writing
because it also allows the teachers and professors to visualize your improvements in
writing. When I am writing in class, I never pay attention to the writing itself. I dont

realize how much I have improved as a writer until after see the difference between the
writing I completed at the beginning of the year to the writing towards the end of the
semester. I feel as if reflective writing has allowed me to become more active and aware
in the learning process, allowing me to not only focus on what I learned but also how you
learned it. The reflection that I had to write for my portfolio also helped me understand
all of the different types of concepts we touched on in class and how each topic we
covered has allowed me to take away a small piece of knowledge that can help me in the
future and in other types of writing.
In this course we also were required to complete an inquiry project. Inquiry in my
opinion means the ability to gain information about a specific topic and thoroughly
understanding it. The inquiry project consisted of a three-part process. In the first part, we
had to research topics and ideas in which we were interested in and something that we
wanted to learn more about. I have always had an interest in medicine so I wanted to do it
on something related to the medical field. I decided that since breast cancer is very
common, I wanted to learn more about it. In the other parts of this project, we had to
make a prezi presentation and then present the information we researched in a special
way. I decided to write a paper and express the knowledge I obtained to others, so I wrote
an informational paper stating why it is beneficial and important to have early detection. I
think that this course included an inquiry project instead of a research paper because
many people expect research paper quite boring and bland. Through this inquiry project,
you are asking certain questions and then you try to find the information. This allows
many people that are curious about certain things to conduct research, and gain the
knowledge in the mean of process and understanding. It also allows students to become

more interactive when they do an inquiry project. This project helped me visualize how I
wanted to layout my presentation and showed me a clear path to follow. The composing
process itself wasnt difficult because I already had an idea of what I wanted to do but
there were a few places that I couldnt think of times when I obtained literacy or how I
could tie it into my presentation. These processes of brainstorming really help me
evaluate my presentation and made a task that some may think complicated into a simple
assignment. It was a great way to process my ideas without forgetting them.
As a person I feel like I have learned to talk to better people and cooperate good
when it came to discussions since we actually did a lot of group work and one-on-one
discussions. As a student in college I feel like I have learned to broaden my horizons
when it comes to connections in studying and working together. I feel like I learned to do
this through my exposure with the community, as well as my closeness to an my new
friends that I consider family, and also my fellow biology majors. Without their help, I
portably would not have been able to come out of my shell and get to know so many new
people. This e-portfolio has definitely also made me more technologically savvy since I
had never done anything like this before and let me tell you, I was a little stressed trying
to complete it all being pushed for time and everything. And finally, as the semester
comes to a close I can say that I am definitely a more educated individual. Throughout
this class period, I have understood a lot about writing and myself. I am someone that
needs to plan out what I am about to write so I can clearly express my thoughts
throughout my piece of writing without stopping a lot to think what I want to write about.
Planning also helps smooth out things I am not quite sure about. It guides me
through parts that I would find difficult and eases me into the piece without having to

pause for long periods of time. While it was challenging at some points in the class, it
challenged us all in the best of ways and made us think more critically rather than just
observing superficially the topics that were presented to us.