Dear Reader,

To say that this class was particularly easy would be a stretch. I can understand abstract

concepts in physics or hack out two pages of math for a single problem lickety split but writing

requires more than just memorization of a theorem, it requires you to look inside yourself and

really think about how you feel about or look at stuff and then put those feelings and

observations into your own words. This may come easy for some, but others, namely myself,

have a tougher time. Writing requires a degree of creativity, not that I deem myself uncreative,

but I do sometimes find it hard for myself to explain what exactly is on mind. This class really

helped me with my creative side and definitely helped me develop my writing. This ePortfolio

helped me to review the works that I consider the perfect examples of my growth and

development as a writer.

The contents my ePortfolio include the different parts of the composition of the class:

informal writing, studios, peer reviews, the EIP project and all its constituents. These different

components worked on different parts of our writing skills by their own means. The informal

writings helped with forming paragraphs from a topic or a sentence fragment. I found that I was

able to get into the flow of writing a bit easier than I originally thought I would be able to and I

did quite enjoy keeping a blog throughout the semester. The studios worked on different aspects

that would help us with our writing such as how to conduct research, different ways to style and

personalize writing. The different studios also work directly on or on certain aspects of other

projects for the class, such as the ePortfolio and the EIP. While I found these useful, at the time

of doing them I found them tedious at times and in retrospect I believe I could have given them a

little bit more tender love and care then I did. The annotated bibliography and topic proposal
worked on how we conduct research by teaching us how to pick reliable sources, how to cite,

and how to choose a good topic. The EIP can be seen as another essay in the long stream of

essays and research papers we students will/will have written during our educational career, but I

found myself enjoying being able to write about a topic that I felt passionate about, which set this

assignment above other research based essays I have done. Because I was able to choose a topic

rather be assigned one that I found unnecessary to have to research and write about, I learned

more about how to write a semi-formal paper as well as the topic I chose. Peer reviews taught us

how to network with our peers as well as be constructively critical of each other’s work. I

enjoyed being able to keep a blog, write entries in my daybook, and learning from the studios

and other project because I could really feel myself growing from their inclusion, despite them

seeming somewhat tedious at times; education isn’t always a cakewalk but giving up on it isn’t

an option I am willing to consider. I found the most difficult of these components was naturally

the EIP, which I also deem one of the main projects of the class. What makes it difficult wasn’t

the fact that it required and contained many, many pages, but the sheer amount of work I put into

it with all the research.

I consider the EIP the culmination of all the work I have done in the class as well as my

most important work because it includes all the components we have been working on and adds a

topic that I got to choose. I had to research and learn how to discuss a topic that while I had some

background in, I couldn’t put into words. Through plenty of research and rewriting, I believe that

I wrote one of the best papers that I ever have while in this class. The EIP helped me develop

skills in writing that will be useful throughout not only the rest of my educational career where I

am sure I will have to write more papers, but also my future career where I am absolutely certain

that I will have to write more papers. Learning more about my topic proved useful because I am
now more comfortable in my understanding of topics that I will be studying in depth for the rest

of my life.

My main weakness, when it comes to writing, is writing a paper that reads like a

conversation between myself and the reader. While this may not seem like a problem when I am

writing a letter, email, or even a paper with the purpose of educating, it is usually frowned upon

by most graders when it comes to formal essays or technical reports. I find that I like to include

quips or other forms of humor to make reading something that is otherwise boring a little less

tedious and this comes with a sacrifice to formality. Because I was not completely forced to

eradicate the use of my personal writing style, it may present a small hiccup in future papers, but

this class also taught me not to sacrifice my personality in place for a grade, which is neat.

After going through this course, I have seen my growth in not only my writing, but also

my reading and thinking which I find go hand in hand with each other. When I read an article,

book, text, or any other medium I look deeper than just what I gleam from a surface level

reading. I analyze the text for a deeper meaning, and I’ve found in doing this, reading things

becomes less of a chore and more of an opportunity to learn something. My favorite reading of

the semester was Joyas Volardores because when I first began to read it, I prepared myself to

hate it but after giving in, I loved it and it has stuck with me ever since. This taught me not to

jump into reading something with the idea that I won’t enjoy or learn anything from it and to

think deeper about the author’s intention of writing what they did.

With certain assignments such as the topic proposal, I originally found that I couldn’t

think of a damn thing to write about. All these modern problems and pressing issues in the great

wide world of sports and I couldn’t pick just one thing to scratch my head a little harder to than

others. The way I ended up solving this problem was to really think about things I was passionate
about, which for me are space, physics, and all that jazz. I investigated some of the things that

are currently plaguing our progress, made a list, and eventually narrowed my interest to faster

than light travel by way of a warp-drive engine. The real challenge then presented itself when I

hit a major roadblock with the topic I chose. I found that writing about abstract physics involved

a metric ton of higher-level math, which I can neither understand yet nor put into words on a

paper for a first year writing course. I was back to square one with choosing another topic. I

began reading a book in my free time called An Elegant Universe by the author Brian Greene in

search of another topic eventually settling on String Theory. Because of the progression of my

thinking and questioning abilities gained this class, I was not only reading for fun which I

haven’t done in years, but I was able to find another topic for my EIP because I thought to look

into other places for inspiration than just typical way of looking things up on the internet.

Going into this class, I thought it would be the run of the mill writing course. Just another

professor who taught directly by the book and went through the motions of giving us the bare

necessities needed to get through the class and collect their paycheck. I couldn’t have been more

wrong. I found myself in a class with a professor who cared so much about the progress and

development of useful skills for his students that I enjoyed something I would normally hate and

turned it into a class that I loved to be in. I developed skills I didn’t know I was capable of

possessing when it came to writing; skills that I will be able to apply throughout the rest of my

academic venture and well beyond into my career. I will further develop these skills, most likely

through keeping my blog, watching TED talks, and analyzing everything I read to keep from

losing them.

So, what happens when a physicist tries to write? Well with the proper guidance from the

right professor, they may just learn something and surprise themselves. Thank you for this
opportunity, Professor Campbell, you really helped me out this semester and for that I am ever

grateful.

Sincerely,

Ethan S. Conrad