Dalila Handan

Tara Roeder

HON 1030C

December 8th, 2020

Process Letter

Selecting pieces for my portfolio was a challenge because I truly enjoyed doing each and

every assignment and I was able to grow in a different way with each. What I admired about this

course was that we were constantly doing something different and that really allowed me to

expand my writing skills and become more flexible with what I was able to write. These pieces

of work that I have selected truly resemble who I am as a writer and just how much I was able to

learn. My research project, which was done on Islamophobia, is one of my favorite works. This

topic is something I have witnessed so many times and each time I was motivated to make a

difference. Muslims are by far the most targeted people in the world and it stems from the

stereotypes presented by main stream media. I also chose to include my self-portrait assignment.

I think this assignment not only encompasses who I am, but also something that is so important

to me. I don’t share much with people and I tend to keep the most important things within me as

a form of protection. With my self portrait I decided to open up and share with my classmate a

story about not just me, but my family. For my other assignments, I included pieces that I was

never used to doing and pieces that developed me as a writer. The responses we developed to

 stories and pieces provided were also some of my favorite parts of the class. Reading works from

authors not only is interesting but it teaches us a lot about different writing styles and word play.

With all my writing assignments I created a first draft where I was able to get my ideas

down and develop my work. Upon completion, we were asked to submit our first drafts and we

received feedback from our classmates. This was really beneficial to me because I was able to

add detail into sections I missed and I was also able to earn from others. This process greatly

helped me improve my writing and made my work much more stronger. For example, in my self-

portrait, I described the events of the Bosnian war from my grandmothers perspective and

included the major events of her life and this experience. I got carried away with making sure I

included everything I could that I ended up not adding enough at the end on how this all has

shaped me. All the feedback I received from my peers was always so positive and beneficial and

I was able to use every piece of advise towards my work to make it that much better. Typically,

After my first draft I always take time to edit before I come to a final draft. This process typically

takes me 2 additional drafts. However, having peers to read my work and give me their input

made the process much easier. I was able to see things in a different perspective and getup of my

head. I tend to overthink my work and I get carried away with parts that shouldn’t be changed.

With the help of my peers I was able to focus on things others were able to see.

While writing, I try to write things that can be open to any type of reader and anyone can

enjoy reading my work. My children’s book for example, was the only piece of my work that I

wrote for a younger audience. My children’s book was written about a young boy who was

experiencing the Bosnian War. With these book, I would hope to teach children about a part of

history that is rarely taught and discussed about. I believe that kids retain the most information

 and tend to find the most interest in various different things. With this book, I would hope it

would spread awareness about the horrific genocide that took place. With the rest of my work,

anyone who finds interest in family, hope, and positivity would find something to connect with. I

provided detail that really gets the reader invested into my stories because they are curious to see

what happens next. I like writing about certain events where I can organize my story the way it

happened and allow the reader to experience certain details that are not expected.

I have learned plenty about myself as a writer. I have learned about my weakness and my

strengths. Before this course I was not challenged the way I was during these few months. I was

given various forms of writing assignments where I not only was challenged and put out of my

typical comfort zone, I was able to grow as a writer. I have learned about about different writing

styles and I have learned ways to make my wiring even stronger. This came from both my peers

and my professor who constantly gave me positive feedback. This was the part of the course I

really appreciated. There are things that I fail to see sometimes and having another perspective is

really beneficial and it allows me to add to my work. I have also learned that I have been able to

adapt very well. I came into this course with minimal writing experience in things that weren't

typically taught in regular high school classes. I can know say that I have learned and expanded

my writing horizons. I believe that each of the genres in which I worked was distinct and

pleasurable in its own right. Nonfiction is easier for me to write because I'm used to conducting

research, so learning about a new subject and then delivering the facts isn't tough for me. Writing

fiction was more difficult for me because it's been a long time since I had done it. Regardless, I

had fun bringing out my artistic side. It took more thought about how to be amusing and how to

use my creativity, but I was satisfied with my children's book and poetry in the end.

 Overall I think I’ve had plenty of success throughout the course. I got the opportunity to

write on topics I truly enjoyed and was able to learn so much. I was given the opportunity to

work on some of my weaknesses that I never focused on before. This semester, one of my

successes was writing in the manner in which I speak rather of sounding like I was writing. I was

able to write as if I were directly communicating my views to the readers in person rather than

sounding like I was writing a book for them to decode, especially in my self-portrait. Prior to

completing the task, I feared I wouldn't be able to get a smoother tone.Writer's block was one of

the challenges I faced this semester. I couldn't think of a research project topic because I didn't

know what I'd like investigating in a fair period of time. I tried to come up with some ideas, but

they all got crossed out. As a result, I put off working on the research project proposal

assignment for a day and thought about it. I eventually realized that something I was so

passionate about and already had so much background knowledge had been in my mind this

entire time.