Dear future student,

Im going to give you some advice on what is expected of all incoming College 1
students. First of all, everyone is going to be reading a lot of academic material. Its not
going to be easy because there is just only so much time that people can invest into one
semester. However, that doesnt mean you should stress out and give up on reading.
Giving up is the worst thing to do. It shows that people are not willing to take their
education seriously.
Now let me ask you a rhetorical question. If youre not going to take your
education seriously, why would you even consider going to college? If you actually took
the time to read and answer my question, you would realize how metacognition takes
place in your mind. Michael E. Martinez, an associate professor at UC Irvine, describes
metacognition as the monitoring and control of thought(8). Simply put, metacognition
is thinking about thinking. By analyzing the question that I have previously stated, you
can deduce that college is a part of our learning experience. However, the deduction
doesnt answer the question. Even though I created a rhetorical question to prove a
point, it doesnt mean the question is thoroughly answered. Now lets apply some
metacognition to answer the question in another perspective. Consider some reasons
other than education as an explanation to the question. Im going to let you think on your
own for this part because I believe this will help you develop your metacognitive skills
along with your autonomy.
Now lets talk about autonomy. Some of you may be wondering what autonomy
is. Time to bust out a dictionary somewhere and look it up, am I right? Stop right there!
Lets try to use some context clues to figure out what autonomy means. Look at the

words prefix. The prefix, auto-, sounds familiar in the word automatic. What does
automatic mean? I think you know the definition in a general sense, so Im not going to
tell you. Heres another question for you. How does automatic correlate to autonomy?
They both have the same prefix, so their definitions should be related in some aspect.
Now take a look at autonomys suffix, -nomy. What kinds of words have this suffix, and
how are their definitions related? After you figured that out, compile those sets of
relations together, and you should get an idea of what autonomy means.
Now you may be wondering why I would put you through that somewhat tedious
task. Once again, I was trying to develop your sense of autonomy. I want you to learn
how to become more independent because academic resources are not always available to
the public. Im certain that not everyone is willing to drag a dictionary with them
wherever they go. In addition, I know that the Internet is not always available for people
to access a dictionary. Autonomy is an important quality that people need to develop
because it literally makes the difference that people need to benefit their lives.
In fact, autonomy helps people who work in groups. According to Bharat
Mediratta, an engineer who works for Google, autonomy is necessary when change is
needed. ...when pushing for a more systemic change in the organization, Mediratta says
autonomy over team is even more important (Drive 166). Teamwork has its pros and
cons. Teamwork allows people to do things faster because the work is distributed
between each team member. However, the distribution of work along with peoples
commitment to do the work may vary. Cooperation is essential for working in groups
because it reduces the amount of conflicts that arise between the members of the group.

In conclusion, the amount of dedication that people put into their work will determine
how many obstacles that they will surmount.
Thank you for taking your time in reading this letter. Its been a pleasure telling
you what is expected from College 1 students. I have created this letter as a way of
expressing how I felt about my first semester in college. I was influenced by many things
to make this letter. Brando Skyhorse, the author of The Madonnas of Echo Park, agrees
with me when he states in his reading group guide, I think writers can pull influences
from everywhere. I hope you do your best because your future depends on your own
efforts. Time is limited, so make the best of your time.

Sincerely,

Richard Huynh