12-10-15

Dear Professor Glenn Collins,

Wow! The semester is almost over. It is hard to believe how fast almost four months
came and passed by. English 115 was actually my first freshman English class here at CSUN. I
must emphasize that throughout my semester here in this class, the choices I made in terms of
writing have encouraged me to speak my mind out in more persuasive and challenging styles. I
must admit, this wasnt that easy since I typically had not done it before and I usually tend to
stay quiet. Writing has given me a voice and I mostly enjoyed exploring this choice. I must also
say that I have experienced fear and stress, but mostly growth (editing, paragraph organization,
etc.) overall in this class. I learned some very interesting things from reading and responding to
texts (in the subject of social literacy), seeing and hearing texts (from the themes of science
fiction), plus arguing through texts (from Phillip K. Dicks novel, Do Androids Dream of
Electric Sheep?). In addition, as I was introduced to the facilitation process, it truly showed me
an advanced way of creating an organized and educational discussion for the whole class. My
participation, contribution, and effort in the class altogether seemed to have made me more
confident and proud of myself. Despite everything I have academically gathered from this class,
I feel I still need help with developing proper thesis, strong purposes, citations, and correction of
occasional grammatical errors. My thoughts and words wander a lot and it can be hard to blend
and fix them sometimes. I strongly believe that somehow I can get better at this with consistent
practice.
First of all, the progression exercises, as the word progress itself describes, were
opportunities to develop, grow and achieve a goal. The first progression centered on reading and
responding to texts (but most importantly social literacy) which allowed me to globally express
my point of view about the use of profanity in daily conversations. This topic was chosen based
on my personal memories throughout high school and was purposefully directed to convey the
use of profane language as a disrespectful and offensive way of speaking. My informative style
and somewhat persuasive tone was suitable to express the urgency I felt regarding this matter.
Progression 2 focused on seeing and hearing texts from the genre of science fiction. The
ideology of post-humanism became a great theme to draw attention to and to bring awareness to
all societies dependent on technology. A formal and expository style was used to express my
opinion, but also was debatable at the same time. Progression 3 was about arguing through texts
while referring to Phillip K. Dicks novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Upon
reading the book, I decided that the issue of mentally disabled peoples human rights violations
would be a perfect focus of my essay. Using an educational and serious tone, I believed that the
focus would be very relevant towards one of the novels main characters and to people like me
(since I am an autistic person). In terms of revision for all three essays in all three progressions,
a strong purpose, proper thesis, and correct grammar/citations were evidently the need.
Furthermore, as I revised these essays, I discovered that I needed to include a frequent tone,
some smooth transitions/complex words, and even accurate formatting for citations. In the end,
these corrections helped make my essays flow a little better, clearer, and more effective from
sentence to sentence/paragraph to paragraph.

Another aspect of the semester involved facilitations, which were presentations meant to
construct organized discussions for whichever assigned reading we all signed up for. These
facilitations involved every group summarizing the main details, figuring out significant features
and focusing on the major themes within the assigned readings; me and my partners assigned
reading was Chapters 16-22 in Phillip K. Dicks novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
During our preparation, we both spent some time in the library together creating a PowerPoint
using elements we both agreed to in terms of certain characters and symbolic scenes within the
novel. Upon choosing these elements, the two of us also wanted to ensure that what we pointed
out would also be understandable to our audience and questionable/relatable to our world. The
process of leading a discussion that I somehow will carry alongside myself involves not just
focusing on what youre saying but also setting goals/expectations, communicating clear
expressions, and providing/asking questions towards your audience. In all, these objectives
showed us that we can really allow the class to be a part of the conversation.
Third, in terms of participation, contribution, and effort within this class, Ive come to
realize that I do have a decent level of capability. As we talked about various details and topics in
class that related to our course work, I began to feel somewhat comfortable when pointed out
something interesting or easy to talk about. For example, in terms of science fiction, I became
fully engaged in the conversation from some of the themes that this specific genre covered. Aside
from participation, I think I probably wasnt really good or helpful in our workshops/peerreviews. These shortcomings appeared to have occurred from the amount of time we had in class
as well as the amount of objectives we needed to do on our workshop/peer-review sheets.
However, I still managed to write/suggest as fast, as best, and as much I could to help my peer
with his/her essay. Additionally, Id ask my peers to see if they think my feedback was helpful to
them during their essay revisions. My personal effort turned out to be something I am actually
satisfied with. From all the work that needed to be done especially from the exercises and
essays, I am happy that I chose to keep trying without giving up. These outcomes may not have
been perfect but they have definitely given me the joy I have now from the progressions.
In conclusion, as I resume my scholarly journey, there are still goals of enhancement that
I plan to reach in certain areas as a writer and a student. Throughout much of the assignments,
there were experiences filled with anxiety and fright. I was mostly too afraid to ask questions,
seek help, or even visit you in your office. I shouldnt have let my doubts get in my way no
matter how scared I was. Sooner or later, I must get over my doubt and fear of speaking out or
addressing important/urgent matters to my professors (especially if I need help). When writing
more essays in the future, having a powerful purpose/ convincing thesis is something that pretty
much all essays need in order to be considered strong and good essays. I honestly just barely
begun the citation process but I believe I will need to either practice more or ask my professors
precisely what kind of sources I am having trouble with citing. Grammatical errors arent that big
of an issue but are still things for me to look back and correct very carefully; of course, there are
many words today still being misspelled or mispronounced by people. Well, that is all. I have
experienced a lot in English 115. All I can say and wish for is for the best now. I hope you have
an extraordinary and memorable winter break! Thank you and happy holidays!
Sincerely,
Christian Aguilar