Emma Gould
Reflective Cover Letter
November 30, 2015
The themes presented in this semester’s UNIV112 class taught by Professor Dempster
were outlined in the syllabus given to us in the beginning of the semester. The themes are:
Experience/Culture/Text, Text/Context, and Context/Argument. I think that every major
assignment Professor Dempster assigned falls into each theme presented in the syllabus. Also,
there are skills we have developed through UNIV112 as well, that were also outlined in the
syllabus which are: critical thinking, writing proficiency, collaborative learning, oral
communication, information fluency, ethical and civic responsibility, and quantitative literacy.
The goal of this semester was to gain these skills through completing the assignments for each
theme, and as each theme came along, we would build on top of these skills and add new skills.
The multimodal assignment went into the Experience/Culture/Text theme. For the
multimodal assignment, we read personal essays from our Focused Inquiry textbook and then
went on to illustrate our own personal essay in a creative way with comparisons to a chosen
essay from the textbook. Some skills used for this assignment were critical thinking and writing
proficiency. These two themes were not particularly new for me, because they were required
for taking IB English in high school, but through this course, I’ve definitely become more
proficient in these skills. I do not think this was a difficult assignment looking back on it now,
but during that time I believed it was difficult because I was stuck on the creative aspect of it
and what to make. Overall though, this was one of the easier assignments and is a good
introduction into the course.
The group presentation was the next big assignment in UNIV112 and I think goes under
the Text/Context theme. This assignment was based off the novel Radioactive. As a group, we
had to pick something from the novel and expand our knowledge on it and then present that
new knowledge to the class through presentation style. The skills used in this assignment were:
critical thinking, writing proficiency, collaborative learning, and oral communication. From the
last assignment, some skills were used again and new skills were obtained through the group
project. Again, the two new themes were not foreign to me as there were group presentations
in high school as well, but the difference in college group presentations is that time
management and collaborative efforts are more important. Since you do not work on the
project in class together, the presentation needed to form outside of class. So, through the
group presentation I became highly more well-versed in collaborative learning and oral
communication. This assignment was more difficult that the multimodal assignment purely
because I had to carve out more time for the presentation and actually practice my speaking
part; but also, the assignment alleviated some stress since the project was split up into smaller
sections for individuals.
Finally, our last big assignment was the research paper. This paper would fall under the
last theme, which is Context/Argument. This assignment could be about anything, as long as it
was a well-constructed, argumentative paper, 5-7 pages long with sources cited. It was
terrifying and I wanted to run away from this assignment (mostly because I, personally, get very
intimidated by writing big essays). All the skills were used for this assignment. I was somewhat
knowledgeable about the new skills being added, but doing this paper definitely developed
them further. I was not confident about writing research papers before, but after multiple
drafts and conferences, I feel a more secure in my abilities to: write papers, give & receive
constructive criticism, ask for help, finding research through VCU libraries, and construct MLA
format. This assignment was demanding, but the deadlines were so spread out and there were
so many opportunities to receive help on one’s paper that the assignment became manageable.
From culminating all of these skills, the paper was the final test of our abilities as students in
UNIV112. This was the most challenging unit and assignment for me, and rightfully so. Overall,
it is hard to separate which unit was the most valuable to me, because each unit provided a
building block of learning to reach this final unit. Without the other units, I would not have
been able to do as well on my paper. So I believe that every unit is inherently valuable, because
it is leading to the last assignment, which is one of the most important ones since you get to
show off all of your earned skills.
Some advice I would offer a student going into UNIV112 is to do all of your homework
on time because it is so crucial to your grade. Seek help if you need it; without Professor
Dempster’s willingness to help and flexible office hours, I would have been doomed. Okay, not
doomed, but I definitely would have struggled to pass. Manage your time well, because even
though you’ve written papers the night before, as have I, this research paper is not something
you can do last minute. Each assignment is not overwhelming as long as you spend a little bit of
time on it every day or so. The only was you will do bad in this course is if you *literally* do not
try and if you fail to do your homework.
I think time management and drafting are some of the most impactful things I will take
away from this course and use in my daily life. Before this class, and college in general, I was
awful at time management, did everything last minute (literally), and didn’t draft at all (because
of course I didn’t have time to draft when I was already awful at time management). This
course almost made me do a complete 180º. Seeing successful results from practicing time
management motivates me to practice it everywhere. Also, the required drafts for the research
paper helped me see how important drafting is, because if I did my usual habit of turning in my
“draft” as the final paper I would have probably suffered from a horrible grade. This course has
immensely helped me in how I am as a student overall, and I am hopeful for UNIV200 next
semester with Professor Dempster.