Raffoul Residence,

Street number 17,

Miziara, Lebanon

Sunday December 3^rd, 2017

Dr. Zane Sinno

Department of English

American University of Beirut

Beirut, Lebanon

Dear Dr. Sinno,

Last day of classes has arrived and the semester has officially come to an end. As I’m about to embark on a new journey of Academic English next semester, I feel the need to share my thoughts on my work during these past four months. If I were to think of qualificators to describe this period, I would say: rich and enriching. In fact, assembling the manifold papers for my portfolio made me rethink of all the work that I did, all the writings I presented, whether it’s essay responses, in class writings or online collaborative writing activities.

The highlight of this semester was (obviously) the 10-page problem-solution report which we had to write in groups of two, stopping at many stages to submit a draft which was peer-reviewed and assessed for further processing. This report enabled me to reflect on the Lebanese society in an unprecedented way, digging into its flaws and trying to find that “special” problem that I want to resolve. The thinking process was the hardest, I must admit, and without the help of my friends I wouldn’t have been able to come up with the topic of my report. You may be asking yourself why I finally chose to talk about conditions in Lebanese prisons, out of all the evident problems and hurdles that we face every day as Lebanese citizens. Well, my goal in this project was to be as original as possible by abstaining from choosing common issues that made the project cliché. I chose a rather forgotten problem which I thought deserves some kind of awareness because prisoners are Lebanese citizens too, and the hurdles that they face on a daily basis merit to be spoken of and fought against. At the end of the day, I think my partner (Jenna Arbid) and I did a good job at transmitting the message that we wanted to let out. However, I admit that if I had given the project more time (that is, If I had abandoned subjects such as biology and chemistry), I would have further elaborated my ideas, enriched my paper, and there would have been more smoothness in the transitions between my parts and those of my partner, something that we’re working on for the final submission.

Moving on, what I particularly liked was the inspiration that I took from the multiple readings we had to do throughout the semester. Dealing with texts of many types and themes, I was able to take examples and ideas and incorporate them in my own writings. At the same time, I managed to show my writing voice and put my own viewpoints into words and sentences. A clear example would be the essay response I wrote regarding Arabic’s gradual decline. I particularly liked the writing process and research for information that I had never heard of. I chose to talk about this issue because it’s something we are currently all going through as Lebanese citizens, and I wanted to raise awareness on an issue that seems to be neglected.

However, this semester, which was my first at AUB, was rather tiring, as I found it difficult to make time for all the five subjects I had. At first, I considered English a burden that I had to bear for four months, but that slowly went away as I started to enjoy the classes, especially the debates we had concerning many issues. I was able to see what other people thought of many subjects and give my opinion orally in front of them. These debates and class conversations allowed me to feel more comfortable while speaking in public, which is something I enjoyed a lot. In fact, having had a stuttering problem for as long as I can remember, I had some trouble communicating with my classmates as first, and this later changed as I felt more comfortable in class. I don’t know if I can consider this a weakness, all I know is that it is something that bothered me since my childhood, even though it’s now starting to go away. To compensate this oral communication issue, I stuck to writing, believing that there are some things which we can only put on paper and not in spoken words. I believe in the power of writing, and books have always been an escape for me. I consider the books that I have read to be a push in my own writing activities as they give me inspiration and enforcement.

Furthermore, having lived for 14 years in Nigeria, an African English speaking country, the fact that I was French educated didn’t bother me as I was rather comfortable with my level. However, I did find it difficult to adjust to some things such as citation methods (APA, MLA, etc.) and some differences between English and French writings. Thankfully, I managed to insert some of my school knowledge into my writings, which made it richer. What I found new and original, however, is the multitude of online sessions we did throughout these four months, which enabled me to interact efficiently with other people and coordinate our work as a group. Even though it was annoying to constantly push some group mates to work, it was an overall fun experience that introduced me to group work- writing.

For this next semester, I feel that I need to work on giving more time to my writings, re-reading them and fixing some elements. I want to be able to take the time to focus on the ideas that I have and on how to write them appropriately. I should stop thinking of English as an obligation but rather as an experience to enrich my writing and communication skills.

Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for this semester and wish you a merry Christmas as well as a blissful and blessed 2018.

Best Regards,

CR

Chris Raffoul