PORTFOLIO REFLECTION ESSAY
Writing has been one of my most cherished subjects. Although I am not that bad at writing, I had always wanted to learn what it takes to be a proficient writer. Before taking the UWP1 course, the way I write seemed to be alright to me. One of the reasons why I took this course was to attain the knowledge and skills that can help me improve my writing. I discovered that this class has taught me so much more than I could have ever imagined a writing class would teach me. Throughout the course I have come to realize that this class has provided me with a guide to know the resources, information and the right way to approach writing. This class has actually helped me to self-analyze the mistakes I have been making in my writing and has also provided me with the correct direction to work on it. Most importantly, this class taught me that writing always has a scope of improvement, and is a perfect example to implement that practice makes perfect. Considering myself a learner, I successfully managed to accomplish the learning outcomes of the UWP1 course: rhetorical concepts, processes, knowledge of conventions, research, and metacognition.
Prior to this class, I had never heard of rhetorical concepts, so using that in my writing was far from my understanding. Although I did know about pathos, ethos and logos, I never realized that it could be used as “rhetorical concepts" to organize the structure of my writing in such a way that it would give more sense and better transitions to my sentences. Laura Bolin Carroll’s “Backpacks vs. Briefcases: Steps Towards Rhetorical Analysis” focuses on two frameworks of rhetorical analysis: 1) exigence, audience, constraints; and 2) logos, pathos, ethos. After reading this article, I was able to differentiate and define these terms accurately. I used this practice on my discourse community project, especially on my Introduction Section. I started my draft by reasoning out with myself on what would be the main “exigence” or the problem that menstrual activism would work on. This further led me to talk about the audience and other rhetorical concepts, such as purpose which guided me to work on the key elements that I would write about in my paper. This definitely helped me narrow down the vastness of my topic. “Navigating Genres” by Kerry Dirk helped me to understand the concept of genre. She added that "knowing a genre [is] much more than simply knowing its form" (Dirk 255). This inspired me to make menstrual activism a genre of its own since it is not stereotypically based on having the sets of rules that are followed while writing a particular genre. Getting to know about rhetorical concepts gave me a technique that I can use in all my future writing assignments. I have always had difficulty whenever I start with anything I write. I often spend a lot of time thinking where to start from, now I can simply think of terms like the purpose, audience, problem, solution to my paper and work on my ideas accordingly.
One of the greatest assets that has personally given me an insight to look at my writings is the processes. Learning about processes for me was to get involved in reading and composing my paper as a recursive process. Before this class, I used revision as a strategy to rectify my grammatical errors and change my text into better words. I would call my revision a rewording activity. But after reading Nancy Sommers’ “Revision Strategies of Student Writers and Experienced Adult Writers”, my writing process has drastically changed. She mentions in her research that "a piece of writing is never finished", it is a "constant process" (Sommers 384). It helped me greatly as I revised and edited the drafts of my discourse community after getting feedback from my peers and the instructor and focused on what my essay as a whole needs for it to be productive. I realized that writing more than one draft had not only improved my writing but also given me new ideas and strategies to work on my project and revise my paper with a different opinion. I managed to rework my paper by constantly switching between paragraph to paragraph revisions which helped to build a good transition starting from my Introduction to Conclusion sections. Using processes also enabled me to find missing elements in my paper that I might have mentioned earlier, but failed to explain later on in my paper. All this practice of reading, researching and composing in processes gave an overall strength to my paper.
Getting to know about conventions is really important, especially for someone who had never heard or read about discourse community projects before. Earlier in this class, I was worried about how I would be able to pull off writing my discourse community project. Reading a lot of previously written students’ discourse community projects helped me to get an understanding of the approach on writing my own discourse community project. I found out that most of the previous projects were based on academic courses or majors, while I had decided to work on a topic that was not academically related. So, I tried to make the best out of what I had read from the previously written projects, such as the formatting the Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussions and Conclusion sections; the way they wrote about their primary researches like interviews and articles, as well as how the visual aspects were presented in the projects. Another interesting trend was that the writing style was formal and informative in the projects, so I tried to structure my writing style being persuasive because of the topic I chose but at the same time letting the reader get a great source of factual information through my paper since it was a different genre from the previously written projects. Doing this helped me to fit my project of menstrual activism just like other discourse community projects were presented.
No matter which career field you are in, research has always been helpful to make you learn more about a specific topic. What's more intriguing is getting to know the best way to research your topic. I had always relied on Google and Wikipedia for mostly all the writings I’ve done so far before joining this class. After reading Randall McClure’s “Googlepedia”, I learned that Google and Wikipedia should only be used at the beginning of the research to get a broad overview of the topic. It is actually the library research that gives more credible material for your project. McClure also discussed the CRAAP test technique: Currency (timeliness), Relevance, Authority, Accuracy and Purpose of the information (McClure 233). This helped me to use Google to find the organizations I could study for my menstrual activism research and use the university’s library resources to focus on the main purposes that I wanted to cover in my project. Menstrual activism focuses on diverse issues that need to be discussed, since I could not cover all of it in my project given that google had way too much information that overwhelmed me initially, I was actually able to focus on specific topics to cover for my project through the library research sources. I feel that library sources assisted to bring out a better argument for my project than the information Google AND Wikipedia would have given. Adding to this, it has also changed my outlook on making research for my future classes.
I was also introduced to metacognition through this class. Metacognition gave me insight to look into reflective writing, something that I had never practiced before. Reading "Reflective Writing and the Revision Process: What Were You Thinking?" by Sandra L. Giles helped me to think about analyzing what I had actually written in my discourse community project. I came across new ideas and thoughts that helped strengthen the purpose of my writing project. Most importantly metacognition helped to find my possible mistakes and problems I faced while writing to which my peer reviewers and the instructor suggested possible solutions. Their feedback really helped me to develop my project in places that needed improvement and look into details more accurately. Reflective writing has changed my writing from what had earlier been on only making changes in vocabulary or wording. Practicing this actually helped me go back to my drafts, rethink how I could state my intentions, rectify the choices I made while writing and come up with better explanations to address my points more accurately. Moreover, it lets me find my mistakes on my own and work on them. This will definitely be used by me in all the writing assignments I get in the future.
The learning outcomes of this class have been a great help. My own writing has improved through the readings, reading responses, writing assignments, and drafts that got feedback from my peers and my instructor throughout this course. If I could make further revisions to my portfolio I would want to work on my genre analysis. Although I am satisfied that using websites was a great tool to use for analyzing menstrual activism, I would possibly want to think on what else could have been used instead of the websites. It could possibly be an article or a conference talk. Although, I am not sure which of these would be the best fit. Also, I would have loved to expand more on the article and the book I used in the project so as to add depth to my writing because my interviews seemed to overshadow the secondary sources I used. I would also emphasize that for me personally, it is never enough. I love to keep working until I am content with what I want to present in my writing has been executed well.
This course has provided me with guidance, appropriate skills, exploration and accurate feedback that I needed to know without even realizing the great impact it would bring to my writing. I have grown as a writer, although I wish to continue to learn even more. Writing for me is a life long learning process. The most valuable aspects of reading and writing in this class have been reflection and revision. I must confess that I never liked revising, but this class has given me a new perspective to think about it and has successfully convinced me how important it is to revise and reflect on your work. I will continue to apply nearly everything I learnt in this class in my future writing assignments. I believe that UWP1 has been a step by step journey in the right direction in bringing a change for a better writer within me.
Writing has been one of my most cherished subjects. Although I am not that bad at writing, I had always wanted to learn what it takes to be a proficient writer. Before taking the UWP1 course, the way I write seemed to be alright to me. One of the reasons why I took this course was to attain the knowledge and skills that can help me improve my writing. I discovered that this class has taught me so much more than I could have ever imagined a writing class would teach me. Throughout the course I have come to realize that this class has provided me with a guide to know the resources, information and the right way to approach writing. This class has actually helped me to self-analyze the mistakes I have been making in my writing and has also provided me with the correct direction to work on it. Most importantly, this class taught me that writing always has a scope of improvement, and is a perfect example to implement that practice makes perfect. Considering myself a learner, I successfully managed to accomplish the learning outcomes of the UWP1 course: rhetorical concepts, processes, knowledge of conventions, research, and metacognition.
Prior to this class, I had never heard of rhetorical concepts, so using that in my writing was far from my understanding. Although I did know about pathos, ethos and logos, I never realized that it could be used as “rhetorical concepts" to organize the structure of my writing in such a way that it would give more sense and better transitions to my sentences. Laura Bolin Carroll’s “Backpacks vs. Briefcases: Steps Towards Rhetorical Analysis” focuses on two frameworks of rhetorical analysis: 1) exigence, audience, constraints; and 2) logos, pathos, ethos. After reading this article, I was able to differentiate and define these terms accurately. I used this practice on my discourse community project, especially on my Introduction Section. I started my draft by reasoning out with myself on what would be the main “exigence” or the problem that menstrual activism would work on. This further led me to talk about the audience and other rhetorical concepts, such as purpose which guided me to work on the key elements that I would write about in my paper. This definitely helped me narrow down the vastness of my topic. “Navigating Genres” by Kerry Dirk helped me to understand the concept of genre. She added that "knowing a genre [is] much more than simply knowing its form" (Dirk 255). This inspired me to make menstrual activism a genre of its own since it is not stereotypically based on having the sets of rules that are followed while writing a particular genre. Getting to know about rhetorical concepts gave me a technique that I can use in all my future writing assignments. I have always had difficulty whenever I start with anything I write. I often spend a lot of time thinking where to start from, now I can simply think of terms like the purpose, audience, problem, solution to my paper and work on my ideas accordingly.
One of the greatest assets that has personally given me an insight to look at my writings is the processes. Learning about processes for me was to get involved in reading and composing my paper as a recursive process. Before this class, I used revision as a strategy to rectify my grammatical errors and change my text into better words. I would call my revision a rewording activity. But after reading Nancy Sommers’ “Revision Strategies of Student Writers and Experienced Adult Writers”, my writing process has drastically changed. She mentions in her research that "a piece of writing is never finished", it is a "constant process" (Sommers 384). It helped me greatly as I revised and edited the drafts of my discourse community after getting feedback from my peers and the instructor and focused on what my essay as a whole needs for it to be productive. I realized that writing more than one draft had not only improved my writing but also given me new ideas and strategies to work on my project and revise my paper with a different opinion. I managed to rework my paper by constantly switching between paragraph to paragraph revisions which helped to build a good transition starting from my Introduction to Conclusion sections. Using processes also enabled me to find missing elements in my paper that I might have mentioned earlier, but failed to explain later on in my paper. All this practice of reading, researching and composing in processes gave an overall strength to my paper.
Getting to know about conventions is really important, especially for someone who had never heard or read about discourse community projects before. Earlier in this class, I was worried about how I would be able to pull off writing my discourse community project. Reading a lot of previously written students’ discourse community projects helped me to get an understanding of the approach on writing my own discourse community project. I found out that most of the previous projects were based on academic courses or majors, while I had decided to work on a topic that was not academically related. So, I tried to make the best out of what I had read from the previously written projects, such as the formatting the Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussions and Conclusion sections; the way they wrote about their primary researches like interviews and articles, as well as how the visual aspects were presented in the projects. Another interesting trend was that the writing style was formal and informative in the projects, so I tried to structure my writing style being persuasive because of the topic I chose but at the same time letting the reader get a great source of factual information through my paper since it was a different genre from the previously written projects. Doing this helped me to fit my project of menstrual activism just like other discourse community projects were presented.
No matter which career field you are in, research has always been helpful to make you learn more about a specific topic. What's more intriguing is getting to know the best way to research your topic. I had always relied on Google and Wikipedia for mostly all the writings I’ve done so far before joining this class. After reading Randall McClure’s “Googlepedia”, I learned that Google and Wikipedia should only be used at the beginning of the research to get a broad overview of the topic. It is actually the library research that gives more credible material for your project. McClure also discussed the CRAAP test technique: Currency (timeliness), Relevance, Authority, Accuracy and Purpose of the information (McClure 233). This helped me to use Google to find the organizations I could study for my menstrual activism research and use the university’s library resources to focus on the main purposes that I wanted to cover in my project. Menstrual activism focuses on diverse issues that need to be discussed, since I could not cover all of it in my project given that google had way too much information that overwhelmed me initially, I was actually able to focus on specific topics to cover for my project through the library research sources. I feel that library sources assisted to bring out a better argument for my project than the information Google AND Wikipedia would have given. Adding to this, it has also changed my outlook on making research for my future classes.
I was also introduced to metacognition through this class. Metacognition gave me insight to look into reflective writing, something that I had never practiced before. Reading "Reflective Writing and the Revision Process: What Were You Thinking?" by Sandra L. Giles helped me to think about analyzing what I had actually written in my discourse community project. I came across new ideas and thoughts that helped strengthen the purpose of my writing project. Most importantly metacognition helped to find my possible mistakes and problems I faced while writing to which my peer reviewers and the instructor suggested possible solutions. Their feedback really helped me to develop my project in places that needed improvement and look into details more accurately. Reflective writing has changed my writing from what had earlier been on only making changes in vocabulary or wording. Practicing this actually helped me go back to my drafts, rethink how I could state my intentions, rectify the choices I made while writing and come up with better explanations to address my points more accurately. Moreover, it lets me find my mistakes on my own and work on them. This will definitely be used by me in all the writing assignments I get in the future.
The learning outcomes of this class have been a great help. My own writing has improved through the readings, reading responses, writing assignments, and drafts that got feedback from my peers and my instructor throughout this course. If I could make further revisions to my portfolio I would want to work on my genre analysis. Although I am satisfied that using websites was a great tool to use for analyzing menstrual activism, I would possibly want to think on what else could have been used instead of the websites. It could possibly be an article or a conference talk. Although, I am not sure which of these would be the best fit. Also, I would have loved to expand more on the article and the book I used in the project so as to add depth to my writing because my interviews seemed to overshadow the secondary sources I used. I would also emphasize that for me personally, it is never enough. I love to keep working until I am content with what I want to present in my writing has been executed well.
This course has provided me with guidance, appropriate skills, exploration and accurate feedback that I needed to know without even realizing the great impact it would bring to my writing. I have grown as a writer, although I wish to continue to learn even more. Writing for me is a life long learning process. The most valuable aspects of reading and writing in this class have been reflection and revision. I must confess that I never liked revising, but this class has given me a new perspective to think about it and has successfully convinced me how important it is to revise and reflect on your work. I will continue to apply nearly everything I learnt in this class in my future writing assignments. I believe that UWP1 has been a step by step journey in the right direction in bringing a change for a better writer within me.