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Edward

Writing 2

Final Reflection

03 June 2021

Reflective Letter

This course has been a very eye opening experience for me. I have not only

became a better writer but learned many academic concepts that go beyond

writing. In this letter you will leran about my journey through this class, but also

about my journey as a writer. You will leran about what I struggled with, and also

what I improved on. I hope that you enjoy reading my reflection as much as I

enjoyed this course.

So for starters I want to talk about the changes I made to writing project

one. During this assignment I really got a taste of what this course expected from

me. My very very first draft was so rough around the edges that I was really

doubting myself on if I could produce something that was truly worth a good

grade. Much of this thinking was just me being too hard on myself, as I eventually

fixed many of the errors of my first draft. This included excess jargon and many

grammatical mistakes. With this being said, my second draft also contained things
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that I could have improved on.Academic jargon was still an issue and some things

were unclear in my translation. I worked hard to fix these errors though. First, I

went back and inserted a proper introduction into my podcast that my second draft

lacked. I provided a more detailed introduction to the topic of systematic racism

,and gave the viewers of my podcast a better understanding of what it was, and

why it was so important. I also worked heavily on cutting out academic jargon.

You can see this in Zinobia’s first words about systematic racism. I reworded

many statements to make the authors speak in a more conversational way instead

of just copying and pasting facts as I did before. I also got rid of the part in my

transcript where Joe stated what his argument was. This portion of my translation

made it feel much more like an academic article than a podcast, so I reworded this

whole portion in a way that fit in much better with my genre. Along with this I

worked to make the whole podcast sound more fluid and less clunky. Many small

details were cut out or replaced. Lastly I ended my podcast with a more fitting

outro. My second draft ended very abruptly so I added an ending that you would

usually hear during a podcast. Specifically, I stated how important the discussion

was, and then gave a message to the viewers.

Now onto Writing Project Two. My first issue with my second draft was

that I didn't give much of an introduction to my subject of grammar instruction. I

rather abruptly jumped into the first author's stance on grammar instruction. I

fixed this by adding an extra voice in the conversation. I titled his name Dior

Jackson, and his purpose was to start the conversation by asking for everyone’s
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opinion on grammar instruction. There was also the issue of a lack of detail and

explanation in the post of various authors. For example, Susan Nunman talks

about how important grammar instruction is but didn’t really state why, and didn’t

provide any background to why it was relevant to her. I changed this by providing

how Susan was a current English teacher who saw value in the discipline and

etiquette that grammar instruction provides. A lack of detail was definitely my

biggest problem. Kevin Limblooms description of grammar rants was lacking so I

worked to fix that too. I eventually added more description to almost each post. I

also cleared up the confusion where Susan Nunman originally stated that

grammar was an indication of class. The way I worded this statement was

condricticting to what Susan had previously stated about grammar instruction, so I

reworded the statement entirely. Finally I continued to edit my word choices to

make the conversation sound more like a real facebook interaction.

In terms of writing, I would like to say I learned a lot during this quarter.

Before attending this class, I was always doubting myself and believed that

writing just wasn’t my thing. This made it somewhat difficult for me to be

confident with producing well written assignments in my previous classes. I

would even sometimes be reluctant to read my own writing because I thought it

wasn’t up to the standards it should be. At the moment that I am writing this

letter,this has all changed drastically. I have learned to appreciate my own writing

more, and came to the realization that writing isn’t just some inherent gift. L.

Lennie Irvin sums it up perfectly in “What Is “Academic” Writing?” by stating

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that “when you see your writing ability as something fixed or out of your control

(as if it were in your genetic code), then you won’t believe you can improve as a

writer and are likely not to make any efforts in that direction.”

There were also many concepts that were presented to me that deepened

my understanding of writing. Genre, how to read academically and how to

properly think as a writer are all things that not only helped me with assignments

in this class, but will stick with me for the duration of my academic career. I had

no idea how important genre was to writing, nor did I understand how to read like

a writer. Gaining knowledge on genre has helped me structure what type of

writing piece I want to produce. Learning how to read like a writer taught me

“how important it is to identify some of the choices an author makes and can

better understand how such choices might arise in your own writing” as said in

“How to Read Like a Writer” by Mike Bunn.

As a writer I think I am very good at structuring my work. I also think that

I excel at making my writing interesting and engaging. In terms of the things I

could work on, I would say that I need to improve on my grammar and

punctuation. If I had more time in this course, I would definitely make it a priority

to improve on excepting the fact that my first drafts arent always going to be

perfect. I sometimes limit myself during my writing process because I am so

focused on creating a perfect piece of writing the first time around. In ‘Shitty First

Drafts” Anne Lammot says that “Almost all good writing starts with terrible
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efforts.” No writing is perfect the first time around, heck no writing is perfect in

general.

I had a blast during this class. I realized alot aout myself and writing and

will take the things I learned into the next three years of my academic career.

Works Cited

Irvin, L. (2010). Writing spaces: readings on writing. Parlor Press.

Lamott, A. (n.d.). Shitty First Drafts.

Mike, B. (2010). Writing spaces: readings on writing. Parlor Press.