Caroline Van Kirk

Professor Zisa

Writing 2

March 21, 2023

 
Reflective Letter

Welcome to my final portfolio! This portfolio is a collection of two writing projects and

this reflective letter. The two writing projects were completed over the course of the ten-week

winter quarter at the University of California, Santa Barbara in my Writing 2 class. Each writing

project was broken down into small “bite-sized” portions called “project builders” and completed

over the course of a few weeks. I then submitted drafts of my respective projects for feedback

from my peers, then after implementing their recommended revisions, I submitted my projects as

drafts. The projects in this portfolio reflect the final revised versions of Writing Project 1 and

Writing Project 2. After I submitted these projects, the class took space from the works and the

final revised versions reflect changes that I implemented upon coming back to the works with a

“fresh” pair of eyes. Writing Project 1 was on translating a peer reviewed article into another

genre of the student’s choice paired with an analytic essay. Writing Project 2 was a

representation of an existing rhetorical conversation in academic writing in a genre of the

student’s choice. Both projects, and this letter, demonstrate the culmination of a quarter’s worth

of writing, reading, review, and learning.

I have grown exponentially as a writer during this class through the course readings,

journaling activities, and writing projects. The readings for this class have broadened my

understanding of writing immensely. One reading in particular, “Teaching Thinking by Teaching

Writing” has helped me in my writing process. In this work, Peter Elbow writes about “first
order and second order thinking” (37). He writes that “first order thinking is intuitive and

creative and does not strive for conscious direction or control” and “section order thinking is

committed to accuracy and strives for logic and control” (37). Elbow’s definitions of these orders

of thinking have allowed me to become more comfortable with the writing process. Thanks to

this article, and this class, I am now able to begin a piece of writing by just letting my mind flow

on to the paper without judgement. Then, as I revise, I implement second order thinking where I

focus on critically analyzing what I have written and structuring it in a way that is accessible to

the reader. Another way that I have been able to learn this skill was through the journaling

activities at the beginning of each class. The journaling activities asked students to free write

about specific concepts mentioned in the readings. Not only did these activities teach me to free

write and let my thoughts turn into words on a page without judgment, but they also helped to

steer me in the direction of what was important in each of the readings. Additionally, the

journaling activities acted as a kind of road map for me to look at when completing my writing

projects. Upon reflection, there is a clear fluidity in the way this course was structured that

allowed me to gain a great deal of insight as a writer. When I was completing my writing

projects, I was able to look at my journal entries on the readings and direct myself towards

concepts that I needed to pay attention to and implement in my writing. For example, in the piece

“Reflection is Critical for Writers’ Development,” Kara Taczak discusses how reflection is a

threshold concept and a mode of inquiry. Taczak writes, “reflection is a mode of inquiry: a

deliberate way of systematically recalling writing experiences to reframe the current writing

situation” (78). This reading and the corresponding journaling activity allowed me to utilize my

past writing experiences while composing my writing projects. Overall, the structure and content

of this course gave me the building blocks to write effectively.

intentionality. I have never taken a writing class like this before. Upon contemplation, I never

thought about writing and the writing process past the basic notion that you write something, you

edit it, and then submit it. What I mean is, I thought about writing and the writing process at face

value, I never learned or thought about writing and the writing process with respect to its

complexity. In other words, I thought about writing as a complete building while neglecting the

materials, architecture, engineering, and more that went into creating it. I applied the rhetorical

understanding I gained through this course in my writing projects. For example, in my Writing

Project 2, I completed the project builders, created a first draft, received revisions from my peers,

submitted a draft with the edits from my peers, and then revised that draft over time. Further, I

consciously asked myself why I was making certain choices in my writing, how the choices I

made would come across to my readers, and what purpose my writing served. One of the

readings we looked at for class discussed metacognition, or reflection. In “Reflective Writing

and the Revision Process: What Were You Thinking?” Sandra L. Giles writes about how

metacognition “helps you develop more insight into and control over composing and revising

processes” (193). I practiced metacognition as I wrote and revised my writing projects and found

it to be advantageous. I plan on using metacognition in future writing situations to develop the

insight and control over my writing that Giles discusses (193). This will look like me asking

myself pointed questions about my writing like what my goal is, who is my intended audience,

and more. The rhetorical awareness I have gained from this class will allow me to apply a level

of consciousness to my writing that I have never been able to before.

In conclusion, this class and specifically, the practice of metacognition, has brought to

light areas of strength and weakness in my writing. My areas of strength include style and form,
creativity, and implementing what I have learned. My Writing Project 1 reflects a strong sense of

aesthetic choices in writing and creativity in my ability to translate a piece of academic writing

into a piece of writing that is fun and entertaining. The format of my Writing Project 1 and the

stylistic choices I made show these strengths. My Writing Project 2 reflects my ability to

implement what I have learned as the final product reveals attention to the revision process.

My areas of improvement include specific sentence structure and cohesion. During the revision

process for these two projects, I gave my sentence structure more consideration that I ever have

before, but in the future, I think that I can dive deeper into my writing at the atomic levels of

word choice and sentence structure. Additionally, I carefully read through my projects and made

corrections with respect to cohesion, however in future projects I think that I can improve on this

further. All in all, my sense of my abilities as a writer has changed for the better since I wrote my

piece the first day of class. I know understand the intentionality and control that writing requires.

My new answer to the question of what good writing is has changed to good writing is an art

form.
 Works Cited

Elbow, Peter. “Teaching Thinking by Teaching Writing.” Change, vol. 15, no. 6, 1983, pp. 37-
40. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/40164191. Accessed 22 Mar. 2023.

Giles, Sandra L. “Reflective Writing and the Revision Process: What Were You
Thinking?” Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing, vol. 1, Parlor Press, pp. 191–204. 

Taczak, Kara, and Elizabeth Wardle. “Reflection Is Critical for Writers