JJ Leonhardi

Professor Bocchino

Writing 2

3/18/2024

Metacognitive Reflection

Throughout the course of this class my approach to reading and writing has changed

significantly. When I am reading texts now I think more about audience and structure. Once I

realize why the author set their story/text up a certain way and who they’re trying to reach with

their story or message, even if that audience is not me I feel more connected. In terms of writing

a similar logic applies, I now try and do my best to set up my papers in a way that makes the

most sense to the reader.

I never really thought much about genres until this course, I never thought of them as

anything more than another term for categorizing something. I think the scavenger hunt activity

really “worked” for me. It took my everyday life and everyday things I like and forced me to

think of them in a way that was different from normal. Which inspired me to learn about the

genre of each item I observed so I could give an accurate description of what made up each of

these genres. I observed a bottle of water and had to think deeply about the genre conventions of

a water bottle, which sounded silly to me at first but I came to realize that if we can classify

something as simple as a water bottle then there must be genres in more things than I originally

thought. Something else I learned a lot about was the flow of writing. Through the style readings

we did in class, especially “Shape” I learned about removing unnecessary redundancies,

something I did not realize I struggled with until after the reading. As well as getting to the

subject of my sentences as quickly as possible so the reader doesn’t lose interest or get lost.
 Writing project one taught me about the diverse approaches of academic disciplines to a

common subject. Analyzing skateboarding articles from biology and law showed distinct

methodologies, tones, structures, and audiences. Biology relies on empirical data, while law

incorporates a wider range of evidence. Understanding the significance of tone showed how it

conveys the author's perspective and purpose. Biology maintains an objective tone, while law

adopts a persuasive one. Writing project two was interesting because similar to how the

scavenger hunt assignment made me look at things in a new light, I was able to revisit the

biology article from writing project one and analyze the important information for my new

translation.

Looking at my actual portfolio now I did a lot to revise and improve them. Starting with

writing project one, I really messed up the formatting on my initial draft. My citations were not

in Chicago style and the cover page was missing. After adding the cover page and properly

learning how to quote in chicago style the paper structurally looks a lot more professional and

credible. The initial thesis I had was also not a proper thesis statement. My professor pointed out

that it sounded like a statement of purpose which I agree with. I wanted to open up with a general

overview of what the paper was going to be about, but I realize now that I can accomplish that

while also creating an argumentative thesis. So in the new thesis statement I took a more

argumentative approach and stated what I thought the differences between these disciplines to

be. Transitions between paragraphs were tweaked in order to once again make the text flow

better. In the introduction to my first paragraph for example I added the sentence, “Each article

serves a different purpose respective to their unique disciplines”. This introduces the topic for the

paragraph being the exploration of each article's purpose. Other than this the feedback I received

from my classmates and Professor really helped when revising. I received ideas on rewording
sentences and cutting out filler from classmates. I feel I get so caught up on what I want to say in

the sentence I do not focus enough on everything that comes before and after the main subject.

This is where classmates come into play and bring in a new perspective on my writing. Hearing

classmates give feedback is my favorite and most helpful strategy when revising. When revising

writing project two I did not have to change as much in terms of the actual text aside from some

minor unnecessary redundancies. The most helpful feedback I received for revising this project

was from the professor. She kindly pointed out some aspects I missed in the project such as how

my translation fits into the grand scheme of manga genres. This is something I thought about in

the initial draft but it slipped my mind to include. I also went more in depth about why I kept the

academic structure of the initial article in my translation to keep the academic feel, as the

professor suggested.

This portfolio reflects what I learned about myself as a writer, my revision skills, and my

reading skills as well. As a writer I believe I have very good points and body paragraphs but

struggle to transition well into them. Through revision however, this is a solvable problem.

Leading into my revision skills which are very good when I am reading someone else’s paper

ironically but when it comes to my own I’m just alright, Which is why I value the feedback of

others so highly. My favorite reading from the course “Murder! (Rhetorically Speaking)” by

Janet Boyd, put a fun detective spin on finding the rhetorical choices authors make. Not only

other authors but it posed important questions to myself about structure, tone, beginning and

endings, things I forget to think about the first time around.

Going into the future I will apply the lessons I learned about the choices an author makes

to not only my reading but to my own writing as well. In future classes I will make sure to have
at least one person read my essays, whether it be a friend, professor or TA. I realize I can’t be

lazy either though so I will make sure to proofread myself as well.

“Shape”

“Murder! (Rhetorically Speaking)” by Janet Boyd