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Kyle Klinek
Professor Burgess
UWRT 1101
December 2, 2014
Final Reflection
What a semester it has been. It seems as if these three and a half months have just flown
by so quickly. Now it is time for the Portfolio Gallery and I could not be more excited. This
reflection paper will help guide you (the reader) through my portfolio and it will highlight the
key aspects of my portfolio as well as describe my writing process for each assignment. Lets
begin.

*Below will be some quick instructions if you do not

have time to read through the entire final reflection.*

1. Read Where I am From in the free writing section

2. Check out the final draft of my Literacy Narrative
3. Read one more thing that is interesting to you

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FREE WRITING
The Home page starts out with examples of my free writing. It is basically just a mix up
of Writing into the Day assignments that I enjoyed so feel free to check them out. Hint: read
Where I Am From. It is one of my favorites.

CONSIDERED WRITING
Next on the Home page are examples of my considered writing. These are a little
different from my free writing as I had more time to put good thought into what I was going to
write. I believe these assignments helped improve my writing and ability to analyze documents
and readings. That being said, this is probably the least important section of my portfolio.

LITERACY NARRATIVE
Oddly enough, next on the portfolio is the most important part, The Literacy Narrative. I
remember when this paper was first assigned. I said in my head, Oh god noAnother paper.
Well turns out this is not only my favorite paper I have ever written, but I also believe it to be my
best piece of work. Despite the instructions for the final reflection saying to include readings that
influenced your writing, I am not including readings. For this specific assignment, I knew
exactly what I wanted to write about and did not need anything to influence the content of my
paper. Truthfully, I am not a very skilled writer, but I believe the topic of this paper allowed me
to truly get engaged in my work and write a stellar piece. The rough draft was well.rough. It
contained huge paragraphs and was way longer than it needed to be. That was all fixed with a

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short trip to the Writing Resources Center where I received incredible advice and instruction on
how to better structure my paper as well as shorten it up. After making many revisions, I
submitted my draft to Jamie and judging by her comments, she must have liked it. One piece of
advice was, I would urge you to break away from the structure you learned in high school. In
reality I had used that structure (mentioned near the end of my narrative) for my rough draft, but
was then told to break away from that by the tutor at the WRC. Even after such a good second
draft, I decided to take one more look through and deleted some unneeded sentences and
guiding sentences. A few more grammar and punctuation corrections and I quickly had
finished my final draft. I am honestly not quite sure that I will ever write a better paper in my
life *If you read anything on this portfolio, please read the final draft of my Literacy
Narrative. I hope you like it *

RHETORICAL ANALYSIS
Truth be told, I was very nervous for this assignment. When it came time for the rough
draft, I had literally no clue of what I was doing. I remember turning in a paper to Jamie which
said, I literally have no idea what I am doing. Of course with some help from the WRC I was
on my way to writing a decent paper. My tutor for this paper at the WRC helped me understand
how to better analyze an article. She wanted me to figure out the genre of the article and what
elements it consisted of. At the end of our session I left with a good idea of what changes I
would be making. I analyzed the paper more thoroughly and added more information and
explanation. I then submitted the instructor draft which surprisingly received much less criticism
than I had expected. Jamie does a great job of pointing out positive aspects in each paper as well
as pointing out some things that can be improved. She advised that I answer the why question

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of the authors purpose for writing his article. She also suggested using direct quotes to add more
validity to my paper. After that I knew that I had to add more analysis and reasoning for the
authors main purpose as well as adding a few quotes. After many revisions including
adding/deleting sentences and fixing grammar I had finished my final draft. I believe I did a
good job overall and analyzed my article well. The final draft was definitely extremely better
than the rough draft so I am happy about that. In the end, this paper helped to better my ability to
analyze a paper. This assignment has given me the confidence to be able to write a rhetorical
analysis on almost any subject. It was certainly beneficial for my writing.

MICRO-ETHNOGRAPHY
I was very excited when I received this assignment because I knew I would be able to write a
paper about something that interests me. There was not much of a process to writing my Microethnography about the junior tennis player discourse community. The first thing I did was make
observations and record interviews. Using those I began to write my rough draft. All of the
feedback I received on my draft was positive and I was happy to have written a good paper.
Unfortunately I was all wrong because the instructor draft was a near failure. Apparently I
misunderstood the entire assignment and for the most part was just telling a story. Jamie was
very straight forward with me that I had not done the assignment correctly and I greatly
appreciated that. I set out to write a better paper and looked at Coaches Can Read, Too one
more time. I felt I would be able to write a better paper if I read a good example of a paper on
discourse communities. I then took another crack at the paper, this time was the final draft. I
added much more information such as observations and interviews and I actually defined my
discourse community as its own discourse community. Through many changes I believe I have

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adhered to the guidelines for the assignment. I believe I have transformed my terrible first two
drafts which contained only stories about myself and the sport of tennis into a paper that very
well describes the discourse community of junior tennis players.

*FINAL REFLECTION*
In this paper, I have not included a massive amount of information because I did not need
to. I believe that the information which I have given shows my writing process for what it is and
how I went about completing each assignment. Everything on my portfolio is exactly the way I
wanted it be. The rubric said to not review the class or anything like that, but I know you allow
your students to make each one of their assignments in their own way so I will be giving a quick
review/reflection. Despite the eight a.m. starting time, I really did like this class, even though I
was absent a few times. It showed me many different things which I had not known and taught
me how to write a better paper. I had opportunities to collaborate with fellow students and that
was also helpful. Thank you for being a great example and instructor. You showed all of your
students understanding and compassion, which I believe is rare. You have been much more than
just a teacher and I will certainly miss this class. Thank you , Professor Burgess.