Cayley

Bridges
UWRT 1103-011

Midterm

There are two key concepts from this course that I feel Im strongly engaging

with; critical reflection and getting out of my comfort zone. I came into this class
feeling like I couldnt do or understand any one of these concepts, but as the course
has progressed, Ive found that Im actually working with some of them pretty well.
My critical reflection skills were most evident to me while writing my
exploratory essay. After completing draft one of the assignment, I felt that I had
written a good paper, and believed that much revision wouldnt be necessary. Once I
sat down and actually read through my paper while paying attention to my sentence
structure, my writing style, and the goal of the paper, I realized revision was
definitely needed. I was able to read through the paper and see specific issues. For
example; I am passionate about animals, dogs in particular. Its said that dogs have
the intelligence of a toddler; I believe that to be true. When reading this part of my
paper I realized that it sounded bad, and that the first sentence led readers to
believe I would be talking about all animals and not just dogs. The second sentence
just simply didnt belong. I revised this part of my paper to now read; I am so
passionate about my dogs. Science says that dogs have the intelligence of a toddler,
and from my experiences with dogs, it is obvious. And I feel like this not only
sounds better, but doesnt mislead my readers.

I have never been comfortable with reading any piece of writing out loud, let

alone my own. When we started the class, I was worried about the peer workshops
and the groups we would be working in. Im always self-conscious and have social
anxiety that doesnt mesh well with reading out loud. After reading my first draft of

Cayley Bridges
UWRT 1103-011

the exploratory essay to Franco, one of my group members, I felt relieved that first
of all, he didnt tell me it was awful, and lastly, that I was even able to do it. It may
not seem like anything that would be a success to most people, but it is to me,
because of how much I have personally struggled with getting out of my comfort
zone.
There are two key concepts from this course that I feel I could improve on.
They are my knowledge of conventions, because on the Course & Materials page it
says; Students learn to distinguish rhetorical contexts, practice different
conventions, and develop positions in relation to research. I feel that I need to
actually know what a convention is and what the different ones are before I can
practice different ones. I think reading the book assigned for the class will help me
to understand conventions a little better.
The second one is composing processes. I think Ive improved on this, but I
still feel like I could improve more. I need to find out what my composing processes
are and how to use them effectively. This has been tricky for me because Im very
concerned with how to do it correctly. I hope to improve in both of these areas in
the second half of the class.