Autoethnography Final Draft

Recording Analysis, 1st Session

Beginning: Arrive at home at about 7:45 or so. First thing I do is tell my family I
arrive. Some small talk takes place before I excuse myself to eat something. After I
finish having dinner, I go up the stairs, to the homework bench on my room and
start on the assignment.
1-5: Turn on computer, put my phone on silence so I will not be distracted. I ask for
privacy while I am filming and writing for the Portrait of a Writer essay. [GP]
5-10: I take some time to comprehend the questions that were asked for the
assignment and I print the page so that I will not have to be switching windows on
the computer. [RD] [RQ] [ I ]
10-15: I begin to speak aloud what I am writing. I am starting to write the first
paragraph, beginning with why I consider writing to be important, my aptitudes and
approach in writing. [WOL]
15-20: After I finish the first paragraph, there is a moment of silence in which I
contemplate if I like how the essay is developing and how I should continue. [S]
[A+] [O] [OB]
20-25: I was getting back to writing when I heard a something shatter downstairs.
My grandma had accidentally dropped a glass jug in the kitchen. I offered to clean
it up. [FAM]
25-30: Swept up the pieces of glass and threw them away. Went back to my room
to continue writing.
30-35: Decide to start second paragraph on the experiences that make me the
author I am today. Before I start, I have to start reminding myself about other
classes in which I have had to compose essays. [O]
36-40: Speaking aloud everything I am writing. While I was writing, I decide to
mention I was an avid reader during high school because I considered it helped me
gain more vocabulary and improved my grammar. [WOL]
41-45: Reread everything I had written so far aloud, and then decided it made
sense. [R] [RE]
46-50: Thinking about what to write next. Suddenly, the dogs outside begin to bark.
Someone must have arrived at the door. My cousin comes and starts yelling at the
dogs. [FAM]
51-55: After all the noise calms down, I begin writing about the kind of writing I feel
more comfortable doing, and the reasons why I like it. [WS]

56-60: Writing silently about where my concentration is while I am writing.

Afterwards, I write about the kind of place I like to be in while I am writing. [WS]
61-90: I decide to take a break here because I am hungry and somewhat sleepy. I
go down to eat and drink something. I brainstormed for ideas while I was eating.
[B+] [OS]
91-95: I begin writing about how I prepare for writing an essay. I explain how it
varies depending on what kind of paper I am writing. After this, I decide to save the
document and continue writing it tomorrow. [WS] [ZZZ]
Recording Analysis, 2nd Session
It is the morning now. I wanted to go to the library and do some more work on the
composition assignment after Chemistry class. I arrive at the library at about 8:10.
0-5: I continue where I left off in the 1st session. I do a description of the process I
realize when I am writing long papers and then do a brief comparison with the
process I do with smaller papers. [WS]
6-10: I begin thinking about all of the rules I abide while I am writing and how
beneficial or blocking they are to my writing process. [O] [OS]
11-15: I write down the rules that I follow, what I like and dislike about them, and
what I would change to have a better process. [WS]
16-20: I take some time to revise the essay and then proceed to write again. [R]
[RE]
21-25: I write my definition of revising. I then continue to specify what I normally do
while I am revising, and the type of errors I focus on eliminating during revision.
[WS]
26-30: I conclude my assignment by stating what I would like to learn in the class,
mentioning the attributes that I already have and making some commentaries
about what I could improve in my writing process. [WS]

Revision Analysis
When I arrive home, I decide to check on the Portrait of a Writer assignment again
before turning it in.
0-5: I begin correcting errors while I am reading the assignment aloud. [RO]
6-10: I start searching the essay for any sentences that seem out of place or could
be replaced with something more fitting. [EDEL] [EADD]
11-15: I decide the essay is good enough and proceed to upload it on Blackboard.

The next day after I uploaded the draft, I went to the University Writing Center and
asked a tutor to review my paper and possibly mention something that I could
improve. The advice I got from the tutor was to check a dictionary while I am
writing, because he noticed various false cognates, which are defined as pairs of
words that are similar in form but have different roots. The reason why those were
in my essay is because I couldnt find the words to describe what I wanted to write
in English, so I traduced some words in Spanish to similar sounding words in
English, but these did not always have the same meaning. Therefore, whenever I
did this, it ended up being confusing and often was interpreted as something that
was not related to what I wanted to write.
So, now that I have seen the video and written all the behaviors that I noticed, I
would like to give my new interpretation about the various aspects of my writing
process, such as the patterns that I follow during the process, my strengths and
weaknesses in composition, and other aspects related to the writing process.
The where and when I am writing is actually important to me because when I write,
I prefer doing so in a place I know I will not be interrupted frequently. This I
because if I do not concentrate when writing, I am easily sidetracked. I prefer to
write and submit assignments early, so that I do not have to stress about them
when it is almost due.
One pattern that I have identified during my writing process is that I stop between
paragraphs to make revision. I noticed it various times during my recordings. I
check for grammar errors and sentences that could be improved. I do this to have
something to do while I am thinking on how to continue on the next paragraph. I
always try to have a larger amount of words than the minimum required, because I
often feel the minimum is not enough to express everything I want to write. I also
noticed that most of the time I write in silence.
When I was in high school, I was told that in an academic essay, I should have at
least three important points I should cover about the lecture or article that is being
analyzed. I was not in favor of this process because it seemed too strict a rule. I
still think that how many important points you make does not matter that much,
because the most important thing is understanding what you are writing about and
knowing how to develop that knowledge in written form.
I think most of these patterns are positive, but others I might try modifying or
getting rid of. I am not sure what I want to do about my habit of revising every
paragraph. The way I see it, it has both advantages and disadvantages. The
advantages would be that I spend less time on the revision of the entire essay and
I correct errors that could possibly be overlooked in the latter revision .
I would say that my writing process is almost the same as the one I described
during the Portrait of a Writer assignment, except for a few things that I did not
notice at that time. Until recently, I did not know what a false cognate was, and I did

not realize that sometimes I try to traduce Spanish words to English with the
purpose of filling in when I cannot find a word for what I am trying to say in English.
My strength in writing is being able to interpret articles coherently, having a
moderately good vocabulary, having no problems on being able to concentrate on
the essay I am writing and being accustomed to reading. I also think that the
techniques I use for prewriting are very helpful to my process; they allow me to
understand larger bodies of text, which in turn allows me to write a better essay.
My weaknesses in writing is that sometimes I have to pause for long times just to
get an idea of what I will write about next. I am always worried if what I wrote
before is going to be good enough and if it makes sense.
In conclusion, I would like to say I have gained a lot of insight on my writing
process. I have identified many behaviors that are valuable to my writing process,
and others that slow it down. Identifying a problem is the first step to have it solved,
so I hope I will be able to eliminate or modify those blocking behaviors and be
more productive and efficient in composition.