Ali Lantz

9 December 2019

How Writing 2 Shaped Me

Throughout the course of this class I have had the time to reflect on how I approach

reading and writing. Using our many readings I have been able to understand and learn new

ways to read and write which allowed me to gain a new view on what I already knew and what I

did not know. Readings that were assigned to the class helped me grasp the complete picture of

what writing truly is and shaped my view of how I approach my writing today. The readings took

an interesting spin to normally mundane concepts which helped me understand the new ways of

reading and writing which I have normally never thought of before. The topics that Writing 2

focused on allowed me to broaden my views of genres and to understand the deeper connections

that are made in writings.

A huge topic that was touched on in this class were genres. Since all of the writing

projects submitted dealt with genre in some shape or form, I have had a lot of time to reflect on

what exactly genre is and how it affects the rest of my writing. While we did a lot with genre in

the classroom, one of the readings that helped me the most was “Navigating Genres” by Kerry

Dirk which taught me about genres in everyday life. Dirk was able to explain genres in a simple

way by describing a scenario using ransom letters. Dirk wrote three ransom letters in different

styles and had the readers ponder which one would be more effective.1 This exercise let me

visualize why each genre was written the way it was and lead me to a deeper understanding of

the differences between genres and the conventions they hold. Seeing the differences between a

1
Kerry Dirk, "Navigating Genres," Course Reader, 5.
piece of writing that followed its genre convention and a piece of writing that did not was better

for my learning process than just defining terms. This writing is what made the idea of genres

click in my mind and what got me to understand the purpose of WP 1 and how to write it.

When it comes to my knowledge of rhetorical analysis, I can also accredit the class

readings for my understanding of the topic. While Dirk taught me the conventions of a genre, the

article “Backpacks vs. Briefcases: Steps toward Rhetorical Analysis” by Laura Bolin Carroll

taught me how to use and understand these conventions rhetorically. Through her writing,

Carroll was able to teach me about exigence and its relation to the purpose of a writing as well as

the constraints of a writing. Carroll was able to outline that “understanding the exigence

important because it helps you begin to discover the purpose of the rhetoric.”2 Her explanation of

both exigence and constraints is what allowed me to see the full extent to how some of my

rhetorical choices shape my writing. I learned that everything had a purpose through her writing

and that made me start to think about what my purposes were. Once I figured out to start

thinking about why I include some information, I learned how to include only the most important

and relevant information in my writing and I also learned how each convention in a piece of

writing influences other conventions or the genre as a whole. I was able to learn this through the

reading because the situations and scenarios given as examples were easier for me to

comprehend and make sense of rather than strict definitions.

In this class, not only did I learn new ways to read and write, but I also began to realize

some of the choices I make as a writer. I made this discovery through reading the article

“Reflective Writing and the Revision Process: What Were You Thinking?” by Sandra L. Giles.

2
Laura Carroll, "Backpacks vs. Briefcases: Steps Toward Rhetorical Analysis," ​Course Reader​, 11.
In her article, Giles used examples of student cover letters to demonstrate a good way for

students to look back at their writing and understand the strengths and weakness in the choices

they made before revising.3 Giles’ explanation of the cover letter got me to think about the

choices I made in my writing and how I already knew where the problem spots that I needed to

fix were located. While doing revisions on my work I would go back through and reread my

essays to look at any choices that I would change. I found that my writing style was not very

variable and I never really used many sentences that were more complex, but I have tried to

branch out.

During the portfolio process I was asked to revise two of my writing projects, taking a

look at the choices I made and reading to see if there were better choices I could have made to

make the writing better. I used Giles’ article to help me accomplish this as well. Since her article

focused on revising I used the tactics she outlined about identifying mistakes and working on

those in order to do a final revision of my writings.4 I noted what I already knew was a problem

spot, how I could fix it, and how it would improve my essay as a whole. Why writers make

choices is one of the most important concepts in writing so it is important that I understand that

everything in the text was a choice. Reflecting over my writing in the revision process helped me

to see that and also to revisit some of the choices I made while I was writing. In my writing I

made the choice to change some of my organization structure in both of my writing projects.

This included separating paragraphs in my first WP to make the information in the paragraphs

more concise and rewriting entire sentences in my second project. I wanted to fix issues with my

thesis to make it more clear and precise so it followed the prompt more clearly and I then fixed

3
Sandra Giles, "Reflective Writing and the Revision Process: What Were You Thinking?" Course Reader, 31-44.
4
Giles, "Reflective Writing," Course Reader, 31-44.
my topic sentences to match the thesis. This changed the whole course of my writing as I

carefully read through each paragraph to make sure the paragraph touched on the point I wanted

to in a specific manner and had all the evidence it needed to support my position. This was an

intensive revision process which I did by highlighting portions of the text to make sure I had

enough of each section of the paragraph and that it all flowed together nicely. I made some other

changes as well that fixed smaller problems. The grammar needed to be relooked at to make sure

the whole paper flowed together smoothly.

I could not have done this revision by myself. All the comments that were given to me by

peers and elsewhere were extremely important in getting me started on the process. Not only did

they open my eyes to what I needed to relook at, but they got me to look at my own papers and

find additional things to fix from what I had learned in the readings and what I learned from

class. Although I knew some of these things needed to be revisited, It wasn't until someone

prompted the revision that I truly saw how to fix my own writing and fix my own choices by

making new ones. The most helpful of the feedback were the comments that I received directly

on my paper. The general comments were helpful for me to go back and read my paper and make

the decision myself, but when I found a comment directly on my paper written by someone it

gave me an example as to what they were referring to instead of me having to go and find the

referenced area by myself. Although it was not necessary for me to receive all my comments on

my paper to make the revision process effective, It was useful to have one or two so I knew

where to start and could disperse my efforts and awareness from there. I really like the effort I

put into making the layout and organization of each writing project flow. I also enjoyed being
creative with the portfolio. I could still improve on my use of grammar because I tend to forget

basic grammar rules when I am writing and I would like to start getting it right the first time.

This portfolio as a whole is very reflective of how I have grown as a writer during this

quarter. While it shows the text that I turned in as a writing project submission draft, it also

shows the changes I still wanted to make weeks or even months after the original submission. It

shows that something I thought was good at one point I have grown to find more and more ways

to improve on it. I believe that now, as a writer, I have learned to write a clear and concise thesis

and following topic sentences so that my writings are organized and make sense with a nice

flow. I have learned to read the prompt carefully and write my thesis carefully so it answers the

prompt in full. I am also better now at making each of my paragraphs connect back to the thesis

and focusing on how they connect to both the prompt as a whole and the thesis in general as well

as making sure they connect well with the whole paper.

I am going to take what I have learned this quarter with me to future classes throughout

the rest of my college experience. While I may not be taking more writing courses than is

required of me to graduate, I will be taking many stem courses and be doing further research in

that field. It is important for stem majors to also have these skills so that research papers are

written in a clear and concise manner and the main point can be easily understood and disputed

or acknowledged with other findings. I learned a lot about this during the third writing project in

which I had to analyze the writing styles of two different academic articles and how they

revealed information about the discourse communities they belonged to. This specific prompt

opened my eyes to exactly how researchers in stem fields write about their findings. Even though

the information tends to be more complex than the average essay, the organization and thesis are
big factors into making the writing what it is and this is true for all academic disciplines. As I

move on further into my career path I will be taking this experience with me to write better in the

context of research.

While I have learned quite a lot through this course, there are also some concepts I have

trouble with. The more simple mistakes can be found in my grammar, but this is easily fixed by

practice with grammar conventions and many proofreads by myself and others to make sure the

grammar is perfect throughout the paper. I also should keep working on the structuring of

paragraphs. This quarter I feel as if I have become significantly better than before however, there

is still work to do. Sometimes I find myself with either too much or not enough of one element in

my paper and this can make some unbalanced paragraphs that feel lacking in evidence. I have

learned how to identify this issue immediately in my writing and fix it before it becomes a

problem by using some easy tricks. By highlighting every element of my paragraph in a different

color, I can easily see where I am missing some information immediately.5 I can then focus on

adding to the lacking area to make my paragraph more balanced and more convincing. This

process has helped me to revise my writing projects and make them even stronger than my

original submissions.

In total, the Writing 2 course allowed me to step out of my comfort zone in terms of

writing and learn how to better myself as a writer. Doing class readings opened up my mind to

genres and how they worked by explaining these topics using interesting anecdotes. Through this

new knowledge, I learned how to better revise my papers and focus on the most important

5
Randi Browning, "Revision Strategies," Course Handout.
aspects of my writings. I learned how to make deeper connections in my writings overall as well

as broaden my views on genres and their conventions.

Bibliography

Browning, Randi. "Revision Strategies." ​Course Handout

Carroll, Laura. "Backpacks vs. Briefcases: Steps Toward Rhetorical Analysis." ​Course Reader.​

9-16.

Dirk, Kerry. "Navigating Genres." ​Course Reader.​ 1-8.

Giles, Sandra. "Reflective Writing and the Revision Process: What Were You Thinking?"

Course Reader. 3​ 1-44.