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Final Reflection Michaela

This document is a final reflection paper for a college writing course. It discusses the student's experience in the class and how her writing and critical thinking skills improved over the semester. Some key points: 1) She struggled with writing but learned to work slowly and take feedback to improve. A song by Destiny's Child motivated her. 2) If teaching the class, she would emphasize reading to build vocabulary and thinking skills. 3) Her understanding of rhetorical concepts grew - she learned to focus a research topic and see different purposes of assignments. 4) Critical reading became easier - she found ways to stay engaged like connecting ideas across texts. 5) Her writing process became more structured with research,

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96 views

Final Reflection Michaela

This document is a final reflection paper for a college writing course. It discusses the student's experience in the class and how her writing and critical thinking skills improved over the semester. Some key points: 1) She struggled with writing but learned to work slowly and take feedback to improve. A song by Destiny's Child motivated her. 2) If teaching the class, she would emphasize reading to build vocabulary and thinking skills. 3) Her understanding of rhetorical concepts grew - she learned to focus a research topic and see different purposes of assignments. 4) Critical reading became easier - she found ways to stay engaged like connecting ideas across texts. 5) Her writing process became more structured with research,

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Michaela Ferretti

Professor Smith
UWRT 1102
December 1, 2015
Final Reflection
1. Choose a song or musical composition that communicates your experience with
writing and UWRT 1102. Consider including a video of the song. Explain your
choice.
-

A song that really communicates with my experience in UWRT 1102 is


Survivor by Destinys Child. I have always struggled with writing/English
classes because it has never been my strong subject. Writing essays that are 58 page papers really intimidates me and makes me want to give up. The lyrics
that stand out to me the most in this song are Im a survivor, Im not gonna
give up, Im not gonna stop, Im gonna work harder. Those lyrics really push
me to my best potential and make me realize the rewarding feeling I get after
finishing an 8-page paper. I never have been the one to get As on my papers
but there has been a few times where I received high grades and I remember
how much that motivated me to become a better writer and it pushed me to
keep getting good grades. Through out UWRT I have been pretty happy about
the grades I have been receiving, and the way the class is structured I feel like
it has been very beneficial to me. Working at a slow pace to get papers done
has always been the easiest for me, as well as peer review and solid feedback
from the instructor.

2. If you were to teach this class, what ideas would you emphasis?
- If I were to teach the class I would use a lot of your strategies. I think it is
important to critically read before you can become a good writer. One thing that I
did not do enough of growing up as a child is reading books. I believe that reading
difficult books, or just reading articles, news papers, magazines will broaden your
vocabulary and make you more intelligent as well as a better writer. I think its
very important to teach an English class slow and diligently especially if you want
your students to be interactive with other students and the instructor.
3. Explain how your understanding of rhetorical knowledge has changed over the
course of the semester using at least three examples from your writing (ex. Did
you shift an assignment to better fit a particular genre like a proposal?).
-Over the course of the semester I didnt have much rhetorical knowledge, as time
went on I started to understand what everything meant and how important it was
in reading and writing. An article that I read called the unburdened mind was a
very complex academic article that had many subtopics but overall It had one
purpose and it was to explain the way a psychopaths mind works. It is easy to get
off topic and to lose focus when reading articles. Another example was my
daybook entries, at first I didnt really see a purpose in writing into the day but
then it started to grow on me and I started to look forward to writing my journal
entries each day because each one had a different purpose. My last example is my
inquiry question, why do some people have no remorse? because my question
was so broad it was hard to find the right information to put into my paper. With

the help of peers I narrowed down my topic and talked about more specific things
and not just psychopaths in general.
4. Explain how your critical reading has improved during the semester. (Ex. In
what ways did you read across texts for connections and patterns in your inquiry?)
-

Coming into this course I was dreading the reading aspect of it. I struggle with
ADD and it is very hard for me to sit down and read a book with out having to
read it over ten times. Reading the book thief really sparked my interest for
reading because that book interested me. Over the semester I have found ways
to make me an engaged reader and now I never find myself dreading reading
books, articles, or even textbooks.

5. Discuss your composing processes. Ex. Did you conduct additional research
while revising or after consulting a colleague? Provide at least three examples to
support your assertion.
-

The importance of composing a well-written paper is important. Revising,


editing, thinking critically, collaborating ideas is really important. I have
always found it useful to peer edit to get feedback on your paper. Over this
semester I have become more structured and overall my papers have been a
lot more organized. Teacher conferences in small groups have also benefited
me a lot because it allowed me to change things and add new ideas to my
paper.

6. Provide at least three examples of your knowledge of conventions (ex. sentence


level changes, MLA citations).

Conventions are the surface features of writing which include, mechanics,


usage, and sentence formation. It is important to understand conventions in
order to make your writing stronger. In previous grades I always used to use
an MLA citation maker and now I have better knowledge and know the
importance of citing properly.

7. Critical Reflection: a) Discuss an example of choices made during a


composition. b) Explain what you think is most important in providing
commentary on others work and receiving commentary on your own. Provide at
least three examples of your nuanced use of commentary in your writing projects.
-

A) My thesis paper was the most difficult for me, I had a hard time choosing
what direction I wanted to go with the paper because of how broad my
question was. With help from my instructor and peers I got some ideas on how
to narrow my question down and it made my paper a lot more interesting. My
topic became a lot more interesting when I started to add personal stories in,
and also outside world information that related to people with no remorse.
B) Commentary on papers is what has helped me the most this semester.
Giving good, honest feedback is what improves a paper tremendously.
Listening to other peoples ideas can spark yours and open doors that you
never even thought about and that is why I enjoy peer editing. Commenting
helpful ideas, will benefit the writer and will allow you to think critically.

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