Dear Eugene,

I have had a great quarter and think you have done an amazing job at keeping a very long class

engaged! Your sense of humor really added to the course, and I found myself learning a lot from

you and the class. A class activity I enjoyed was all the group work we had, it was nice to hear

input from all my peers and to get to work with them. Throughout the quarter I feel like my

understanding and proficiency on writing have grown. I now feel like I can begin an essay or any

piece of writing without putting it off because of the dread of starting. I believe the journal

entries and writing activities in class have encouraged me to write what’s in my head and to not

overthink it. The reading Reflective Writing and the Revision Process: What were you Thinking?

By Sandra L. Giles was helpful in writing this reflective letter, it gives you an example of a

reflection letter and a breakdown of steps on what to include and how to include it. Something I

found very helpful for beginning my writings are just typing whatever ideas come to my mind

about the topic on a blank document and continuing to build on them as more ideas keep

flowing. Eventually, I have a document full of ideas and all that’s left is putting it together to

make sure it flows. Another class activity I enjoyed was all the group work we had, it was nice to

hear input from all my peers and to get to work with them as an undergrad, I haven’t had a class

that is interactive yet; all my classes are lectures with over hundreds of students or sections were

the teaching assistant lectures us. I found myself helping a cousin understand discourse

communities, a concept I learned in writing two.

Growing up writing was not something I enjoyed doing, mainly because it was on books

we would read in class, and I could not pick up the main ideas and struggled to comprehend the

books. I found that creating an illustration in my head helped with understanding what I am

reading and concentrating. I have a habit of becoming distracted while I’m reading and not being
mindful about it. Highlighting and annotating readings have also been helpful but are very time

consuming. Overall, I feel like I have just naturally improved on reading comprehension

throughout my education journey with practice. One of my strengths in writing has been the

grammar aspect of it, I have also been good at spelling and punctuation, but recently I have

found that using a computer to do all my writings and work has declined that. I feel that we have

all become accustomed to making errors and typos and having the computer or electronic

automatically correct it for us, which has decreased our grammatical thinking. Overall, my

writing improvements from the first day in class up to today would be being able to start my

writing and not procrastinating them in fear of where to start. For example, I am writing this

reflection letter with sufficient time within its due date. A reading that helped me think about

why I start my writing the way I do was Shitty First Drafts. Anne Lamott mentions in her writing

that she and other writers start off with “really, really shitty first drafts” (22), reading that made

me realize that every time I began my writing, I start off trying to perfect it, instead of just noting

down my thoughts and ideas and worrying about perfecting it later. That approach has been very

helpful in getting started and once you have some ideas written down, the rest flows more

naturally.

Something I would continue to work on if I had more time is my essay formatting. There

are many ways to organize and format essays, but I still have not had the chance to see what style

best compliments my writing and what other essay format techniques are out there. Another

writing technique I would like to work on more is “I” writing; all throughout school we were told

to never use the word I in our essays or writing, but we were never told why not to, and I think

the reading I- need- you- to- say- I is helpful at explain why and when you should use it. The

author mentions we should use the first person when the assignment asks for personal narratives
and personal position papers. The author also explains when you shouldn’t use, like in scientific

papers where your opinion isn’t important and where it should be kept to proven facts.

For writing project one I have revised and edited several inputs on my news report genre.

I added another image, I also included more text, and adjusted the format to a better suited news

report. I am happy with the final presentation of it, and I feel like I have improved it.

As for writing project two I based it on how reading comprehension and writing work

together. For my discourse community I picked to go with teachers, since they’re a group of

people who share similar goals and have a similar purpose. They also all have the goal of

spreading education. With that in mind I decided to create a lesson plan with feedback from

teachers all around, those teachers being the authors of the articles and communicating their

research and conclusions with one another to improve their teaching techniques and even their

own understandings. I enjoyed creating the lesson plan, it was a fun activity to put together while

still learning.

Overall, I found the quarter to be very insightful with my writing journey and I feel like it

has improved and left me with resources to be able to build on. I enjoyed all my learning

throughout the quarter in writing two. I also enjoyed how we maintain a focus all quarter to one

final portfolio, yet still learned so much throughout the class.

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

Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing, Volume 1, edited by Charles Lowe and Pavel Zemliansky,

Anderson, South Carolina, Parlor Press, 2010.

Lamott, Anne. “Shitty First Drafts.” Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life. New

York, Pantheon, 1994.

Maddalena, Kate McKinney. “ “I need you to say ‘I’”: Why First Person Is Important in College

Writing.” Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing, Volume 1, edited by Charles Lowe and Pavel

Zemliansky, Anderson, South Carolina, Parlor Press, 2010.