Dear Ms.

Bamert,
Throughout fall quarter in Expository Writing UWP 1-10, the class has engaged in
readings, in-class discussions, writing journals, and interactive forum posts to foster our reading
and writing skills as they apply to several practices. The five learning outcomes for this class
have outlined the expectations and areas of focus over the span of the past ten weeks. The chosen
learning outcomes of particular focus for this class included rhetorical knowledge, processes,
knowledge of conventions, research, and metacognition. Along with these outcomes, students
have been required to reflect on the application of these lessons in our everyday writing through
cover memos and journal entries.
Towards the beginning of the quarter, we focused on the rhetorical knowledge and
processes learning objectives. The purpose of learning rhetorical knowledge involved learning
persuasive techniques to consider and analyze our target audience. These objectives highlighted
the idea that writing is a process, rather than a product. We applied certain practices to each of
our writing projects, in order to understand the processes of writing while working with peers.
After each assigned project, I revised and edited the essay with the help of peer-review. My
fellow peers read through my essays, and left helpful feedback which allowed me to make
effective revisions. The reading by Nancy Sommers, Revision Strategies of Student Writers and
Experienced Adult Writers critiques inexperienced writers for focusing on trivial revisions such
as rephrasing sentences or focusing on grammatical errors. This article helped me realize that I
typically revise my essays like a novice, rather than focusing on the content and structure of my
overall argument like experienced writers. Utilizing this revision style allowed me to project my
thoughts more clearly in my final drafts.

I chose to apply these revision tactics for project one in my final portfolio. I focused on
the content, added specific personal anecdotes, and changed the overall argument of my essay
while applying the feedback from my instructor and peers to make changes. For my final draft, I
clearly identified the impacts of my bilingual struggles while growing up. In my original draft, I
focused on the impact of being a third-generation Mexican-American, and how it contributed to
my lack of fluency in Spanish-speaking. However, as I revised, I realized there were other
underlying factors that affected my feelings of disconnect to my culture. I restructured my
introduction to center on the importance of language to my cultural identity. I also chose to
change the title, to suit the essence of my essay - which was now deeper than enduring thirdgeneration struggles. I chose to end my essay with my future aspirations that were shaped
through my personal experiences.
The second half of the quarter was geared towards the knowledge of conventions. The
objective of knowledge of conventions is to incorporate and apply different styles, mediums, and
modes through writing. Every student was allowed to choose a multi-modal project, allowing the
writers to express their creativity through forms other than a standard essay. Digital, visual, and
audio modes were encouraged throughout the quarter. For my second project, I chose to use a
Prezi presentation to reflect on my college literacy sources. I personally found this project to be
the most time-consuming and difficult to structure. I am used to writing formal essays, and being
able to freely structure a multi-modal project in whichever way I chose presented difficulties. If I
had more time, I would have spent more time on revising the content of this project and making
it easier for the reader to navigate through my Prezi.
The last section of the quarter was dedicated to research. For the third project, students
were required to research a discourse community of choice through conducting primary and

secondary research. The objective of researching in this class was to display techniques of proper
citations, data analysis, supporting thesis, as well as expanding on collected data while building
on pre-existing knowledge. I chose to research high school theater as a discourse community. I
argued in my essay that high school theater is a discourse community due to the amount of time
and dedication its members put towards putting on a successful production. I conducted primary
and secondary research to support my argument with evidence.
The final learning objective of the class involved metacognition, a process of self
reflection regarding our specific rhetorical choices in writing and why we chose to compose the
piece of writing in the way we did. The cover memos and forum posts specifically addressed this
aspect of the class. The cover memos were included in each rough draft of all three projects,
which required us to identify our strengths and weaknesses in writing. The forum posts required
students to critically reflect on the readings in class and actively respond and share our personal
thought processes. UWP has effectively helped me achieve my goals to improve upon my
reading and writing processes as an undergraduate student in a lower-division writing course.
Sincerely,
Cristina Hernandez