Dear readers,

Nine weeks ago, I came into this course with resent because it was a
requirement. Nine weeks later, I have strengthened my writings skills and
even changed my whole writing attitude for good. In this letter, I am going
to discuss with you how I did so as I completed my three major projects,
including my Living Picture Narrative, my Wikipedia Entry and my Podcast
Project that is also on this ePortfolio. As I discuss the skill sets I have
improved, I will also be sharing with you my writing and revision process
for each one of the projects. Lastly, I will also discuss how I am going to
utilize the skills I have learnt in this course in my future career and how
my attitude towards writing have changed over these past nine weeks.

(Source:http://www.ragan.com/Resource.ashx?sn=Improve_Writing_Skills)

My writing process

Living Picture Narrative

For my Living Picture Narrative, I started my writing process in class,
where I brainstormed about all the possible topics I could possibly write
about. Then as I got home, I started looking through the topics while
considering the requirements of the assignment, which included finding
related pictures. However, because I was too focused on including enough
pictures for my literacy narrative, I forced myself to write about something
that I havent fully mastered. Moreover, because I did not have enough to
talk about, I included two literacies and made the paper rather obscure. It
was only until after Ive had a conference with my professor where we
discussed about this and I decided to twerk my topic into how I became
more adventurous. This time, I rewrote my outline such that each
paragraph would describe my journey and build up to my current
situation. Through this process, I learnt that it is important to clearly
define the thesis or purpose of my papers, and focused on developing my
thesis with each of my paragraph.
 (Source:http://breadnbeyond.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Idea.jpg)

The Wikipedia Entry

I began my Wikipedia entry project by deciding on which topic to write
about. As we are supposed to write about a topic that is not already on
Wikipedia but at the same time also have enough sources to cite from, I
struggled a lot at this part and it took me quite a while to finally come up
with my topic. It was only until after I have decided my topic that I realized
I shouldnt have chosen my topic based on what sources were available,
as it really limited my choices. Instead, I should have chosen a topic I was
interested in like what my group mates did. However, I continued on my
topic and made an outline and sorted my entry according to the sources
available. I think that I have improved my research skills the most in this
project as well as my knowledge of conventions. Before I started writing
my entry, I had to first understand the discourse community of Wikipedia
as well as its conventions and then I could move on to doing research.

Podcast Project
After deciding on what I wanted to talk about, I started doing research on
the place that I was going to observe. Since my place of observation was
not near Davis, I did as much research as I could before I arrived at the
restaurant. Even then, I noticed that the sources I have previous found
wasnt exactly suitable to be included in my podcast. Thus, I had to do
more research while considering whether I could connect them to the
observations I have done. This project really allowed me to strengthen my
research skills especially for primary research. As I have rarely
incorporated primary research into my previous works, this was a new
experience for me and I have learnt a lot from it. As I finally started writing
my transcript after making an outline, I modified the language to fit the
informal tone of a podcast, and this have helped me develop my
processing skill in terms of composing for a different mode and audience.

My Revision Process

The Living Picture Narrative

As I have mentioned above, the major problem I had with this project was
not being able to focus on one literacy. Therefore, my main goal for the
revision of my living narrative was to correct this by setting the main
literacy that I want to talk about, and take out anything extra that would
disrupt my main topic. Although I ended up slightly twerking my main
topic, I kept this comment in mind as I wrote about another literacy so I
would not digress. Besides that, other feedbacks mainly commented that
my writing lacked details and in some parts organization. As I read over
my writing again, I was able to understand why they gave these
comments and tried to correct these by using the descriptive outline
method. Lastly, I focused on making my introduction and conclusion
stronger so that the audience will be able to understand the main topic of
my paper. The feedbacks I received really helped me step up my game in
writing and I was able to keep improving my paper thanks to their
constructive comments.

The Wikipedia Entry

According to the comments from my peers and instructor, the point that
was brought up the most was regarding the organization of my Wikipedia
entry. Since I felt that I have a lot to explain about, I tend to try and
include anything that is related into one paragraph, and because I did not
want to be repetitive, my whole Wikipedia entry turns out to be jumping
around so much that it makes it hard for readers to follow. Therefore, I
revised my Wikipedia by sorting my sources and information into their
right places, and then organized them in order logically. I also made use of
the descriptive outline in order to help me achieve this. Moreover,
feedbacks I received was also pointed out that I have some formatting
problems in my Wikipedia entry like using dashes instead of italics for
subheadings and that I am missing a table of content, so I also corrected
these problems after I have solved my major problem of organization. My
revision process for this project showed me the importance of a making an
outline before writing so that I could organize my paper better.

The Podcast Project

After I wrote up the first draft of my podcast project, my peers suggested
that I should be more descriptive in my writing, and include more
descriptive language in order to allow my readers to picture the scene.
Therefore, the revision of my first draft mainly consisted of improving my
descriptive skills. When my second draft was reviewed by my instructor, it
was pointed out to me that although I was descriptive enough this time, I
was not able to include my research into the project naturally, but instead
dumped the whole block of research into the first paragraph. Thus, my
second draft revision was focused on trying to include my research
throughout the podcast so that I would not overwhelm my listeners.
Although the process of correcting my podcast over and over again was
dull, I have learnt from the last two project that metacognition was
essential for me to improve and grow as a writer.
 (Source:https://researchvoodoo.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/writing-cycle.jpg)

Although I have learnt a lot of new skills, I think that I have improved my
research and metacognition skills the most. Before this course, my
research mainly included pieces from Wikipedia or google pages and the
credibility of my sources were often not considered. Although it was partly
because Wikipedia and Google were very convenient ways to obtain
information, it was also because I did not know where or how to find
scholarly articles that can be used as a credible source. However, this
course showed me the importance of credibility in writings as well as how
to find sources to achieve that and I am sure that I will be able to use this
skill in the future. Besides research skills, I also improved my
metacognition skills through completing reflections and learning journals. I
never reflected on my writing before this and I noticed that reflecting is
also another way to revise my writing. As I discussed what I have done in
my reflection, I was able to see my writing from another point of view
which allowed me to revise my revision plan if needed.

(Source:
https://www.edutopia.org/sites/default/files/styles/share_image/public/cover_media/w
ilson-metacognition-460x345.jpg?itok=tlaonWNw)

Throughout the entire UWP1Y course, I have been making use of all the
skills I have learnt that it is slowly becoming a habit for me when I write.
As I continued to work towards building my career path in business, I am
sure that I will be able to utilize the skills I have learnt in this course.
Before then, I will continue developing my skills in my other classes here
at UC Davis.

At the beginning of this course, I disliked writing a lot. I had some major
issues with having the writers block and writing assignments often took
me a few days to finish. However, by reading Anne Lamotts essay Shitty
First Drafts, as well as making use of freewriting, I was able to get
through the hardest part of not knowing what to write about. From then
on, I was able to focus on advancing my other writing skills. Moreover,
from reading articles like Brock Dethiers Revising Attitudes, I learnt that
experienced writers also dislike certain parts of the writing process, just
like I do. This realization changed my attitude towards writing and
revising. Although there was only one class every week, I was able to take
away constructive teachings each time and they all made my writing
process smoother. Even though I still have a lot of grammatical and
structural issues, this course showed me that content was what mattered
most. As I now write with this in mind, writing doesnt seem to be as much
as a torture anymore, and I think that I will be able to complete my future
assignments with a lighter heart, thanks to this course.

(Source:http://kbhyde.com/writer/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/happy-writer.jpg)

Sincerely,
Robyn Lam