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Jasmyn Gellineau

Professor Feldman

Academic Writing

06 December 2019

Final Reflection

Dear Professor Feldman,

In high school and upon entering the class, I did not find myself to be a good writer. I

struggled to write papers, especially the introductions and conclusions of my papers. I would

always skip a few lines for my introduction to save it for last and throw some random thing

together as my conclusion, just trying to reword my thesis in some way and adding a weak

takeaway statement at the end. Somehow though, I just jumped right into my body paragraphs,

and by the time I reached the end of my essay, I felt like I could have written it better and in a

more organized way. My papers are the worst when I have to work with a very small time

constraint, such as the two and a half hour period to write three essays during my AP Language

and AP Literature tests.

I am not proud to say it, but I received a two on my AP Language exam. I do not enjoy

non-fiction texts and poems that allude to historical events which was what the majority of AP

Language was for me. I do notice, however, that when the topic I am writing about is more

interesting, I am able to express my thoughts onto the paper much easier. When I started taking

AP Literature, I started doing much better in my writing. The fact that it was mostly fiction texts

with ways that you could almost “make things up” through making inferences from the evidence

within the writing came a lot easier to me and I was thankfully able to get a three on this AP
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exam. I still did not feel like I was a good writer, but at least the writing process became a little

easier for me then.

Writing 2 has taught me that writing is what you make of it, rather than all the rules that

every teacher abides by, whether it be strictly five paragraphs, avoid the ambiguous “it”, never

use first or second person, or do not start your introduction with a quote or a question as your

hook. There is a time and a place for those rules in certain types of writing, but not necessarily

for all writing pieces. When writing our first Writing Project, I was very surprised that you told

us to forget about all of those rules. Because I have been following all of these rules that built

upon each other since the start of my writing education, it was a little bit difficult to stray away

from them.

Seeing that I am able to pick out the topics I am going to write about in Writing 2, I feel

that I have definitely grown as a writer. It was nice to write about a topic that interested me on

my first Writing Project. I was able to pick the topic of skincare, which I have never written

about. I was able to even analyze it further by describing the genres within the realm of skincare,

like the packaging and reviews on the skincare products which I have spoken about. Dirk

interprets genre by naming what typically occurs in every country song: the depressions of

“losing jobs, lovers, and friends,” along with the expression of “pride for the country...way of

life” (Dirk 250). This resonated with me because it was a very unusual way to explain the way

genre works, but it was very easy to understand because of such a common thing in the world. I

also never knew that there could be more genres than just the genres of books or movies, but

they can be applied to anything. The project was a big eye opener for me, as this was the start for

me to branch out from all the rules of writing I was taught as well as writing about things I

actually enjoyed.
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Although I have grown in these ways, I still struggle to write introductions and

conclusions and I believe I always will. I do think that it has become a little easier, as now I do

not avoid writing an introduction altogether until the end. But one of the biggest things that I will

take away from this class is the free-writing process. It has really helped me put all my thoughts

down onto the paper that are jumbled in my brain. I often forget to include good ideas into my

paper because I forget it if I jump straight into writing the entire paper from the start. Once it is

all down, I can sort it out to create an organized paper. I have already transferred this method to

my Art History class. I had to write an 1800 word essay and being able to write freely without

thinking about the format of the essay helped me quickly get my word count up. I will definitely

use this strategy in any of my future essays in my college career and beyond.

Along with my future classes at UCSB, writing can also help me in my career afterwards.

As a chemistry major, I would like to become a cosmetic chemist, so it was good to finally do

research involving what my career would be about. Through analyzing the genres of skincare, I

can see how the audience reacts to the way the packaging is presented along with who reviews

my products. I can fix the way I promote and advertise my products for an efficient way to sell

effective products. When writing my Writing Project 2 and 3, I was able to delve further into the

specific skincare product of sunscreen. I saw the way chemists and biologists view sunscreen

which would be the way I would see sunscreen once I become a cosmetic chemist. Although

they are viewed in that manner, I can also translate the way the information about sunscreen is

interpreted in order to reach out to the people who would buy my products. This would provide

them easier understanding of what sunscreen is all about and allow them to buy my products.

I do thank you for being able to broaden my horizons on the way to write and having my

own writing style that I did not believe I had. Without your encouragement to write freely, I do
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not think I would have been able to write the way that I do now. I thank you again for giving me

this learning opportunity to grow as a writer through your feedback as well as from my peers in

this class.

Sincerely,

Jasmyn Gellineau
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Works Cited

Dirk, Kerry. Navigating Genres.