Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
Ruby Zhang
Allison Bochino
Writing 2
09 December 2019
Metacognitive Reflection
Transitioning from high school to college-level writing is a huge challenge for students
just entering college. As a first-year student at UCSB, I encountered the same problem.
However, taking the Writing 2 course helped me overcome this challenge and improve my
writing skills in many ways. By taking this course, I am able to improve my reading and writing
skills significantly, gain more knowledge about academic writing, explore the broad definition of
genre and genre conventions, and learn how to reflect on the work I have done.
First, my approach to reading has changed throughout the course. Before taking this
class, I think about reading as only understanding the main ideas of an article and completing my
assignment. However, through taking this course, I learned that reading means more than just
understanding the context. Other than comprehending the ideas the author is trying to explain, I
can also read like a writer to analyze the strategies and writing techniques that the author has
employed and use them in my writing when necessary. Just like Bunn has said in “How to Read
Like a Writer,” “when we read like writers we understand and participate in the writing. We see
the choices the writer has made, and we see how the writer has coped with the consequences of
those choices.”1 With that in mind, I started noticing the writing strategies that other authors have
1
Mike Bunn, “How to Read Like a Writer,” Course Reader, 19.
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used in their articles so I could have the opportunity to apply the techniques to my writing. By
changing the way I think about reading, I can learn more writing techniques from other authors
Besides changing my approach to reading, I also gained more knowledge about academic
writing by taking this course. For example, I learned how to find scholarly articles from our
library’s database in the library workshop. Knowing how to find peer-reviewed articles provides
me an opportunity to explore the resources we have here on campus and helps me in my future
studies. Moreover, I learned how to write reflections on the assignments I have done and how the
reflections can benefit me in my future writing. I never wrote long reflections before, but after
completing several project reflections, I am familiar with writing reflection. When I was
brainstorming my good and bads on an assignment, I was also learning my weaknesses and
Not only did I learn the skills I can use in the future, but I also learned more about genres
and genre conventions. By reading Bickmore’s article “Genre in the Wild,” I realized that genres
are defined broader than I thought. According to Bickmore, genres are defined as anything that is
“typified,” “utterance,” and “recurrent.”2 In other words, anything that is representative, that has
some language, and that happens recurrently can be defined as genres. Genres are not only
limited to categories of DVDs such as comedy or horror. They are categories of any form of
writing that is common and characteristic. In addition, I also learned that each genre has specific
rules and guidelines that tell people what to write and how to write. These guidelines are called
2
Lisa Bickmore, “Genre in the Wild,” Course Reader,
https://openenglishatslcc.pressbooks.com/chapter/genre-in-the-wild-understanding-genre-within-rhetorical-
ecosystems/.
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genre conventions. Studying genre conventions helped me write more efficiently and showed me
In addition to the learning throughout the quarter, I also learned more about my writing
styles by revising two of my writing projects: writing project 1 and writing project 2. I chose to
edit these two WPs because they have more space for improvements. I revised them significantly
Writing project 1 is the one that I altered the most. I changed the structure of my WP1,
deleted the second to last paragraph because it does not answer the prompt, added more
information in my content, revised my thesis and conclusion, and fixed the mechanical errors.
First, I reorganized the information and divided the information into four big categories relating
to genre conventions: Contents, formats, tone and diction, and constraints. In my unrevised WP1,
I talked about writing the name of the organization and the address in two separate paragraphs.
When I was revising it, I realized that the name of the organization and address are all part of the
contents of flyers, and I could put them together to make my essay more organized. Thus, I
changed the organization of my WP1 and talked about content at the beginning of my essay. I
also deleted the second to last paragraph and added more information in the content section. For
example, I added information about the titles of the flyers and the brief descriptions, and I
explained the information in detail using examples. In addition, I changed the thesis of my WP1
because of the advice from Maddie, a student advisor at the CLAS writing lab. She suggested me
to mention genre conventions in my thesis directly and to separate my thesis into two sentences
since it is so long. Hence, I revised my thesis and talked about genre conventions in it. On top of
that, I also took the advice from Ms. Bocchino and talked about the relationship between the
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function and purpose of a flyer and the genre conventions in my conclusion. Adding this in my
conclusion helped me answer the prompt more clearly. Then, I fixed some grammar errors in my
WP1. I noticed that I tend to use unnecessary words like “the” and “as.” For example, instead of
saying “the best way to spread information is to send out flyers,” I said, “the best way to spread
the information across is to send out flyers.” So, I tried my best to fix all grammar errors in my
essay.
On the other hand, I did not alter as much in my WP2 because there is not as much space
for improvements. However, I corrected my mechanical errors, revised my thesis, and added
more information in the section that talks about the contents. I changed the thesis for WP2
because of Ms. Bocchino’s comment: this is more like a road map compared to a thesis. Thus, I
revised my thesis and talked about the exact differences between the two disciplines. I also
explained the information in the content section in detail and added footnotes when I
summarized the contents from the article. When I was revising the WPs, I received a lot of
feedback from others. The most helpful feedback is mentioning the problems directly, such as
comments help me realize my weaknesses precisely and make it easier for me to revise.
The work in this portfolio demonstrates that I have improved my writing skills and
understood the basics of genres and genre conventions. I am able to write a better thesis to
answer the prompt and include more examples to support my ideas. I am also better at organizing
the information in my essay. Moreover, I learned a lot of skills that I can apply in my future
writing throughout the course. I understood how to analyze the genre conventions for different
genres and recognized the importance of understanding them, and I can use the genre
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conventions to help me write more effectively in the future. I also learned how to find
peer-reviewed articles through the databases, which will benefit my writing throughout college.
Most importantly, I learned how to read like a writer and apply useful techniques in my writing.
Read like a writer is a technique that I can use for the rest of my life to improve my writing.
Overall, I learned a lot from this course. I improved my writing skills, learned to read like
a writer, knew how to reflect on my writings, and examined the different genres and genre
Works Cited
https://openenglishatslcc.pressbooks.com/chapter/genre-in-the-wild-understanding-genre-
within-rhetorical-ecosystems/.