Anthony Grant

Mrs. Olivia Rines

UWRT 1101
8 April 2015
Reflection Of Writing During Spring 2015
This paper is to define my experience during university writing program 1101 during the
spring 2015 semester. Going into the course, I was assuming that I would not enjoy the class
very much due to my lack of writing a formal graded paper in more than ten years. I can say
now, that I enjoyed the experience received from participating in this course. After writing more
than twenty daybook entries, a genre analysis, micro-ethnography, and many discussions I feel
that the class offered me plenty of time to gain experience and confidence in my writing while
improving my writing at the same time.
In this class participation was required. If you came to class thinking you did not want to
talk you would quickly be pulled into a discussion. I did enjoy the open nature of the talks with
no pressure to respond in a certain way every time. The professor was very accepting of any
questions and answered them effectively as possible. This made the class environment calm and
accepting of each other. I thoroughly enjoyed being able to not feel awkward answering or
asking questions.
Daybook entries were an interesting facet of the writing class. I do not believe that the
daybook entries themselves improved my writing since they were not viewed or critiqued during
the course, however, I believe that it shows a progression of thought that grew during the
semester. During the first few entries, I was very stiff in writing, as seen in the portfolio, but
through the semester I began being able to allow my thoughts to flow more freely onto paper. I

did enjoy having a random topic that was chosen by a classmate to write on at the beginning of
classes to get my mind ready to tackle a period of writing that was about to occur. The classmate
would select a topic from the If book that suggests hundreds of what if scenarios so that
you have many things to that you could consider for your writing. I do not have a favorite topic
that I wrote on. I did enjoy hearing different people answer the same what if question in so
many different ways. It allowed individualism to show and actually be valued.
Discussion forums were not my favorite part of the class. Even though I am aware that
the forums were a necessary evil to make sure that I and my fellow classmates read assigned
materials, I believe that they were sometimes just a pushed thought struggling to reach the
almighty 300 word count and then the dreaded 100 words to elaborate again with another
classmates post. I struggled to be able to relate to the readings enough to get a good amount of
information out during these forums and even more so to find a classmate to talk to in their post.
The next day during class the discussion of the reading assignment was very enjoyable however.
I was able to understand better what I read and discuss any confusion with the reading with the
professor and hear classmates views on the same thing that I had read.
The genre analysis was a daunting assignment for me. The genre analysis was completed
on a topic that I chose, online satire. The analysis was to define the genre that online satire fell
into and define the framework that it held as defined under that particular genre. I began at a
very elementary writing style when first pushing out my first and second drafts of that particular
assignment. I enjoyed however the feedback that I received from the professor that was able to
show me things that I was leaving out in my writing. That second draft that was returned with so
much useful information about where I was going wrong with my first writing was invaluable.
After that draft I was able to start to have a template to work with when completing other

assignments, whether it the micro-ethnography or other classes all together. I am still struggling
now however putting into words the frameworks that the genre uses. I have reviewed the
selected readings that discussed genres, such as Navigating Genres by Kerry Dirk a few times,
but still am not sure if I am able to convey the message well, since I thought I covered it well the
first time I had written the draft.
This also led to one of my biggest successes, after receiving the review I was able to see
what a true peer review should look like. I was able to improve exponentially my next review
session that was during the micro-ethnography because I could now see what other people would
see in my writing as well as what to try to see in theirs.
The next topic is my micro-ethnography, I went into this assignment feeling quite
confident that I could at least write a draft that would make sense now. A study was to decide if
your community fit Swales six points for a discourse community. I completed my microethnography on a local restaurant. I must admit that I had fun with the assignment. It was
interesting to see that the restaurant did not fit the six points. After my peer review, I had very
few points to build on, however I was able to take a step back and remember some of the things
that I was critiqued on after the genre analysis and almost fully revamp my draft. Upon
receiving a grade for the draft, I was happy to see that I have indeed been learning and am
beginning to be able to implement tools that I have learned so far.
Thankfully the different investigative requirements for this assignment were not too
difficult. I do have some experience interviewing people, but the field notes didnt help me
much. The field notes felt underutilized. I do wish that the field notes were covered a lot better
in the future so that they would prove to be more valuable than mine did at this point. I am not

sure exactly how to go about this, but I do hope there is a way for this to happen for the next
semester of students that go through this course.
For my final portfolio I have chosen certain writing from my daybook and forums to
show a progression of thought and an increasing ability to convey messages easier. For each
writing, you will see them starting with a more elementary writing style and slowly increasing to
a more informed and better laid out presentation of my thoughts. As I have said previously I was
not a fan of the forum posts, but have tried to show my progression in discussing the different
readings. I have also included drafts from both my genre analysis and micro-ethnography and
they clearly show a progression in my writing style. Looking at the comments that I have
received after the final draft of genre analysis and then the micro-ethnography paper from the
professor do show that I have been able to correct most issues from the first paper into the
second.
This class was a very enjoyable class. The professor did a great job of making it an
accepting class while challenging every student. I have learned a lot from this course and plan to
implement as much as possible into other classes that I will take. I would keep the course mostly
the same for future classes with only the few slight adjustments that I mentioned earlier. I am
happy to have had the opportunity to step into being a more comfortable writer with a better skill
set than I had before.