Ariana Hernandez

UWP 1

12/14/17

Reflection Essay

The learning outcomes for UWP 1 focus on reading and composing knowledge, practices,

and attitudes in rhetorical knowledge, processes, knowledge of conventions, and research.

I now understand rhetorical concepts and am able to apply them. Rhetorical concepts

include audience, purpose, context, mode, and discourse community. In UWP 1 my audience

included my peers in class as well as my instructor. I wrote my essays knowing that my peers

and instructor went to University of California, Davis. I did not go into too deep of detail while

in my second writing assignment about the Memorial Union Games Area. I knew that my

audience was familiar with the area since it is considered the heart of campus. It was not

necessary to go into detail like that because my audience was already familiar with the area.

Process in this class involve reading and composing as recursive processes that vary

among individuals, genres, and contexts. In this class we wrote two major assignments that were

reviewed once by our peers and once by our instructor. I took all notes that were written by my

peers and instructor and applied them into my essay the best way I thought I could. In my second

draft of my first essay about my literacy narrative I was told by a peer to add more elaboration

and make it more personal. I added photos and more examples of my literacy development to aid

these critiques and enhance my paper.

Knowledge of Conventions involve the expectations of form, language, and format that

are shaped by discourse communities, genres, audiences, and contexts. In UWP 1 I took a look at

why I speak and write the way I do under certain conditions. Writing a research essay is a lot
different than writing a reflective essay. Research essays have more structure and a particular

focus. For audience even now, I am writing to a different audience than my other two writing

assignments. For my other assignments I expected my peers and my instructor to read the essay.

For this essay I expect only my instructor to read the essay so it is more formal and I am trying to

showcase more about myself than my other two essays. For my discourse community essay the

audience was people not apart of my discourse community. If I was writing for my discourse

community I may explain less and I would be able to reference peoples names without a

description afterwards.

Research involves collecting and analyzing data and engaging with prior knowledge on a

subject in order to make new meaning. I felt I did an effective job integrating primary research

citations into all of my work. For the first writing assignment I used examples from my life as

well as photos that I had taken. For the second writing assignment I used direct quotes from

interviews that I conducted, as well as my observations. I pulled from Facebook posts and

Facebook messenger messages that were integrated into my essay. However, secondary research

was more difficult. I only used secondary research for my second essay, and even then I know it

was not that well integrated. I couldnt find articles that directly applied to my discourse

community. I found two articles that somewhat related and more so got the ball rolling for my

second writing assignment, but I did not integrate citations into that essay. If I could go back, I

would search harder for research that applies to my discourse community or asked for more help

finding research, but while writing the essay I did not make secondary research a priority.

Metacognition involves the ability to reflect on rhetorical choices and composing and

reading processes. One choice that I felt was difficult for me to make was making my discourse

community project personal. I am apart of my discourse community, so I could add very

personal accounts. I felt that it was better if I kept my experiences to a minimum because it was a

research project. I did not want my observations or research to seem skewed because I put my

opinions and feelings into it rather than reporting data in the third person. I also had to put more

evidence into my second draft of the second assignment because I made some concepts

somewhat broad and therefore meaningless. By putting more examples the readers would have a

better hold on what I, as a writer, was trying to convey. If I had more time I would have liked to

put more interviews into my essay. While writing it I realized that these examples enhanced the

paper, but sadly it was only after writing the paper that I thought of better questions to ask.

With UWP 1 I will be able to read like a writer to better understand not only what I am

reading, but also what I am writing. I will question how I write and how that impacts the

reader. I have learned how concrete examples entice the reader and how writing about abstract

concepts diminishes my papers. I have also learned to take criticism more readily from my peers.

This will benefit my future revisions, when I ask for thoughtful revisions and can take them

without feeling offense.