Dear Sophia,

Writing is an acquired taste. Many are daunted by it at first but with continuous

experience, it becomes easier and grows on you. But for this process to happen, individuals must

be guided towards that end goal. And that is what you have provided me in UWP 1.

It started with the very first project we were assigned. The literacy map brainstorm. It

was there where you first presented to us the concept of a cover memo. In the beginning, I

thought the cover memo was just busy work and that it was essentially redundant. I wrote what I

thought you wanted to hear. After I turned in my first draft of the literacy map brainstorm, I got

feedback from you. You thought that my focus on audience was unclear. My brainstorm’s

audience was supposed to be you. However, you pointed out that my brainstorm did not seem

like I was writing to you. I was defining the different literacies which you already knew. After

gaining your feedback, I realized how helpful a cover memo is. Because I did not use my cover

memo effectively and look back if my brainstorm matched up with my intended audience and

purpose, the cover memo was useless to me. However, for the next draft I wrote, I made sure to

use it. The cover memo helped me follow what I intended my audience and purpose to be. I

completely changed my audience and purpose as I changed by brainstorm into a multimodal

map. I transformed it to become a children’s story book with my audience being children and my

purpose being to teach children about the different kinds of literacies and how they can be

learned in different places. However, I still had problems related to my literacy map. Keeping my

audience and the genre in mind, I was worried that I was making the book too complicated to

understand for children. I made sure to use small vocabulary words and limit the amount of text

on one page. However, after I received more feedback, I realized that by trying to make my book

simple, I had skipped out on elaborating each literacy in depth and truly educating what each
meant. I went with my next draft and made scenarios for each literacy I had in which the main

character had to go through a process to learn that certain literacy.

The next project we were presented with is the discourse community project. This project

introduced the component of research to me. However, it was not the kind of research I was

always used to writing with. In all of the writing classes I’ve ever taken, secondary research was

the only kind of research that we supported our arguments with. Primary research was never used

because teachers thought it was not credible enough to back up our argument. However, with the

discourse community project, we were able to not only support our argument with secondary

research, but we were able to conduct our own primary research. To me, it was quite new and

strange to write about my primary research. The discourse community project was one of the

hardest papers I’ve had to write in my life so far. I had a lot of trouble understanding the prompt

and writing to an assigned audience. I had no idea how to write to writing researchers or UWP

professors. It was a concept that was hard for me to grasp. Even though I was really intimidated,

I followed Anne Lamott’s advice and constructed a shitty first draft. I had written about the UC

Davis Circle K club discourse community which was a volunteer club and argued for all the

benefits that followed volunteering. However, after I was done I compared my writing to see if it

fit with my audience and purpose on my cover memo. This made me realize that the benefits that

came from volunteering had no relevance with my audience. Why would writing researchers and

UWP professors care about the benefits of volunteering? I decided to heed that advice and

actually started completely over. I chose a whole new discourse community to focus on. I chose

the cooking discourse community. I decided to focus on the cooking discourse community’s

various ways of communicating and the social processes that came with cooking to appeal to my

audience. However, that was still not strong enough to engage my audience completely. I
received more feedback from you when I went to our mini conferences and you guided me on

how I can more smoothly incorporate a stronger argument. I decided to use my definition of a

loose discourse community and redefine the meaning of discourse community. In my paper, I

focused on members of the community who have not gone through professional culinary classes

and cook at home to eat or as a hobby. These members would have different kinds of genres and

modes of communicating and would redefine the definition of discourse community. This

revision helped me not only make my argument stronger but also be more relevant to my

audience that I am writing to.

Lastly, this reflection essay. Even though this is just my second draft of this letter, it has

changed completely. After the feedback from my peers that I received and looking at their paper,

I decided to structure my essay differently. On my first draft, I talked about the different kinds of

learning outcomes and defined them. I did not really go into depth about the writing processes I

went through throughout my quarter with our different projects. However, with this draft that I

am writing right now, I decided to completely scrap my first draft and start a new second draft

with a more in depth look into my journey of writing for the different projects in this UWP 1

course. Also, one of my peer reviewers pointed out that my reflection letter seemed more like an

essay. I had structured it with the page numbers that read “Lee 1” on the top right and had the top

left include my name, date, professor, and etc. just like how an MLA paper would look like. I got

rid of all of those and decided to make it look more like a letter instead of an essay.

Through reading my last few paragraphs about the in-depth journey of writing that I went

through, you’ll be able to see that I have successfully hit some of my learning outcomes. I was

able to receive feedback on my work from you and my peers and incorporate the advice and

feedback that I have received many times and revise throughout my different and multiple drafts
for all of my projects which shows my understanding of processes. I was also able to go back

and reflect on why I wrote the things I did and edit what was working or what was not. I was

able to reflect by reading my cover memo to help me stay on track with my purpose and

audience and strategically place certain elements in my writing to fulfill them which shows my

understanding of metacognition. I was able to incorporate and cite my secondary and primary

research into my bigger argument. I was able to use my research methods to support the

argument that I was making which shows my understanding of research. At first, rhetorical

knowledge was something that was continuously hard for me to grasp. I always had trouble

understanding how to be relevant to my readers and how my purpose and content has to be

relevant. I had trouble grasping rhetorical knowledge with not just my literacy map but also my

discourse community. I think I still need a bit of work on understanding rhetorical knowledge

and hopefully that is something that comes with more practice in writing to different kinds of

audiences in different kinds of genres. I was able to understand the knowledge of conventions

through the discourse community project. With some thorough research, I was able to understand

the different conventions that a discourse community possesses. The different methods of

communication in my discourse community such as Facebook, Pinterest, cookbooks, etc. really

helped me understand the conventions that the cooking community used. I was really able to

understand that depending on the conventions of whatever is being written, each has its own

form and expectations just as how a recipe presented through Facebook would be very different

than a recipe presented through a cookbook. These conventions help readers understand a

writer’s ideas or purpose. I used conventions in my literacy map by using simpler vocabulary

words and using big fonts with less writing to fit the convention of a children’s book.
 Even though I have not completely perfected all of the learning outcomes, I strongly feel

that if we had more time in this class, I would’ve been able to expand and get a better knowledge

on each of these conventions through more practice and experience in writing through different

kinds of genres and audiences. Another revision I would make if I had more time with the

portfolio is I would have liked to spend a little bit more time revising my discourse community

project. I would have liked to fine tune it by putting in more research (primary and secondary)

and by being able to fine tune my conclusion. Even though I have included that my weakness is

my conclusion in all of my cover memos, to this day, I still feel like how I presented the

conclusion is abrupt. I have revised my conclusion many times and even included the feedback

that you and my peer gave to me. But I still feel like I have a lot to work on. I also feel like this is

because of my lack of proficiency in rhetorical knowledge. I feel like the conclusion would be

easier for me to write if I completely understood rhetorical knowledge and understood how to

apply my conclusion to my audience.

Looking back, I learned a lot in UWP 1. I know that I will carry all of the knowledge I’ve

gained in reading and composing and continue to apply my knowledge in my future writing

contexts. After UWP 1, I am required to take an upper division writing course. I feel like a have

a solid starting foundation with a few gaps that hopefully the upper division writing course can

fill. In this upper division writing course, I will make sure to apply what I have learned about

reading and composing in UWP 1. For example, when reading a very difficult and strenuous

paper, I will always make sure to look up long vocabulary words that I do not know and

highlight titles and subtitles that will help me understand the context of the material. For

composing, I will always start with a shitty first draft and include cover memos to make sure I

am using my metacognition. Most importantly, I will keep the learning outcomes that we worked
on throughout the whole quarter in mind as I have come to realize that they are really important

elements to composing.

This quarter of UWP 1 has been tedious but also very enjoyable. I learned a lot about my

writing. I used to think that there wasn’t anything more to learn about writing and that I was a

good writer. But taking this UWP 1 class, I honestly received a reality check. I had realized that I

wasn’t even writing to my audience but to myself, I did not care about what genre I was writing

in, and I always stuck with one form, the five-paragraph essay structure. But after taking this

class, I realized that there’s a lot more to learn and that there are a lot more components to

composition than I had initially thought. Overall, I took this class because it was a requirement

but it ended up teaching me how to become a better writer. However, it would not have

happened without you. I know this is sappy but I do genuinely appreciate the amount of care you

put into this class and how unique it is! Thank you for a great quarter Sophia!

Sincerely,

Hyewon Lee