Abu-Hassan 1

Halimah Abu-Hassan
Olivia Rines
UWRT 1101
26 April 2015
Final Reflection
I have now spent an entire semester taking UWRT 1101 with my professor Olivia Rines.
Throughout the semester Olivia has guided the students in learning how to write at the collegiate
level. Olivia has taken the class through a variety of exercises in order to strengthen our writing
for the future. Each class is started with a writing activity, which is called our Daybook entries.
Every week there is something to submit on the discussion forum, which is on the Moodle page.
In our daybooks we also document our in class activities such as charts, lists or any anecdote
Olivia asks us to put in the book. We also had two lengthy papers to write during the class the
genre analysis, and the micro-ethnography. All of the assignments in the class have made me a
well-rounded writer. Hopefully all of my work will be showcased in my portfolio.
For the daybook entries we start each class with writing to a prompt of If you could
which followed a variety of topics such as; if you could eliminate one event from history what
would it be? If you could be vice president for one president who would it be? And other
questions that followed the If you could format. The daybook topics were meant to get the
students to think creatively and get their mind in the mindset to start writing. The daybook
entries also belong in our final portfolio and should show how we have grown in our ability to
write creatively when we are given strange topics to write about. I enjoyed writing about things
such as what memory you would want your children to have. I liked any daybook entry that had

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me reflect on my childhood or think about my future. In my daybook I included ones that were
my favorite, which hopefully showcase things that I care most about.
Our in-class experience is always changing because we do not repeat anything that we
do. In class, Olivia emphasizes how important it is for the class to be able to criticize each other
and give our fellow students constructive criticism. In class we are told to write small anecdotes
in our daybooks we have written a satire after discussing one with the class. We have filled out
charts in order to help guide our papers. When we discussed Swales 6 characteristics of a
discourse community Olivia had us make a chart with each characteristic and make sure we
could fit information from the community we chose to do our micro-ethnography on. The chart is
showcased in my portfolio, because of its importance in the creation of my micro-ethnography.
Once finished discussing the chart with a partner we put it in our daybooks. In class we also go
over pertinent material that relates to our papers. Olivia provides step-by-step instruction in class
and makes sure that all questions are answered. In class we are also required to participate so
everyone has to interact with each other. This allows us to share our ideas freely and make sure
that the class is open with each other. Peer editing was one of the most helpful parts of the class,
seeing how other students with the same level of expertise as me edit my papers helped me to see
them in a different way.
One of the most constant genres that we have going on in the class aside from the
daybook entries are the discussion forum posts. Each week we are usually provided with two
pieces of literature on the Moodle page and then we are required to give at least a 300 word
response to the prompt and provide a 100 word response to one of our classmates response to the
prompt. Usually the literature on the Moodle focuses on informational pieces that are supposed
to aid us in writing our micro-ethnography and our genre analysis, the two main papers that we

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worked on during the semester. The discussion forum also was useful as a writing lesson. The
discussion board exercises and readings were usually much lengthier than what we are assigned
in class and where a majority of our lessons came from. I chose certain discussion forum posts to
put in my portfolio because they were fairly old and should show how my writing has grown. On
the Moodle page, there are usually many supplemental links that Olivia has provided to us as
examples for what she is looking for when we turn in an assignment.
The first major paper that we were assigned as a class was the genre analysis. The class
was studying the definition of what genre is and what it extends to. Everyone in the class had
their traditional definition of genre changed in a matter of two weeks after reading the assigned
course material on the topic. Each student was expected to understand all the roles genre plays
and all the different types that there are. We learned that you could find genre in almost anything.
For the genre analysis paper Olivia gave all the students two days to pick their topic from a long
list of different genres. I chose to do my project on the genre of political cartoons. In my findings
I learned how to define the genre and why political cartoons are multifaceted. The genre is very
broad many political cartoons use satire and comedy to get a message across, but the point of
them is to send a strong message to the readers. Political cartoons use alternative mechanisms of
communication other than words in order to connect with different audiences and make the news
more interesting. Through my research I learned that one must be able to interpret multiple
literacies in order to understand every genre. In my portfolio I intend to show the viewers that I
have learned exactly what the genre of political cartoons is made up of. I feel like this paper was
the most complicated assignment for me because I struggled with how to define the genre of
political cartoons. The articles that explained things used complicated lexis, which made it
sometimes hard for me to really comprehend what I was reading.

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The last major assignment that we have been given is the micro-ethnography. Weeks prior
to being assigned the micro-ethnography Olivia posted multiple papers on the Moodle that
outlined exactly what an ethnography is and what she would be looking for. Prior to being
assigned the paper we also studied through John Swales what exactly makes up a discourse
community. Swales breaks genre down into six categories and through our paper we were
supposed to show that the community we studied met all six of the criteria. For the assignment
the students were required to pick a community, get it approved, do at least three 30-minute
observations, two interviews and write down field notes. Once we have collected all of the
observations and conducted our interviews we were to start compiling the information into a
paper. The paper is supposed to prove that we studied a discourse community and that we
understand exactly what a discourse community is. I enjoyed this because prior to choosing to do
my project on the soccer team I had very little knowledge about how college sports work. After
doing the project I feel like I have a lot more respect for student athletes. I think this assignment
was my favorite because I got to spend time with people I usually never would and ended up
actually enjoying it.
In general I believe that I have grown as a writer from the beginning of the class for a
variety of reasons. Before the class I do not think I always stuck to what a rubric was looking for.
Now I pay closer attention to make sure that what I am writing fit the criteria of what is asked of
me. I learned how to research better and wrote papers on topics I had never done before. The
things we wrote about challenged my creative side and my ability to follow instruction. None of
the assignments were painful and overall the class was a good experience for me.