Hannah Midyette

Olivia Rines
UWRT1101
April 11, 2015

Final Reflection Rough Draft

We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to
arrive where we started and know the place for the first time T. S. Elliot. I believe that
UWRT1100 is really where my journey as a writer began. Sure, Ive been writing since
elementary school, but no one has made it interesting or enjoyable for me until now. I
was always just pushing through as fast as I could to get a writing assignment done. But
theres something about the way we explored topics in this class that made writing essays
more enjoyable. As this semester comes to an end, I shall not only reflect on my
experiences in this class, but continue to explore until there is no more exploring to be
done.
In the beginning, it was me against an essay. To be more specific, our first big

Talcott Nichols 4/14/2015 7:21 PM

Comment [1]: I thought the intro was
pretty good, especially liked the quote.

assignment was a Genre Analysis on our choice of genre. In class, we had been exploring
genre for a couple of weeks, which was difficult because Olivia had us really expand on
the topic and our own definitions of genre. It was confusing at first, but learning that you
could find genre all around you was really cool. When handed this assignment, I chose to
explore the genre of horror movies as these are my favorite movies to watch. The process
of writing my Genre Analysis was different from high school in that we had to first write
a Genre Proposal and then turn in two different drafts for peer review. If you read

Talcott Nichols 4/14/2015 7:36 PM

Comment [2]: There is another comment
about this later where you refer to her as
our Professor. Perhaps you could
introduce her here a bit more straight
forward and then later she would already be
known.

Talcott Nichols 4/14/2015 7:24 PM

Comment [3]: If there is enough
difference between the two processes,
maybe you can talk about what it was like in
high school and how this process was
better.

through all of my drafts, the sentence structure and information improves. When it was
time to start working on my final draft, a lady from the writing center on campus came
into our class and delivered a presentation on how to revise an essay. This was helpful

Talcott Nichols 4/14/2015 7:25 PM

Comment [4]: A representative (It sounds
better I think)

because afterwards we made a checklist of what needed to be included in our paper and
like usual, I was missing quite a few things. In my final draft, you can see that Ive
improved by making details more specific and taking out unnecessary information.
The second big assignment we were handed was a Micro-Ethnography that
involved observing and interviewing a community. This assignment included an essay
and a presentation. In our discussion forums we read about Swales 6 characteristics of a

Talcott Nichols 4/14/2015 7:27 PM

Comment [5]: Transitioning to this
paragraph, maybe try mentioning that you
used things you learned while doing the GA,
in the ME.

discourse community and also how he defined a discourse community. In class we did
group work by picking a specific discourse community and then showing how it fits each
of the 6 characteristics. These smaller assignments helped me become comfortable with
the idea of a discourse community. I was really excited because I love learning about
different communities and how they function. At first, I chose to write my MicroEthnography on a specific sorority on campus, but was disappointed when none of them
answered my email. My next option was Starbucks. I have a lot of social anxiety so it
took about a week to build up the courage to ask Starbucks employees if I could
interview them. The experience was awkward, but in the end it was satisfying to know
that I had done it by myself. Im not sure my writing improved drastically, but again, my
information became more specific throughout each of my drafts. For my final draft, I am
working on improving how the paper flows. Everything is a little choppy and not
everything seems to fit together. The most enjoyable part of this assignment were the

Talcott Nichols 4/14/2015 7:31 PM

Comment [6]: This kind of seems like you
are trying to malign them (unless it really
did leave that bad of a taste), perhaps
rephrase this to say that you wanted to do
another community but it didnt work out.

presentations because I loved learning about everyone elses discourse community and at
the same time learning more about my peers.
Throughout this semester, everyday in class we were given a question to write
about in our daybook. I enjoyed this most because it gave us a chance to really think
about our opinions on different things. Im glad that we got to share these opinions with
each other. I think it brought us closer together as a class. Everyday in class we were also
assigned a discussion forum for homework. This was my least enjoyable part of the class.
Our professor would post an article or video and then we would individually write a

Talcott Nichols 4/14/2015 7:33 PM

Comment [7]: Could you expand on why
you think it brought us closer together as a
class?

small paragraph back. I only didnt like them because I thought they were tedious and
difficult to read even if I did learn something by doing them.
One thing Ive learned about writing is that it takes time. Before this class I would
sit down and write my essay the night before it was due. I couldnt stand the idea of
looking back over something to check if it was good enough. It was a real struggle for me
to grasp this concept even for this class, but since our Professor made it a requirement to
have change within our drafts I had to do it anyways. Id say my biggest success in this
course is learning how to not write a five-paragraph essay. Im not sure how I did it, but

Talcott Nichols 4/14/2015 7:37 PM

Comment [8]: Earlier you referred to her
as just Olivia, maybe you could say
Professor Olivia here.

its honestly made writing easier for me.

Growth means change and change involves risk, stepping from the known to the
unknown. I believe with all of these assignments, I have grown as a writer. Without all
of these assignments, I wouldnt have learned more about writing at all. I believe
improvement says it all. But I also believe that my attitude towards writing has grown in
a positive way. I feel more confident in myself and my writing now, instead of feeling

Talcott Nichols 4/14/2015 7:15 PM

Comment [9]: Does this have a source?

like I suck and everyone else is better than me. Hopefully I will continue in my writing
and my confidence.

Your reflection is very good so far. I think you did an excellent job describing the
assignments and talking about how you felt about each part of them. I think your
level of detail when describing the assignments was a great mid-point in explaining
enough that a stranger could understand, yet not enough to make it boring for us.
The quote in the intro was an excellent touch. If you are looking for more detail for
each section, try looking back at the four questions on the assignment sheet and try
to answer them for each assignment. It seems like the only thing you are missing is
the discussion of portfolio contents, probably like most people (including myself).
Excellent work so far.