Dear Roberta,

1 want to begin by stating that this Writing 2 class was eye opening, as I never
knew the steps that were required to write a well-structured and detailed essay. Through
the use of evidence, to writing a correct thesis, to revising my paper over and over again:
this class has seriously changed the way I write formal, informal, academic, and nonacademic papers. The main rule to writing these different types of papers is to look at the
genre that you are writing in, analyze and describe its conventions, and using this
analysis, carry out your own analysis of the genre and how it relates to the main topic
overall. Even though we only used MLA format, I learned how to cite my evidence
correctly, as I included a works cited page in all of my Writing Projects, and used
Stedmans article, Annoying Ways People Use Sources in my Writing Project 3 to
further my understanding of the use of evidence and citations. The articles that we read
were very interesting, and I will definitely refer back to them in the future. Revising
papers was also something completely new to me. In the beginning, I did not know how
to formulate constructive criticism and suggest ways in which other students could
improve their work, but when I read the revisions that my peers made on my first essay, I
learned what to look out for in the essays of other students.
The peer revision was critical to my improvement in this class as I always went
back and improved my work. I believe that from my first Writing Project to Writing
Project 3, there was a big improvement in the way I formulated my ideas and expressed
them on paper. I learned what was important to discuss and to always relate my
arguments back to my thesis. In addition, one thing I would have liked to learn more
about was grammar. I understand that this course focuses on the overall writing process,

and less on the minor details such as sentences flowing correctly and correct grammar
use, but I think that I still need to improve on my grammar usage, run on sentences, and
subject-verb agreements. However, I have the Hacker/Sommers Manual to help me out!
I revised Writing Project 1 and Writing Project 3. I chose these two projects
because I wanted to use the analysis I wrote for my WP1 to help me write one of my open
genre essays. Also, I wanted to revise my WP1 because it was the first essay I wrote for
this class, meaning that it lacked a good thesis, the correct use of evidence, and flow
between each paragraph, as we learned about writing and formatting an essay throughout
the ten weeks; not just in the first two weeks. I therefore wanted to include all of what I
learned in these ten weeks and further improve my WP1. In addition, even though I
received a 100% on my WP3, I chose to revise my open genre pieces and my
metacognitive reflection paper because I am planning on submitting it to the USCB
Book, Starting Lines. I wanted to make sure that there were no grammar mistakes, that
my essay contained a well-developed thesis.
In my Writing Project 1, I basically wrote my entire essay again (from beginning
to end). I added a stronger thesis and made sure to relate my argument back to my thesis
in each of my paragraphs. I corrected my grammar, and analyzed evidence the way in
which Stedman suggested. I added topic and concluding sentences to each of my
paragraphs, and made sure to specify what each paragraph would be about in my opening
sentence. I also added citations, more quotes to support my arguments, and made sure to
write and express my thoughts clearly by explaining each of my arguments in detail. My
WP1 essay ended up completely different to the one I first submitted, as I had so much to

improve on. I not only revised the context and arguments of my essay, but I also divided
my ideas in a way that made my essay flow better.
For my WP3, I revised the minor details such as grammar and punctuation. I
made sure that I analyzed each of my open genre pieces, and that I included enough
evidence from both of my open genre pieces to support my metacognitive essay. Even
though my revisions were minor details in my WP3, it was definitely the hardest one to
revise, as grammar is something that I still struggle with.
I scheduled a meeting for Writing CLAS so someone could revise my draft and
show me what I could improve on. One of my problems was not explaining my
arguments in detail, which I further developed in both of my Writing Projects. I think that
you will definitely see a great change in my WP1 there is much more detail, analysis, and
use of evidence than before. The whole structure of my essay is improved, and I even
improved my punctuation! I also refereed back to the chapter I was assigned to read on
the last week of classes about Emphasis. I deleted all of the jargon and unnecessary
information from both of my WPs and added the main point at the end of each sentence
to emphasize my arguments.
My favorite part of this portfolio was editing my Writing Project 3, depending on
the genre conventions I was analyzing. Even though I believe WP3 was the hardest
Writing Project, I really enjoyed making a Buzzfeed article, and choosing all of the
different memes, GIFs, and images to go along with each step. I also enjoyed editing my
interview of the Times Magazine. It was very fun creating the templates, and adding the
specific colors and pictures, to make my open genre similar to the conventions of an
actual interview in the Times Magazine.

This portfolio not only shows what I learned this quarter, but also the extent to
which this class helped me improve my writing skills. I wrote about topics that interested
me, and I think that choosing my topics really helped me dedicate lots of time into
researching and analyzing my argument and genres in detail. My portfolio reflects my
improvement from how I wrote in the beginning of this class to the end of these ten
weeks. I have saved all of my notes, essays, articles, and free writes so I can look back on
them when writing an essay in the future. I now know how to write towards a
professional audience, towards a young audience, and even towards teenagers. I know
how to change my writing style depending on having to write academic and nonacademic essays, and to always revise my essay. Thank you for all the help!

Sincerely,
Michelle Martin Lozano