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Kaitlyn Pike
De Piero
Reflection Essay
After spending my first two years of college in large lecture halls and the rare
accompanying section, I was honestly kind of nervous getting into a more intimate
classroom setting. I wasnt very confident in my writing skills either. In fact, the only
writings that I had actually put any effort or care into so far in my college career were lab
reports. Long story short, I did not feel prepared for this class in the slightest. But
walking in the first day, I was pleasantly surprised by the laid-back feel of the class. I was
so relieved to not have to analyze any novels or write about a strict topic with seemingly
endless requirements. I also was excited to learn that you can think of writing in a
scientific way, almost like an equation, if you follow a certain set of conventions, you get
a certain genre out! Contrary to what my week one self probably thought, I ended up
loving this class. The strategies and concepts I learned here transcend just a writing
course, or even an academic setting. I can apply this knowledge to any situation as long
as I am talking or writing!
The first couple of weeks, we focused on genre. The first journal question we had
from class two asked us what genres we were familiar with. Naturally, having only been
exposed to science classes so far in college, I responded with things like research paper,
lab report, and scholarly article. Looking back I probably would tell myself, Good start,
but you can get more specific. What types of lab reports? Chemistry? Biology? Physics?
Scholarly articles are a huge genre, youve gotta narrow it down. Now Id say things
like billboards as a genre or bathroom graffiti thanks to my classmates creative thinking!
As we dove more into genres, it started to finally click for me that genres werent these

Kaitlyn Pike
De Piero
abstract groups of writing, but that they were easily identifiable types of writing that had
really specific characteristics.
After we all finally started getting the point of how to get to the smallest nesting
doll of a genre, we started talking about the conventions that define any certain genre.
This was a pretty easy concept for me to grasp, especially with the great lessons Zack
provided us with. I started practicing this on my own with my PB1A where I gave a few
examples of the conventions of a movie review. I think I did a pretty good job here. I
noticed the obvious conventions like a rating on some sort of scale and a plot summary
without any spoiling details and honestly Im proud of how I wrote this. I started off the
quarter running and put a lot of effort into identifying different conventions. From this
assignment, I started to look at the other writing in my life and even began to look for
conventions within those genres.
One early lesson that I took a lot from was our reading and class discussion on
first and second order thinking. It took me a couple of weeks after that lesson, but even
now as I write this reflection essay, Ive developed the strategy of writing my first draft
as completely first order thinking. I get all of my thoughts out onto my paper and try not
to worry too much about anything but responding to the prompt and meeting the page
limit. After that, to Zacks advice, I let my papers sit overnight, then go back in the next
day or two and edit using second order thinking. Im doing this now! I started writing my
paper on Monday morning, let it sit overnight, and now Tuesday morning I am coming
back to it so that I can crisp everything up a bit! I think this was one of the most
important writing tips that I took from this class, and I think it shows in my revisions for
WP 1 and WP 2.

Kaitlyn Pike
De Piero
Going into WP1, I was a little scared. Writing about writing was a challenging
concept for me, and to analyze three different sources in one paper seemed overwhelming
at first. I decided to analyze chemistry course syllabi and looking back I wish I would
have done something more like my movie review for PB1A. My biggest challenge was
figuring out how to reference the syllabi in my paper, since it is not something I could
easily link to, like an opinion piece online. In my journal response from class five, I said
that I liked how specific I got with some of my conventions. I still agree with this too!
My analysis of the use of bolding, italicizing, and other textual emphasis tools was pretty
thorough. Ive definitely been able to take what I learned by analyzing those conventions
away from this writing course and put to use in my other classes.
I managed to connect my analysis in my WP 1 back to my thesis well enough to
get a decent grade, but my thesis had some problems of its own. I didnt take a definitive
stance, and Im not even sure if most of my paper related to my thesis. Luckily, Zack
commented some really helpful tips. The most important of these was the advice to step
up my thesis by ranking the syllabi, which I did in my revision! I decided to analyze Dr.
Bruices syllabus as the best, and compared the conventions of the other two syllabi to
her conventions and explained why hers was the best. This satisfies the arguability test,
since someone could sit in a chair across from me and argue against my thesis. WP 1 was
a big turning point for me, since I finally learned what it meant to step up my thesis
game. I really do apply this in my other classes now, and the feedback from this paper
really changed my outlook on what writing really is.
After figuring out conventions in WP1, we quickly went into the concept of
moves. In my thog five I thought to myself, We spent a whole class on the concept of

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De Piero
moves which probably means its going to be a huge factor in PB2A and WP2. If only
I would have known that from that class on, moves would pretty much be my whole
writing 2 life Moves were tricky at first (and for a long time after that) but I really like
how Annas reflection talks about them when she says that any feature of a writers
work could be called a move, as long as it could be justified (Anna 2).
Going into WP2, I was pretty confident given my score on WP1 until I figured out
we were going to nationals and Id be missing a week of class. Even with getting notes
from Steph and keeping up with the lesson plans, I felt like I missed some pretty
important things and it showed in my WP2 comments. I was pretty discouraged after
WP2 considering the time and effort that I put into the piece, which was something I
heard from a lot of my classmates. My writing morale definitely dropped during this
time, and it was a hard rut to pull myslef out of - but I feel like it was an important step
for me to take.
As far as actually writing WP2, I was really pumped about my topic. Researching
MDMA and other alternative treatments for psychiatric disorders is something Im really
passionate about, and what I hope to do in my future studies. I did enjoy writing WP2
because of this, but found it really difficult to pick out specific moves from a huge
scholarly article and compare them across disciplines, especially since I wasnt even
really sure what moves were. I was pretty overwhelmed by the amount of stuff in the
prompt, and definitely didnt have a clear focus for my paper. When I turned it in (even
after writing and editing probably three drafts of it) I still felt something was missing. As
much as it sucked, I really needed the tough love Zack gave me on that paper. The
comments helped me refocus my paper, and really get down to the so what, who cares of

Kaitlyn Pike
De Piero
what I was writing about. Before WP2, I thought that if I addressed enough different
things about the prompt in my paper it would be good and it would look like I knew a lot
of stuff. But now, looking back, this was pretty stupid. After WP1 and WP2, I realized
how important having a clear focus to your paper is, as can be seen in my journal
response from class 14, I learned that I need to really focus my writing. - No duh Kaitlyn.
WP 2 was crucial to my growth as a writer. How does anyone truly learn if they dont make
mistakes?

Thankfully not too late, focus was something that finally clicked with me in the
middle of doing my transformations for WP3. I was trying to get a solid start going, then
remembered that my transformations meant nothing if I couldnt work my article into
them. I went back about three or four more times trying to narrow down my focus in my
transformations and in my reflection. This is definitely a strategy I will be implementing
on this reflection too. As of my first draft, I really feel like Im lacking any kind of focus
but I want to get some ideas out and Ill probably come back to it another two or three
times before I turn it in. I am applying this strategy the second time around! I reworked
my intro to match more of the observations I made throughout my paper and Im making
sure that my paper is as linear as a reflection piece can be.
Anyways, more about WP3. At first I was like holy shit I am not creative, how
the hell am I going to figure out a cool, fun genre to transform this ecology piece into?
After a lot of internal arguing, I ended up doing the classroom worksheet for my younger
transformation and it is definitely the piece I am most proud of from the whole quarter.
There were so many moves that I noticed myself making, from the font choice to the
story telling. Not only did I notice myself making those moves, but I felt so confident

Kaitlyn Pike
De Piero
writing my reflection in this piece because I understood what I was doing. In my class
seventeen free writing, I said, I became hyper aware of the things I was doing as well as
the effects that it would have on my intended audience. I can really tell that Ive evolved
as a writer from just this one sentence. I now know how important it is to remember that
youre not writing for yourself, youre writing for other people to read your work and
they dont always think or read the same way as you. As a writer, you have to think about
the effect that your moves have on your audience and decide whether its a good decision
to make or not.
It sounds cheesy, but I really had some type of awakening this quarter in writing
two. I became so aware of everything that I was doing and writing about, and I frequently
used the strategies I learned here in my other classes. For instance, I just wrote a 10 page
essay for my comparative literature final on Monday afternoon and while writing my
thesis, I asked myself if I was really raising the stakes and if it was arguable or not. By
themselves, studying genres and conventions and moves and transformations all seem
like boring busy work about writing that cant possibly have real world applications. The
thing I learned this quarter though, is that all of that stuff really matters. It matters in
academia, it matters in your own writing, and it matters in life. Becoming aware of
writing through writing about writing was probably one of the most challenging things
Ive done in college, but definitely the most rewarding. The things Ive learned here, I
can apply to every class I will ever take, every job I will ever have, and pretty much
every day of the rest of my life. As long as I am talking, writing, and reading, the lessons
Ive learned the last ten weeks will be relevant. It took a long time to get there, but I
finally understand why everyone at UCSB has to take this class.