Dear Matt,

I want to start off by saying thank you for teaching Writing 2 this quarter. Writing 2 was
one of the few classes that Ive taken during my time at UCSB where Ive learned a lot of
content that will be useful not just for the rest of my academic career, but for the rest of my life.
Throughout the process of writing and revising I learned that we all start off with shitty
first drafts and that is why there is a need for multiple peer-editing sessions and revisions. I really
liked the peer-editing sessions because I was able to receive great feedback that helped me when
I was editing my essays for the final WP submissions and my final portfolio. I also found it
helpful when we read each others essays out loud because I was able to recognize the flaws in
my essay whenever my partner had a hard time reading certain parts of my essay.
I was always mediocre at writing, but Ive definitely learned a lot of skills and techniques
needed to become a better writer by taking this class. I learned that theories such as genre, genre
conventions, audience, and rhetoric are essential to writing an essay and that techniques such as
conciseness, simplicity, introduction: problem model, and information flow are need to refine
your essay. I especially never really considered the writing theories we learned about this quarter
when I used to write essays up until this point, but learning about these theories helped me
improve my writing skills substantially. By taking this course, I was able to take another step
closer to figuring out what my writing style is like. Ive also learned which techniques Im good
at and which techniques I need to spend more time on. I especially had a hard time with
conciseness; my essays would always contain overused phrases and unnecessary words to
lengthen my essay and because I thought it sounded good. The video, Conciseness, we
watched during class helped me have a better grasp on what to do when trying to make my

sentences shorter and to the point. I also had a hard time with constructing my thesis because it
used to always sound like I was stating something instead of arguing something.
I chose to revise my WP1 and WP3 for my final portfolio. The reason why I chose these
two drafts is because I felt like there were mistakes and flaws that I made and wanted to change
so that I could come up with a stronger essay. I also enjoyed writing these two WPs more than I
enjoyed writing WP2. I started off by re-reading the feedback I received from you and the
students who peer-reviewed my essay. I took these things into deep consideration and altered my
essay to better fit the recommendations.
For WP1, I changed the entirety of my thesis because I felt like I was claiming to like one
genre over the other, but it wasnt really justified. I worked a lot on conciseness because I
noticed that there were way too many unnecessary words in my sentences. I had to carefully pick
and choose which words and sentences to include to help the overall flow of the essay. I
rearranged some paragraphs and separated each idea/point into a different paragraph. I also
condensed the introduction a significant amount and started my essay off by talking about boba
tea shops instead of discussing writing theory.
For WP3, I started off by revising my genre translation. I originally wrote the inner
monologue of a five-year-old, but I decided that it didnt really relate to the article I chose, so I
changed it to an inner monologue of a nine-year-old. I included more specific citations that I
translated from the original article into my genre translation to provide more evidence in each
paragraph of my essay. I also made sure to cite myself when I took information from the inner
monologue that I wrote. I added more analysis to each evidence I provided to explain why I
made each decision and to explain why it was important to the genre translation. I clarified the

audience of my inner monologue by stating that, the inner monologue is targeted towards
people who work for CPS; to compel them to make reasonable, empathetic
decisions (Catherine).
The feedback that you gave me on each WP was very thorough and helped me realize
which parts I was lacking in on my essay. I liked how you were very direct about what you
wanted to see in my essay. I also liked how you gave your own suggestions to get me thinking in
a different perspective. I like my WP3 more than I like my WP1 because I think it was easier for
me to understand the prompt. WP3 gave me more room to be creative. I really enjoyed and like
the inner monologue that I wrote for the genre translation.
Although I did gain a lot of knowledge and skills from this class, its hard to say that Ive
mastered every single concept. I still want to improve on writing my thesis because I feel like
Im always not confident about my thesis statements and that its lacking in some part. I also
want to continue to improve on conciseness and vocabulary use. My transition sentences have
been getting better and a few peers have pointed out that my transitions are good, but I still want
to improve them so the reader can read my essays smoothly.
The work in this portfolio reflects all of the things that I have learned during this quarter.
I was definitely more aware of genre, genre conventions, and audience when I was writing and
revising my essays and paid close attention to the techniques that I was using. I took the readings
we read throughout the quarter and incorporated them into my essay. Ive changed as a writer
because every time I read something, I try to recognize the genre, conventions, and audience and
it has been most useful in my History 2A class. Also, I now write/revise my thesis after Ive
written all of my body paragraphs because I feel like it gives me a better understanding about my

own argument. The writing skills I learned this quarter will not be taught in any other class that
requires writing, but I am privileged to have been taught these things that I will use for the rest of
my life. I will apply the theories and techniques Ive worked on during this quarter when writing
things, whether academic or informal, in the future.
Sincerely,
Catherine Choi