Robbie Lee

Writing 2

20 March 2020

Cover Letter

This quarter of Writing 2, I believe I learned a whole new way to look at my writing. My

writing previously was mainly first order thinking, and much of my revision process was

checking for grammatical accuracy. Writing 2, however, provided a whole new perspective on

writing. The subjects that most struck me were the reading on first order thinking and the

reverse outlining method. Having read about first vs. second order thinking, I realized why some

people called my writing ‘choppy’. It was just a linear track of my thoughts, barely based off of

an argument. And the reverse outlines helped me to fix this by condensing my thoughts and

making sure that each paragraph related back to the main topic at hand, especially for the Final

Portfolio. My Final Portfolio drafts are far from perfect, as I believe I still have lots to learn

about improving the flow of my writing, but I think I improved their clarity and coherence a lot.

Having taken the class, I would define my writing style as wordy. Looking back at

Writing Project 1 and 2, I noticed entire sections of my writing were unnecessary and redundant.

Now, I feel like I’m improving with the knowledge I gained from this class, but I still have work

to do. If I had to choose anything to learn more about, it would be how to effectively analyze, as

I often feel like I confuse repetition for analysis.

I chose to revise Writing Projects 1 and 2, because by Writing Project 3 I feel like I had a

better grasp on what I was doing well and what I needed to improve. However, the first two

projects certainly displayed how far I have come. I chose to almost entirely rewrite Writing

Project 1. I felt like it was lacking a strong central argument, and there was very little evidence.
In my revision, I feel like my argument is not only stronger and more central to each paragraph,

but also I think I did a better job of actually answering the prompt. In the revision, I centered my

argument more around differences in the rhetorical situation rather than just being different in

general. I think my argument was a lot weaker beforehand, because I previously had claimed

that it was entirely different. Taking a look at how my argument changed, here is the thesis of

my original paper, “r/TIFU posts are, in fact, an entirely new genre, and one that not only stems

but also differs from its antecedent genres,” vs. the thesis of my revised paper, “I believe r/TIFU

has differentiated itself from its antecedent genres and can be classified as new primarily due to

differences in rhetorical situation.” In the revised version, rather than simply stating that the

posts are a new genre, I add in that the rhetorical situation is the primary explanation for how

they differ. This sets up the reader to better understand the coming paper, and it better focuses

my paper. Additionally, by focusing simply on the rhetorical situation as the driving force of the

differences, I left myself open to defend my argument against a potential counter later in the

essay. I recognize that the conventions are similar, but I argue that the rhetorical situation

ultimately differentiates the genres. Finally, I worked on general cohesion of the paper, as I

found the original to be a little choppy. Overall, the goals of my revision were a stronger, more

central argument with better supporting evidence and better flow.

For Writing Project 2, I felt like I had developed a stronger argument than project 1.

However, I did rewrite the first few paragraphs for readability and clarified my argument. In this

case, my thesis stayed relatively similar. However, I clarified why reproducible research and

clarity within the field were so important. I wrote an entirely new paragraph on why these are

such necessary goals of the field, and I believe that it strengthens my argument throughout the

rest of the essay. Next, I cut a lot of unnecessary analysis, which was prevalent in my opinion.
For instance, there was a section about colon usage that went over the top in analysis. I feel like

I was over explaining a fairly understandable point, and so I cut it out and summarized it with

one or two sentences. Finally, I really tried to work on the cohesion of my paper. I felt like a lot

of sections were dropped on the reader, so I worked on my paragraph transitions, along with

cohesion within the paragraphs. An instance of this is the paragraphs detailing the presentation

of evidence. I had a mini introduction of the types of evidence, followed by paragraphs for each.

However, I started with secondary evidence, which I found awkward in the original. Therefore,

in the revision draft, I deleted the introduction of the types of evidence and rewrote that

information in each specific paragraph. This way, I both summarized the important information,

and I improved the cohesion between the paragraphs. Overall, my goals of this revision were

less of an overall rewrite and more inclined towards strengthening my argument while cutting

unnecessary information and working on my cohesion.

In both my portfolio drafts, I believe that I have demonstrated my growth in argument

formation. My original project 1 was not a particularly strong argument at all, and I believe my

revision tackles the prompt a lot better. Additionally, while my project 2 featured a better

argument, parts of it were unclear or off topic. I believe my revision of that project focused it

more on the topic, while also increasing the readability and flow.

Writing 2 has helped me to understand all the parts of the argument and where I fall

short, especially in areas like clarity. However, I feel like I have made progress in this area, and

I am a lot more in tune with the process of forming a solid argument in a paper. In addition to

having stronger arguments, I believe Writing 2 has helped cohesion to emerge as the strongest

aspect of my writing. In the past, I only subconsciously thought about cohesion. Having learned
about it, I focus on it a lot more. I believe that my cohesion is fairly consistent in my writing,

which I cannot say for all aspects of my work.

In the future, I am most certainly going to utilize the reverse outline and the process of

building an argument. Both of these help me to collect my thoughts and will definitely apply to

any academic writing I may be assigned. I found both to be very helpful during my quarter here,

and I am sure they will continue to be so in the future.

Thank you for a great quarter, and I hope you and your loved ones stay safe during the

coming months!

Sincerely,

Robbie Lee