Sophia Ridgeway

Writing 2

Allison Bocchino

March 17, 2020

Metacognitive Reflection

Although my time in Writing 2 has been brief compared to my four years at UCSB, my

experience in this class has led me to grow as a writer. This can be seen in the progression of my

grades on the writing projects as I improved on each one. My growth as a writer can be

contributed to the in-class lessons, project builders, assigned readings and group projects. The

writing portfolio assignment allowed me to not only rework my essays but demonstrate my

improvement.

My approach to writing, reading and thinking has dramatically changed. For example,

before this writing class I just quickly read texts to find the main point however the reading

“How to Read Like a Writer” expanded the way I read. I now would try to interpret not only

what the author was conveying but why they are conveying it this way. This new way of reading

allowed me to break through the surface of the paper to discover the deeper meaning by putting

myself into the writer’s shoes. In addition, my approach to writing has improved as I now make a

plan for my writing before I start my essay. By completing a pre-write, I can gather my thoughts

and have a blueprint with the evidence that I will include which makes writing my essays easier.

Throughout the class, I learned about genres, rhetorical analysis, discourse communities,

revision plans, the writing process, and much more. When studying genres, I discovered that

each genre has specific characteristics which can be used to identify it as that genre. In addition,

academic disciplines differ based on what they are studying, the methods used to reach a goal,
and the writing style used. The differences of these academic disciplines also showcase how it

shapes the unique discourse community it is a part of. During that writing project, I got lots of

practice with Chicago style citations until I correctly learned how to follow the correct format.

One very beneficial thing that I learned was how to find peer reviewed academic articles on the

UCSB library website. During that writing project, I got lots of practice with Chicago style

citations till I correctly learned how to follow the correct format. When learning these valuable

lessons, I found that I learned best when I read about what we were going to learn before coming

to class. That way, when the teacher was going over the readings, it would be solidified in my

memory.

For my portfolio project, I chose to revise my writing project 1 and 2. I chose these two

because they were the essays with the most room for improvement and I received the lowest

grades on these projects. When I was revising these essays, I noticed that I had many main points

in one paragraph causing it to be very long and confusing. So, when I was revising both essays, I

had to split up the paragraphs to make my ideas more concise. I also noticed that in both papers,

my thesis in the introductions were vague and didn’t completely answer the prompt. After

looking back at the prompts for the paper and seeing what I had already wrote, I was able to form

a more detailed and concise thesis. For both papers, I had many run-on sentences which I had to

edit to make my paper more formal. In addition, when I embedded quotes as evidence, I didn’t

thoroughly explain the importance of them and how they connected to what the paragraph was

describing. By making this change, the quotes became less out of place which made the

paragraph flow better. I also had to revise a substantial amount of my footnotes because I messed

up on the format. I also had to add more explanations to back up my argument to make both my

essays longer. When revising, I found that looking back at the feedback that was given after I
submitted my writing projects by the teacher was very helpful in my revision process. The

broader things that the teacher pointed out helped me make a plan on what should definitely be

revised. After that I fixed all my grammar mistakes and started meticulously picking apart each

paragraph to make sure that I had the 5 parts of an argument. I was able to accomplish this from

the PowerPoint that was posted on Gauchospace called “PowerPoint slides on argument, quoting,

and citation” which I used as an example of what qualities each paragraph should have. I found

that I was missing the warrants for most of my ideas, so when revising I had to add that

information. Furthermore, I used the assigned reading “Randi Revision Strategies” to reverse

engineer my paper. This was very helpful in revising my essays since I was able to make sure I

had correct sentence structure and to make sure that I properly used subjects.

My work in my portfolio reflects what I have learned this quarter by including my

original and revised papers which shows the improvement I have made. By giving me the

opportunity to expand and revise my original writing projects, I was able to hone in on more

specific characteristics like style rather than doing a simple revision to find grammar mistakes.

By being able to revise the essays, I was able to use the whole course instruction to expand my

ideas and further convey my knowledge in the subjects. I have become a more sophisticated

writer as I am able to make a formal and concise argument. The strongest feature in my writing

is my elaboration because I not only bring in what I have learned in class but I also incorporate

my own thoughts which makes my discussion very elaborate in my essays.

What I have learned in Writing 2 can be applied throughout my academic career at UCSB

and throughout my career after college. Since, I am majored in the biology program, I can take

what I learned about the marine biology discourse community and apply that specific writing

style to my writing for STEM classes. In addition, I will be able to apply what I learned in this
course like how to build a strong thesis, how to cite correctly and how to structure a paragraph to

my future writing prompts. In addition, the grammar and sentence structure formatting I learned

in this class can pertain to making future resumes. Overall, what I learned in this class can be

applied to many future tasks.

During this course, I struggled with many things but also had fun with some lessons. For

example, I had a hard time with organizing my ideas and describing them through a thesis and

although I have improved, I still have much more room for improvement. I also struggled with

creating a catchy introduction and making a concise conclusion that wraps up the paper without

being repetitive or bland. However, I really enjoyed creating the third writing project because I

was able to show my creativity and elaborate on how I accomplished my translation.

Overall, I have had a great experience in Writing 2. I not only strengthened my writing

skills but I also learned about myself as a writer. Thank you for being an amazing teacher!!