Shuai Yuan
Reflective essay
After taking Writing2 this quarter, I learned the translation of writing styles and
genres which would appear in people’s daily lives. This is my first to make translation
of genres. I cannot imagine that I would translate the academic essay to genres that
appear in people’s daily lives.
In WP1, the professor required us to find an academic essay that we are interested
in and taught us how to read like a writer. During learning this part, I learned that in
order to become a perfect writer, I need to ask questions about the essay which I read
during reading. For example, in the book, “How to read like a writer”, written by
Mike Bunn, he mentioned that when people read an essay which start with a short
quote from President Barack Obama about the war in Iraq, people may read it without
thinking. However, as a writer, we need to think about why the writer would quote the
sentence in this place, what if the essay began with a quote from someone else and
what if it was a much longer quote from President Obama. Bunn’s words are surprised
me because I never ask this kind of questions when I read an article. It is practical for
me to read articles in the future because this approach can help me to practice my
ability of thinking and to understand articles more deeply. Before Writing WP1, the
professor also taught us about the classification of genres and divided them into
different type. During this part, I learned the meaning of genre and found out that
genres is everywhere in my daily life. Lisa Bickmore mentioned that the genre would
sometimes have their formulas. They would be changed in a situation. I think it is
reasonable because in one genre can be used in different situations. During WP1, it is
an interesting part for me because it is my first time to write the novel which I choose
to translate. Because of time limit, I only write the start of the novel. If there is no
time limit, I believe I can finish it and the novel would be wonderful.
In my WP2, my professor required us to find a topic about the difficulty during
my study life and find the articles about the topic. After this, we need to create a
conversation with the authors of the articles we found in order to help us to solve the
questions. At first, the professor guide us to recall the difficulties during study and
lead us to find the articles about the difficulties in order to find answers. During this
part, I learn how to find article by using UCSB Library System. This is my first time
to use UCSB Library System and found out it is too convenient to find articles. In the
future, I would use the systems more frequently when I need to find sources. In the
course, I also learned the use of punctuation to show the emotion of characters and the
use of grammar. Craig Hulst mentioned that grammar is a tool that help people to
communicate with each better. Therefore, it is important for writing to use grammar.
During Writing WP2, I used the genre meeting report and show the author’s opinion
about my question. However, I also meet some difficulties during writing WP2. When
I found the article about my topic, I can find the name of the article but cannot find
the link of the articles or there is no introduction about the author in this article.
Therefore, I had to find other articles. It spent me too much time finding. Because of
the time limit, I just write a little about the topic. If I get more time, I could extend the
conversation in order to make it more diversity.
In conclusion, Writing2 courses helped me learn more about genre and writing.
During study, I meet some difficulties. For example, when I did the translation of
genres, I did not know how to translate the citation or a short quote from famous
person to the genres I chose. However, after thinking, I realize that I can translate the
citation and quote to traditional story or a speech from the author. This way helped me
have more clear recognition about the genres. During the Writing2, the genre I like the
most is fantasy novel because I like to read the fantasy novel and I can write what I
like in fantasy novel. What is more, fantasy novel helped me avoid many difficulties
because I can use fantasy to explain anything. Finally, I am really lucky to take
Writing2 course. It helped me too much on writing and this course taught me many
practical strategies such as grammar and reading. I would keep using the strategies
learning from Writing2 in the future’s essays.
