Daisy Espana

Allison Bocchino

Writing 2

10 June, 2024

Metacognitive Reflection

As an incoming freshman into a high-end university, I was unsure of the type of writing

style or how my classes would go. Once I found out that we had to take certain writing classes to

help us improve, I was relieved because at least I wasn’t going in with no knowledge. Writing 1

was good, pretty easy to learn much of the material that was needed for Writing 2. In both these

courses I learned how to read and write at a university level. Now, when reading, I question the

author's purpose, audience, why they did this, how this helps their argument and much more. I

have been able to comprehend an author's text more since taking this class, and actually learning

how to read. I don’t read just because I have to, I understand what is being said, its meaning, and

why it is being said. This technique of reading, I learned from reading “How to Read Like a

Writer” by Mike Bunn1. Bunn mentions that “ The idea is to carefully examine the things you

read, looking at the writerly techniques in the text in order to decide if you might want to adopt

similar (or the same) techniques in your writing.”2 This part helped me learn that annotating

while reading is important; not just because we are asked to do it, but because it helps with our

writing. These annotations help me realize what is important to incorporate into my own essay

and what is not. Why should I include it or not, and to explain its meaning better depending on

the style or word choices. In my writing I outline before and try to incorporate my own ideas as

1
Bunn Mike, “How to Read Like A Writer,” Writing Spaces: Readings on Writings, (vol.2, 2011), 1
2
Bunn Mike, “How to Read Like A Writer,” 72
well as the ideas of another author. I try to include what I notice when reading through an article

so that my reader knows what is being said.

Throughout this course, reading and writing has not been the only thing I have learned.

This course has taught me that conventions are important in any article that has ever been

written. These conventions can be similar or different depending on the type of discipline being

mentioned. The conventions also depend on the type of genre the author is writing in. There are a

variety of genres but we may know what kind it is depending on the conventions. Some

conventions can be the same in different genres but there is always a distinction between genres.

This course also taught me about how important it is to reflect upon our writing. A reflection

helps us to edit and actually know why we chose what to include and why we chose that style.

Reflection was one thing that I struggled with since I never made any reflections before and had

no idea how to do them. Sandra L. Giles helped me with the process since she explains that we

should go section by section3. By doing this we are able to explain why we chose to do this in

this one part and not in other parts. Reflecting on our writings even just a little will help us

improve our writing. This course also taught me that being able to receive and give feedback is

important as well. The workshops that we had during class were helpful since we got to see how

others are writing and be able to incorporate it into our own writing. They helped me since I was

able to see what others thought of my writing and what I needed to fix so that it can be better

than before. It is good to have another set of eyes look at our writing since it may help us catch

mistakes we didn’t see. These workshops helped me a lot because I have always struggled with

writing and making sure that someone else who has more experience saw it made me feel more

confident. The comments I would receive would not be critical, they would make me feel like I

3
Giles, L. Sandra, “Reflective Writing and the Revision Process: What Were You Thinking?” Writing Spaces:
Readings on Writings, (vol.1, 2010), 196
included most of the stuff I needed to. Being able to see how others have written their essays

gave me ideas that I could include in my own.

As I was working through the revisions for my portfolio, I made changes based on

comments I received from students, the Professor, or little things I noticed. There are some

grammar fixes, I split some run-on sentences, included new sentences, and more. For example, in

WP1, Professor Bocchino commented that my paragraphs didn’t really explain the conventions

but summarized the article4. I went through my essay and realized that most of my paragraphs

did this. I kept some of my prior sentences to give more context into my evidence but deleted

some that weren’t really useful. I changed those sentences out to give more detail of how the

conventions help the discipline for each article. I explained their function and how they helped

the readers know that it has an intended audience. These were the main changes that I made to

my essay along with some minor changes that I caught and wasn’t really needed. Such as filler

words, I cut them out and went straight to the point.

For my WP2, there wasn’t much to change because I had most of the stuff down. I just

needed to add some details and fix some grammar errors. For WP2 I got a comment from Emma

Sarich in which she said that I should include more of my translation to the end of my essay. 5

For this I added more sentences but I added too much and it was repetitive so I deleted most of

them. For my overall translation there wasn’t much to change, I only added another subheading

for the list that I created and moved some parts around. For the reflection part of this assignment

Professor Bocchino commented that I should expand more conventions that I have used to

complete my genre translation6. I added more on the conventions and how certain types of

conventions in the article helped me with the translation for my infographic. I added from where

4
Bocchino Allison, comment on WP1
5
Sarich, Emma, comment on WP2
6
Bocchino Allison, comment pn WP2
I got my examples from for my infographic, which was from what I used to do back in high

school. Changed up one sentence from the intro because I didn’t need it in my writing. I deleted

it and added a new sentence at the end about genre translation. Fixed up some grammar errors or

run-on sentences that I caught while overlooking my reflection.

For this portfolio I like my genre translation. I had fun doing it and it came easy to me

unlike describing the discipline conventions for WP1. I struggled more with WP1 because it

really wasn’t as creative as WP2. If I had more time for these assignments I would’ve enjoyed

having WP1 have more of a creative twist instead of just writing about the articles. I know that

there are still some things wrong with both my assignments but so far I have liked how they have

turned out. If I had more time I think I would add more details into both my assignments and

include more conventions. Right now, I have a limit on pages and have a due date which is

somewhat difficult to handle, so this is the best I can do with how much time I have.

The work in this portfolio reflects what I have learned in this course since I have included

most of the material that we went over. I was able to write about genre conventions and

incorporate that into my genre translation. As for the reflection I was able to use the reading by

Sandra L Giles to complete it. Giles explained how a reflection should be constructed and that's

what I did with mine. I went step by step to figure out why I chose to do what I did.7 These

readings, the lectures, the group work, the workshops that were hosted in class helped me

become a better writer overall. I have changed as a writer because now I know what to write

when I am stuck. I can write about the conventions or the discipline just by reading an article.

My strongest feature now as a writer is the fact that I can write about a topic or article and know

exactly what to write because now I know how to annotate any text correctly. I may get stuck

7
Giles, L. Sandra, “Reflective Writing and the Revision Process: What Were You Thinking?”
still, but just by looking over my annotations or even reflecting will help me further give more

details when needed.

I still struggle with understanding some of the conventions that aren’t so obvious to

notice. As I continue to read more books or articles or any type of text, the conventions will be

more noticeable. I was also struggling with explaining the disciplines and their conventions

because I feel like once you have pointed it out, everything else said sounds repetitive. Some of

my favorite strategies that I liked throughout this course is the freewrite. Free-writing helped me

a lot because I would just write non-stop and then put it all together in the end. This made it easy

when I got stuck because I would just write about the part and then find a way to incorporate it

into my essay. Another strategy that I liked was when I would step away from writing and focus

on something else so that I wouldn’t get too stressed out over my essays.

Overall, taking this course this quarter will benefit me later when reading articles about

disciplines I don't know and need to know the conventions about. My writing skills have

improved along the way. I have new strategies that will help me when I am struggling or stuck

on something. These new things would help me anywhere not just in English class or in writing

class but in every class that I take from here on out. This course and Writing 1 have taught me a

lot about writing and reading at a university level.

Bunn Mike, “How to Read Like A Writer,” Writing Spaces: Readings on Writings, (vol.2, 2011),

Giles, L. Sandra. “Reflective Writing and the Revision Process: What Were You Thinking?”

Writing Spaces: Readings on Writings. vol.1, 2010.

Bocchino, Allison. Comment on WP1 and WP2. 5/15/2024.

Sarich, Emma. Comment on WP2. 6/5/2024.