Selena Ruiz

Writing 2

Metacognitive Reflection
December 5,2015
Metacognitive Reflection

During my Spring Quarter of 2015, I took a Writing 1 class with Professor Mehler.
Having taken this course, I felt pretty confident walking into Writing 2 because l thought it
would continue on what we learned. In my Writing 1 class, our main focus was on research
papers and how they were formed and written. After taking this course, Writing 2, I realized that
in my Writing 1 class we only learned about the conventions of a research paper, but not about
any other genres. Being able to learn about how genres work and being able to depict certain
conventions in each genre has benefited me greatly. Now, that I have a broader idea of what
genre is I am able to write comfortably on any topic opposed to what I leaned in Writing 1,
which was only targeted towards research papers.
In our first prompt we were told to choose one topic and one genre with three
corresponding texts. As I read through the prompt, I felt a bit confident because to me it felt like
a research paper. When the time came to write my first PB, I was beyond confused. I chose
restaurant reviews as my topic and I quickly noticed that I did not know the conventions that
were in a review. In one of our readings, Navigating Genres by Kerry Dirk, he mentioned that
learning about genres and how they functioned was the way to become successful when writing
about an unknown subject (Dirk 259). In Dirks article, he happens to mention an example where
he had to research on how to write a letter to cancel a late fee on a credit card. I followed Dirks
steps and decided to research on how to write a restaurant review, which helped me continue
write my PBs and later my WPs.
For all of my WPs I was able to use the readings to guide me as I wrote all of my
assignments. Having readings that actually correlated with the assignments helped me prepare

for many of the PBs and WPs. As the course continued, I was able to use these steps to help
guide myself to write the best paper. When I would write my first drafts I took Anne Lamotts
idea that everyone always has shitty first drafts (Lamott 4). Your first draft is a place where you
can write whatever comes to your head, but can also be looked at as a freestyle type of writing.
Being able to get all of your ideas on a paper before organizing it into a proper format for an
essay has helped me tremendously. During my Writing 1 class Professor Mehler, also took this
approach and actually told us to do exactly as what I said above; write all your ideas on the
paper, dont worry about the format, and just create a shitty first draft. For many of these
assignments I followed Professor Mehlers strategy and I was able to find my way to my paper.
When you introduced the reading Shitty First Drafts by Anne Lamott I was hoping for a similar
assignment, but being reminded of this it brought to my attention that with every class I can take
what I learned and bring it into another class.
As the quarter went by I as able to see how my way of thinking as a writer changed.
Before this class the way I began to write a paper differs to how I begins a paper now. Before, I
would only write small bullet points and from there start my paper. In Writing 2, I found the
project builders useful to collect my ideas and then I would write a shitty first draft. Later, I
converted it into my second draft, but not my final draft. I have learned that when I am able to
collect my thoughts and write about the topic beforehand, I am able to fulfill the task easily. Not
only did the project builders help me with my WP, they also helped me choose a topic. For both
of my WPs I first had different topics in mind. Then, as I began writing my PBs I noticed that my
topics were not good enough in my own criteria to create a WP on. Thus, I will have a different
topic when the second PB came along or maybe the WP.

Now, by having a different approach with my writing preparation, learning about genres
has brought to my attention that a person doesnt have to know everything about every format in
writing. As Dirk mentioned, if you want to be able to write in a different topic that you are
unfamiliar with, you have to familiarize yourself to that topic (Dirk 260). Once I familiarized
myself with a new genre I was able to bring in rhetoric. In our WP2 we were told to find two
articles with two different genres. With both articles we had to find what the scholars were
arguing and how they were able to provide evidence. Being that rhetoric means to be able to
persuade in writing or speaking, I learned that if I look for an argument it can help me
comprehend the genre it is being written in. It also helps me find the purpose of the article and
help create a valid argument for my paper. I have also noticed that when I take the time to break
down an article, it becomes easier for me to understand the article from the authors perspective.
Although I have found that breaking down an article was helpful, it is not an easy
process when looking for the genre and rhetorical purpose. With each PB and WP, I realized
that with every practice assignment we did it assisted me for my papers. In every PB I was able
to find practice when I was reading the articles. For WP2, I was a bit fearful because finding
articles that had arguments became a challenge for me. Once, I was able to choose my articles
finding the argument came easily. During class we had practices exercises that helped me find
arguments and the authors purpose. Using class time to help many students, such as myself,
practice looking for arguments in a paper is one thing that students could benefit from.
Aside from what I struggled with, in this Writing 2 class I found many of our exercises
helpful. In the beginning of the quarter we were told that peer editing was going be huge in this
class. At first I was a bit nervous and a bit embarrassed. I am not as comfortable as other when it
comes to people reading my papers, but if it will help me I am willing to try it. There are two

exercise that I felt that I really could use on in my further writings. The first example is when we
were told to read someones paper aloud. By doing this, we helped the author see what might
errors he/she has made. When my paper was read aloud I knew what needed to be fixed to
improve my paper. I noticed that I tend to repeat many words and by hearing it from someone
else, I was able to depict what needed to be changed. I know this technique for editing has
benefited me outside of Writing 2 because I have already practiced it. I had a close friend read
one of my papers for Art History and I noticed all my errors. Having another option to go by to
edit a paper also came in handy. When we rotated seats to edit our classmates papers, I
benefitted greatly from it. We each had to look for a certain topic that needed improvement or
that was done well. The reason why I think many students benefited from it was because we had
feedback from 5-6 classmates opposed to just 1 or 2. I have yet to try this technique, but I know
if my paper is seen from different perspectives I will be given great advise as to what I need to
change.
In this class I noticed that there were many freshman and only a handful of sophomores. I
did feel a bit intimated because I knew that I had to take Writing 1 before this course, Writing 2.
As I look back to both of the courses, I learned that I have benefited greatly from both. I learned
new tricks that have made me become a better writer. Although, I know that I still need to
improve in certain areas, but I have grown in a sense of finding an argument and being able to
depict a genre. I have also improved my researching skills that I can continue to use in many
other classes. As I continue to grow as writer I hope to improve my structure, thesis, and
grammatically in all my papers.

Works Cited
Dirk, Kerry. "Reading on Writing." Navigating Genres. Vol. 1. N.p.: n.p.,
Print.

2010. 249-62.

Lamott, Anne. Shitty First Drafts. Language Awareness: Readings for College Writers. Ed. by
Paul Eschholz, Alfred Rosa, and Virginia Clark. 9th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2005:
93-96.