Last Blog Post!!

Cheers Everyone! WE SURVIVED! 

Kincaid, M "success_baby1" 05/25/2013 via Flickr 

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Final Letter

Dear class,

Before taking first year composition courses at the University of Arizona, I thought I knew everything I needed to know in order to succeed in these courses, but I was wrong. I expected that by knowing the basic outline for a five paragraph essay, how to find sources for assignments, and how to write an introduction/conclusion, that I was going to have it easy in my English 101 and 102 classes. However, I soon realized there was still so much I hadn’t learned. Throughout the past 5 weeks, I have learned so much information about being a writer and a reader. Some of the most important things I have learned during this course include: identifying the type of reader and writer I am, approaching writing situations from a practical standpoint, and learning what a genre is and how to use different genres in my writing.

This course has made me realize that I am a writer who enjoys writing about topics that interest me. If a topic does not interest me, it becomes more difficult for me to write an excellent paper. When I am reading a book, article, or a paper on a boring topic, it is hard for me to stay focused on the reading material and then I get lost with what I am reading about. In high school I disliked most of my English writing assignments because they were never on topics that were of interest to me. For example, when I was a Freshman, I had to write a literary analysis on the Scarlet Letter written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. This was definitely one of the most boring essay topics I have ever written about! The assignments throughout this course have made me realize that I actually enjoy writing. I like being able to research topics that interest me and discuss different views of issues that are happening in today’s world. I believe that having an opinion on a subject that interests you is important because your voice makes a difference. Voicing your opinion on a subject that you have an emotional connection with allows others to understand the importance of an issue.

My writing process has become easier because of everything I have learned from this course. I have been able to gather enough information from credible sources for my papers. Before this course, I had never written an annotated bibliography. I think that these bibliographies help me write outlines of papers because I can look back at the short summaries to see which source fits in with my claims. I have provided a link to my first annotated bibliography here. Using clusters to help with my prewriting and planning stages in my writing processes have allowed me to succeed in writing a first draft for my papers. I used a cluster to help write my paper on police brutality. Revising my work based on reader’s feedback has helped me write successful final drafts. I enjoy reading comments from my peers and instructors because they are able to provide me with important suggestions on how I can improve my work. Reading my peers’ blog posts and drafts of major projects has allowed me to understand the peer-review process in greater detail. I feel more comfortable providing feedback for my peers and giving them suggestions on how to improve their work. In one of my peer’s project 3 drafts, I stated that “The first sentence sounds a bit choppy. I would say “Let our children get the help they need to succeed by getting… etc” (Newland, 2015). By giving my peer suggestions on how to revise their paper, I am able to help them write a better final draft.  

I have learned that there are different genres of text you can use besides writing an essay. Genres may be blog posts, letters, articles, presentations, among other things. In one of my major projects I decided to use Prezi, a presentation software, as my genre because it worked well with my intended audience. My presentation was about childhood obesity in schools across the United States and my audience was focused on parents. I think that it is important to be able to identify the conventions of a reading because it has helped me understand the text as well as analyze and identify people or groups involved with it. I learned that conventions can be professional like in a Quick Reference Guide because they are trying to appeal to a scholarly audience. Or they can be unprofessional like an opinion on a blog post. I have learned so much from this class, however, there are still several things that I need to work on.

After taking this course, I still do not completely get the hang of is using rhetorical strategies intensely in my writing. I understand that rhetorical strategies are used in order for the author to achieve their message and purpose, and I know that there are three types of strategies known as Ethos, Logos, and Pathos. What I am still trying to achieve in my own writing is how to successfully illustrate my message and purpose in my own writing by using rhetorical strategies. It is difficult for me to persuade my audience using these strategies, and I am hoping that in the future, I will be able to achieve this goal in my writing. 

Sincerely,

Selena Carbajal

Works Cited Page

Newland, Brittany (2015). Project 3 draft. Google Docs. Retrieved from    https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KhUY2cv66LhFx8-SaTb4JcIX4wniwtyhSQPTArSiLC4/edit

Reflection on Open Letter Draft

The two drafts I reviewed were Jessica's and Jake's letters.
Links to peer reviews:
Jake
Jess

• In my letter, I am specifically addressing my English 102 classmates and instructor. 
• My readers may be biased when reading my letter because their opinions about writing will differ from my own. I believe that I am respecting their opinions in my letter while also achieving my own purpose. 
• My audience may value writing as a whole or they may value only parts of the writing process. For example, one of my peers in her letter talks about her love for writing (visit Jessica's link above), while others discuss their hatred for writing about something they are not interested in (visit Jake's link above). My readers probably expect me to talk about what kind of writer I believe I am and what I like and dislike about writing. I believe I adequately meet these expectations throughout my letter because I address their expectations.
• I need to give my audience enough information for them to understand my point of view on writing and what I have learned throughout my year in first year writing courses. I believe that my giving at least one example on each of my points, I will have enough background information without insulting their expertise. 
• Formal language as well as definitions we all have gone over in this class would be appropriate for this letter. 
• I believe that my tone should be informative and friendly because I am addressing my peers in my letter. I believe my tone is used consistently throughout my draft. 

Peer Review for P4

I commented on Jess' and Jake's letters.

Draft of Open Letter

In my letter, I discuss what I have learned about writing from this class, and what I am still trying to achieve in my writing. It is hard for me to write a reflection of myself, so any suggestions on how to reword or revise this letter would really help me out! Thank you so much!

Yay our last major project! :D I hope you all enjoy my letter to you!


The link to my letter is here

Reflecting on My Writing Experiences

1. Before starting my first year composition courses, I assumed I would be learning the basics of writing such as how to outline an essay, write a thesis, how to use correct citations and much more. My assumptions were correct because I have learned how to do all of these things and much more in my ENGL 101 and 102 classes. 
2. As a reader and writer,  some of the most important lessons I have learned include-- how to identify the main arguments or claims in a text, how to analyze a paper, identifying my audiences in my works and their values/beliefs. 
3. In this course, I found it helpful to use a cluster to help brainstorm my main points and ideas in my writing because all of my thoughts were organized. The link to one of my clusters is: Cluster... Researching different questions about a specific topic has helped narrow down the topic I want to use in my assignments. Gathering information on my main claims and writing several versions of thesis statements have helped me write well-written thesis statements. 
4. While peer reviewing my classmate's assignments, I offer suggestions on how to improve their work. For example, I have made suggestions on how to restructure or rewrite sentences. My peers have given me great suggestions on how to improve my introductions, explanations on quotes/citations, and how to conclude my works. For example, one peer suggested "There were also a couple of claims you stated that need evidence to back them up, such as the claim that children can lose weight by interacting with other children online."
5. My instructor offered feedback on several of my assignments which have helped me understand and correct my mistakes in my final drafts. One way my instructor communicated with me was by posting her suggestions on my blog. Here is an example of what she would suggest "I think that each one of them could be revised into a broader project. I would maybe make your second thesis a little less specific in terms of listing every one of the tools (sentences, paragraphs, etc.)." 
6. I often asked my sister and friends to read my assignments and make suggestions on how to improve my works because I value their opinions. I view them as part of my audiences for my papers, and knowing what my audience wants and needs to understand helps me write better papers. 
7. Before revising my final pieces, I often went back and read over my peers' comments and suggestions in order to get a sense of what I needed to fix in my assignments. Then, I fixed my errors and improved my work with the suggestions from my classmates and instructor. I also looked through different chapters of my English books to help revise my final drafts. 
8. Before this class, I often wrote essays all the time for writing assignments because I did not know how to organize other genres of text; however after learning about the different genres I could write in, I began understanding how to write in different genres. 
9. If I were to take first year composition courses over again, I would procrastinate less and focus on organizing my assignments more. I think if I did that I would have received better grades by spending more time on assignments as well.  
10. College is a very important part of my life now because I am focusing on getting an education for the future. Nowadays it is so much harder to get a well-paying job with good benefits without having at least a Bachelor's Degree. I want to do what makes me happy and make a decent amount of money to have peace of mind, and college will help me achieve this goal. 
11. From the semester as a whole, I have learned that writing is not only important for school, it is important throughout your entire life. I have learned how to make my own public arguments as well as how to analyze other arguments and people's works.
12. Some of the writing experiences I had reinforced my idea on the writer I thought I was. I know that I can procrastinate during assignments, but I also know that I like to write down as much information on a topic as I can in order to organize my thoughts and make an outline for my assignments. 
13. If I did not gain as much from a specific assignment, it was probably because I was not focusing as much time as I should have been on that assignment. Next time I would definitely focus more of my time on the particular project in order to gain more from it. 
14. Think about the course objectives listed on your syllabus as you consider your success in the  class. What course objectives did you meet? What objectives are you still looking on? Some of the course objectives I met during this session include-- how to read texts to assess how writers achieve their purposes with their intended audience, coming up with writing strategies suitable for different rhetorical situations, developing an argument with persuasive appeals to my audience, locating and analyzing evidence to develop an argument, and revising my work based on feedback from readers. Some objectives I am still looking on include-- using conventions of scholarly research, analysis, and documentation, and using conventions of academic writing, including clear, convincing prose. 

Revisiting My Writing Process

In my first blog post on my writing process, I wrote about me being a combination of a Heavy Planner and Procrastinator. During my experience throughout this course, I have realized that I am not really a huge procrastinator anymore. This class has been so fast-paced and I tried to get all of my homework done throughout the day rather than at the last minute. I will admit that there were still a few times where I did not finish by 11:30PM, but I usually got my work done during the mornings/afternoons. I also think I am becoming more of a Heavy Reviser because I have been going over my projects more than three times, rewriting them in the process. I think that as time goes on, I will become a Sequential Composer because I see myself become super busy with school and work as classes get harder, so I will want to balance out each part of the writing process in order to achieve good grades on assignments and complete them on time.