Dear Matt,

I hope this letters finds you well. It has been two long and arduous months under your
guidance. I would like to begin by thanking you for keeping me in your class after I missed the
first two sessions. I mean, I didn't want to take Writing 2 as a sophomore, that would suck. I
really hate writing. Im a Stats major, we don't write. However, I admire your efforts in trying to
make your students like the subject. I am sorry, you failed in that aspect. I will not lie and say
that I enjoyed every moment of class, it was boring but I did benefit and I learned a lot.
The class gave me more insight on understanding how authors make decisions in writing.
It is interesting because I was taught how to write previously with my instructors not really
giving much thought into decisions writers make. What is genre? What do genres function as?
What is the rhetorical purpose of an author? All of these questions I did not really care about
until I entered your classroom. I have to admit, I used to believe in genre as horror, comedy or
science fiction. It never came close to my mind that tweets, political endorsement speeches or
satirical infomercials were all genres on their own. I knew how to differentiate between them as a
viewer or reader and how to write them. However I didnt realize what I was exactly doing in
applying each genres separate conventions to achieve rhetorical purpose. Dirks reading helped
me realize how genres function as they are not restricted to the basic horror, comedy or fantasy
genres. It really opened my horizons. I was going to kill myself, but then I read Dirk and learned
about how awesome genres are. It gave me something to live for!! Jokes aside, Carroll gave an
insight into the use of ethos, pathos and logos and how manipulating them can completely
change the audience perception of text.
For the final portfolio, I chose to edit WP1 and WP3. WP1 was a disaster for me. I just
started the quarter and came into class late. I had to come up with something because the
assignment was due. I didnt put much thought into the PBs, I would usually write them two
hours before they were due and the WP reflected the lack of effort. WP1 did not have a thesis, it
was just stating the obvious. It simply answered the questions of the prompt in separate
paragraphs. I even used the questions to start off each paragraph. Does the author of the tweet
succeed in fulfilling the rhetorical purpose? That was one of the prompt questions that I exactly
used to start a paragraph. To be honest, I thought my writing was great. I mean, I had an A in AP
Language during my senior year. I used complex words and long sentences to try and prove that I
was smart. But that didnt work out for WP1. Some parts didn't even make sense to the reader.
The paper didnt really reference any of the course readings. It was a no brainer to fix WP1.
The revision of WP1 is very different than its predecessor. I try to use short and simple
sentences to get my point across. Having fancy words did not work out on my first try. I tried to
follow the prompt for the final portfolio in changing the outline of my essay. I structured the
essay around genre, purpose, audience and conventions. It is because the point of the revision is
to explain what these things are to a new student in Writing 2. While explaining purpose,
audience and conventions I would tie each text to them with a separate paragraph for each. The
thesis focused on the purpose and argument of Donald Trumps tweet and Mitt Romneys speech.
The structure tries to illustrate to the reader how authors use all the conventions to achieve their
rhetorical purpose. The paragraphs are short because concision was an important part of the
revision. There is a three page limit as opposed to the original five page document. I based my

revision on the new prompt and the feedback that I received from you regarding my thesis and
language use.
WP3s revision was not as extensive as WP1. My WP3 Part 1 was not effective in
portraying the conventions of the infomercial genre. It appeared too comical and the feedback I
received from you included that. I changed the genre to become a satirical version of an
infomercial instead, justifying the comical aspect. I did not change much of the format, but I did
change some of the figures in the testimonies to exaggerate them. Character 2 lost 180 pounds
in the revision as opposed to 80 pounds in the original draft. Satires generally exaggerate the
conventions of genres and I applied that in the revision. The thesis of the paper was changed to
be about the manipulation of ethos, pathos and logos. I thank you for your suggestion as I
structured my essay on proving how the academic legitimacy of research can be lost when placed
in the satirical context of an infomercial. The Carroll reading helped me explain what I
manipulated to achieve the translation. It has all the definitions of the different appeals and how
restructuring the use of appeals can change a texts rhetorical purpose.
My favorite part of the portfolio is Part 1 of WP3. I enjoyed being creative and
envisioned a skit in my head while writing it. It is the strongest part of my portfolio. The weakest
of my submissions is WP1. I believe that with more time I could improve my WP1 draft. I am
not really sure about the thesis that I based my paper on. It comments about the two specific
examples but it does not tie the argument to a generalization about purpose and audience. I hope
you do enjoy reading about Donald Trump once again though.
The portfolio portrays the change in my writing style after taking this class. I am no
longer using complicated phrases to show that I know my stuff. That doesnt help. I also show
that I now understand the versatility of genres and how they can be used to change rhetoric. I
keep repeating this idea but now I think about decisions of writing instead of form of writing.
That is probably what I will take from this class. Why does the author do this? Why did he
choose to include that? How does it help achieve the rhetorical purpose?
I hope you are in a good mood while grading this and enjoy reading the fruits of my labor
over the past two months. You really have been one of my favorite instructors at UCSB, but since
Ive only been here for a year theres not much to compare you to. Please forget the last part of
the previous sentence. I was just joking. Thank you very much. I hope to see you in soon,
probably in London? Ill be in Hyde Park with a Salafi preacher screaming at me.
Sincerely,
Khalid Nagib