Metacognitive Reflection

My Writing 2 teacher looks like David Grohl from the Foo Fighters and
hes also super cool, my girlfriend exclaimed as she told me about her first
day of the Winter Quarter. While I was yet to enroll myself in the dreaded and
required class that was Writing 2, I was quite interested in this David Grohl
character that would take my writing skills to a new level. My previously
acquired disdain for writing -- fueled by my non-David Grohl looking AP
English Literature teacher from twelfth grade -- suppressed my writing
coachability(the desire to learn, as we call it in sports). I soon realized my
new instructor knew very well what he was doing -- he immediately taught
taught us how to use dashes and commas correctly while clearly defining
specificity and how it is of utmost importance in writing -- and I immediately
flipped a switch in my mind and became coachable. I took risks and
challenged myself to adapt and include the techniques taught in class to my
writing.
On one of the first days of class, the comment from past teachers I
perpetually received, Be more specific was about to be resolved with a toy
I was very familiar with. Matryoshka dolls, or Russian nesting dolls, defined
the level of specificity needed for a genre in WP1. Not only did I use this
example to choose a specific genre for the first project, but I tried to apply
the analogy to my writing as a whole. While we went over the end-of-theyear survey results I was truly disappointed to hear that one of my
classmates contributed that, I had no idea what Zack was talking about with

those dolls all quarter. After hearing this, I was saddened that such a good
example and a good amount of teaching went to waste on this particular
student. For me, it outlined the rest of the year and what to expect; theres
always room for improvement.
After the first few readings before WP1, I felt the animosity coming
back to me from my twelfth grade English class. As I kept reading, I tried not
to write this class off as another waste of time(my English experience in high
school). As soon as we were given the choice to choose our own topic for
WP1 I immediately became ecstatic to write the paper. How bad could it
be? I told myself. Kendrick Lamar album reviews were my genre of choice,
and writing about the beloved rapper became harder than I expected,
because I truly wasnt writing about Kendrick Lamar at all. I was supposed to
be writing about the conventions within the genre.
Carried away by the allure and catchy lyrics, Lamars music led me
astray from the task at hand. The only way that I didnt fail this assignment
was the refocusing efforts that were PB1 and PB2. As I sneered at other
classmates for picking boring topics, I myself wasnt even completing the
assignment correctly. Instead of dissecting the conventions within the genre,
I babbled on and on about how Kendrick is so special and has used his
celebrity to discuss injustices seen in our world today. My hubris of topicpicking skills mislead me this time, but as seen in the writing projects to
come it really did enable me to try my best throughout the course.

While making adjustments to WP1, I took Zacks comments to settle

down to heart and abandoned my profession of love for the rapper and
focused on the conventions and their purposes behind them. Although I laid
a solid groundwork for WP1, the revisions now seen in the final draft took the
background information compiled with the conventions I analyzed to make a
compelling argument.
The next writing project came along, and thankfully(!) we were able to
choose our own topics again. Although the conversational model did seem
quite interesting, I decided to write about my beloved and highly scrutinized
New England Patriots. As I did with writing about Kendrick Lamar, I fell into a
hypnotic state and forgot that I was writing the paper for this David Grohl
guy and again rambled on about how my Patriots were being treated by the
NFL.
Throught the first and second writing projects I felt liberated by the
correct rules of how to use dashes. When Zack said that once he learned how
to use dashes writing became that much easier for him. I figured to apply
myself to try and get the same outcome as Zack did. My once boring writing
-- constrained by the rules of correct punctuation -- transformed to moredetailed and specific writing. I was now able to use dashes to include
expository information while keeping my writing clear and concise. Before
learning how to use dashes, I truly would struggle with using descriptors
without making run on sentences. It could be said I had a problem with
inviting too many commas to my party.

Criticized for my lack of detail regarding one of my academic sources

in WP2, I used my newfound knowledge of dashes and put the punctuation to
the test. As Zack commented, op-ed piece? I havent heard anything about
this up to this point I added a brief summary earlier in the text as well as
using dashes within the criticized sentence to provide more clarity for the
reader. I wrote, The op-ed piece published in the New York Times to
popularize their original work Malfeasance -- written by the same authors of
the first scholarly article(with the subtraction of Sullivan) -- was a quasi-plea
to the NFL and the rest of the world to acknowledge their findings. Without
the dashes, this sentence would either include too little information or be too
lengthy, and for that I am forever grateful to Zack for teaching me how to
use dashes.
For the third writing project Zack graciously let us pick our own
academic source to transform to cater to an older and younger audience.
While at first I had no idea what to do, I picked out an article on sports
aggression found specifically in the World Lacrosse Championships. This
topic, lacrosse, is especially close to me as it is my favorite sport and I was
extremely interested with the article that I chose.
Making me think from a different age group really allowed me to think
about the way moves are used. I thought to myself while constructing the
older genre: What would my Mom want to see in an email from a sportleague official? What details/logistics do moms want? That then lead me to

include words like your child and safety to appease all the mothers out
there.
The younger genre was slightly easier for me to transform to, because I
created a contract for high school athletes -- inspired by one of Zacks
comments -- that I have had to sign numerous times before. When I put
myself in the shoes of a younger Elliot I included a table and a list to draw
the attention of high school aged athletes who want to sign paperwork as
fast as they can so they can get back on the field and start playing.
One of the most important parts of this class was the comments we
received from our peers and Zack. One of the most inspiring things I heard
all year from a classmate was when Hector mentioned that he got his idea
for a genre transformation from Chad, another classmate of ours. In the
beginning of the quarter, I slacked off and was not at all motivated to provide
insightful comments and question my peers work to trigger creative thinking
on their part. By the end of the quarter, I learned how important each peer
review session was and I put much more time and effort into my comments
for my peers. I learned that by analyzing their writing and asking questions
about it, it would help my writing in return.
During the google doc-a-thon, an anonymous peer of mine posed a
question about how he/she should bolster his thesis statement. His thesis
statement solely summarized a sources conventions and features but did
not raise the stakes or include an argument. In WP2 I found myself with a
bland thesis that didnt pass the so what, who cares test and I remembered

what I wrote in response to my peers thesis and applied it to my own

writing. Why does the author follow those conventions and why does the
author use those moves I said to my peer and later was asking myself those
same questions as I revamped both WP1 and WP2.
This class not only taught me writing, but it also taught me how to be a
good classmate and how to hold myself accountable. At times earlier in the
year, I felt myself slacking off and was slightly nudged by the instructor to
pick it up! as many coaches have yelled at me before. I was then
motivated by the opportunity in front of me to better my writing skills
immensely. By focusing more on comments and sparking ideas in my
classmates writing it really made me reflect on my own writing. It was much
easier to criticize myself(harshly, at that) after I had seen the same exact
mistakes being made from my peers. I would like to thank Zack for setting up
this type of environment which enabled me to excel and not only become a
better writer, but a better student(thinker, person, collaborator, the list goes
on).