Isela Pena

Professor Doutherd
English 5M
11 December 2017
Achievement Summary
In this course, I was required to do many Reading Responses for the text Writing About
Writing. Now looking back at all of my reading responses, I was able to see how I improved as
a writer and realized how much easier it became for me to do these responses.
The first reading response I was required to do for this class was Sponsors of Literacy,
by Deborah Brandt along withHow to Tame a Wild Tongue, by Gloria Anzaldua. Since this
reading response did not require a format I decided to give a quick summary of what I read,
provided quotes to prove my point, and wrote how I was able to relate to the reading. The
summaries for this reading response were longer compared to the others, were not organized, and
the quotes chosen only showed information with no analysis. After looking at this response and
comparing it to the others, I was able to see how this reading response was only informative and
lacked providing analysis.
Moving on, later for reading response 2, 9, and 10 I followed a specific format that
helped my reading responses become stronger. With this format I was required to give a brief
summary of the article, choose a claim and determine its importance, and provide data with
sufficient amount of analysis. Using this format forced me to better understand what I was
reading since I knew I would have to choose a claim, gather, and analyse my data. Overall, using
this format helped improve my writing skills that I was then able to transfer to other writing
assignments.
In addition, reading response two Multilingual Students and College Writing by Dana
Ferris was the first reading response I used this format. I found using this format challenging and
had a hard time choosing my claim and data; however, after finishing the response I notice how
it was much stronger compared the my first response. This reading response allowed me not only
to summarize the article but also think about its importance towards my peers, and the overall
message. Like the first reading response, this response contained personal language. It is
something I always used, but going further into semester I started using detached impersonal
style of writing.
Furthermore, in reading responses nine and ten A Stranger in Strange Lands: A College
Student Writing across the Curriculum, by Lucille P McCarthy and Argument as
Conversation: The Role of Inquiry in Writing a Researched Argument, by Stuart Greene I used
the same format. After practicing this format with previous reading responses it because easier
for me to choose my claims and data. Even though I had practice using this format, I still
struggled choosing strong quotes that supported my claim. For example, according to my
professor I had a tendency to use descriptive data.
After doing these reading responses I learned the importance of choosing strong quotes. I
noticed that when I did use descriptive data, it was harder for me to connect it to my claim. Also
another thing that I learned was that no matter how much practice I get in writing, I will always
make mistakes. For example, throughout the process of doing these reading responses I still
made many mistakes and struggled choosing strong quotes.