Dear Masha,

I learned many surprising things throughout the course, both about writing in general and about

my own writing.

There are many things that I never noticed about my own writing, or had even been aware had

importance, prior to taking this course. As seen in my original writing project one, I had trouble

with organization and coherency. As seen in my original working project two, I had trouble with

locating ideas and the length of my paragraphs. Both of these projects opened my eyes to the

mistakes I tend to make in my writing, and this awareness made it easier for me when it came to

be time to revise.

I feel that the way I implement transitions between paragraphs and connecting ideas has vastly

improved from the first couple of writing projects I did to now. For example, in my second

writing project I originally had no transitions between paragraphs; in my revision, I noticed that I

had began using a metaphor to describe the information but never went through with it, so I used

this metaphor to connect the ideas in the paragraphs. Also, the way I organize the information

has also improved enough for me to feel more confident in it.

An example of me neglecting to properly transition things can be seen in the first writing project

where I write: “… in order to ‘mentor’ a new member. A script is the physical text…” Clearly,

the lack of transition made it shocking when introducing a new topic into the essay.

Prior to taking this course I was not aware of discourse communities and all of the criteria it took

to make them discourse communities. I was also unaware of first and second order thinking and

writing, which made me realize that I tend to use first order writing very often. Another thing

that I learned is that bad first drafts are acceptable, which I connected with first order writing:
writing a first draft where all of the ideas flow out without a deterrent. Then using second order

writing to go over the first draft and write a coherent final draft. This was the strategy I used to

write both the second and third writing projects, where I wrote a pretty bad working draft and

then used only the parts I liked for the final draft.

I have also used these skills I acquired from the assigned class readings for the essays that I had

to write for other classes concurrently, and they really helped me write my essays for those

classes as well.

If I had more time I would continue to work on the way I transition between paragraphs. I would

try to be more confident in the way I choose to implement and organize my information and also

try to be more comfortable with writing bad first drafts. Another thing I would work on more is

coming up with better titles for the essays.

Overall, this course has made me more confident in the way I write and the way I feel about my

writing. Despite being aware that my writing can always improve, the skills I acquired

throughout this quarter have allowed me to write with more security in the points I am trying to

make and I will implement them into the essays that I will have to write throughout my college

career.
 Works Cited

Bunn, Mike. How to Read Like a Writer. Writing Spaces: Readings on Writings. Volume II.

2011.

Dirk, Kerry. Navigating Genres. Writing Spaces: Readings on Writings. Volume I. 2010.

Elbow, Peter. Teaching Thinking by Teaching Writing. Heldref Publications. Change, Vol. 15,

No. 6 (Sep., 1983), pp. 37-40.

Anne Lamott. Shitty First Drafts. Bird by Bird. 1994.