Ninweh Gorges

04/22/23

Dear Dr. Warwick,

Writing 2 was a very interesting and informative class, not like any other class I have

taken at the university. I enjoyed many of the class readings and one reading that stood out to me

was the reading on threshold concepts. I felt this was heavily used throughout the class,

especially in our project builders. One of the ideas being that writing is a process and all writers

have more to learn (Wardle). This is seen all throughout the course of the class as each week we

tackle new assignments, new readings, and learn along the way. Before this class, I was unaware

of the process of editing a wikipedia article and by the end of the class I revised a whole article, a

major new concept I learned. Throughout the portfolio I reference how writing is a process and

show the process of revising the wikipedia article. From finding a topic, to finding supporting

sources and finally making edits and uploading the changes to the article. This is seen in the edits

made on the wikipedia page. I also learned a lot about my wikipedia article topic, Reflective

writing. One of the readings, Reflective Writing and the Revision Process, elaborated more on

reflective writing and tied it in with the revision process. Stating specific exercises that were

used to reflect on their writing, such as “process notes” where one explained the process of their

work, as seen in our wikipedia journal (Lorenzo). After hearing back from the peer reviewers

and the instructor feedback, I made more reversions to the wikipedia article. One being I took

away some edits I made. At first I thought about removing the sentence “thinking about

thinking,” but after reading the feedback I realized why this sentence was important to the

development of the overall idea of reflective writing. I also moved around information I was

adding to one subsection to a different subsection. I did this to avoid repetition of the topic

metacognition while elaborating more on it.

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04/22/23

The article, Wikipedia deserves its spot in higher education emphasizes the importance of

the wikipedia project. Mallory Dixon explains that the contributors of wikipedia articles are often

experts on the topics they are writing about, but it is also important to encourage students to

revise articles on wikipedia in order to expand their knowledge on researched based writing. She

also advocates for wikipedia revision projects, such as the one done in this class, so students can

learn how to be critical of writing and be able to revise them (Wikipedia).

Project 1 helped to identify how often writing is used in my life; as a biology major I do

not do a lot of traditional forms of writing in class, such as essays or forum posts. However, I

realized my class notes, daily planner, emails and texts are all forms of writing. Each form also

has its own audience, purpose and way of writing. I have also realized how much the pandemic

impacted the way I write. Throughout project 1, I reflected a lot on the way I took notes before

the pandemic, that being with a pen and paper opposed to my ipad. Today, I cannot imagine

reverting back to a pen and paper to take notes for a class such as biochem or cell biology. I

contribute much of my success in these classes to my well organized notes, from their coloration

to the incorporation of the lecture pdfs to the note file. The major threshold concept seen here is

that writing is impacted by our identity and prior experiences (Wardle). My class notes are

impacted by the amount of time I have spent taking notes over the past few years and are very

personalized by the person I am.

Writing 2 encouraged creative writing throughout many aspects of the class, which is

something I personally have not run into much at this university. The free writes were the main

source where I noticed this. From interpreting images or songs to writing about whatever is on

our mind. It was an expressive form of writing. Another being the wikipedia journals, where we

reflect on the progress of our project. Here we did much reflection on how we felt about project
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04/22/23

two, another expressive form of writing. Journaling is something that I plan to keep on doing

after writing 2. I enjoyed the reflective aspect of it and being able to see the process of a project

laid out in front of me.

Overall, this quarter in Writing 2 was quite enjoyable. One personal aspect that affected

my performance in the class was the workload I took on this quarter and its effect on my mental

health. While going to school full time, working, and being involved in clubs, I was also

studying for my Dental Admissions Test, basically the MCAT for dental school. This is by far

one of the most important exams I have taken thus far in my academic career. Preparing for this

exam was a brutal experience. From studying on average 6 hours a day while also managing

other aspects of my life, I noticed I was not in the best place mentally. I have struggled with

many forms of anxiety in the past and overworking myself this quarter definitely set me back a

few steps in the progress I had made overcoming it. I took the exam on March 20th and though I

did not do as well as I had hoped, I made an average score. Now I realize I am in fact not

invincible and need to manage my workload in order to perform my best. Thank you for your

time this quarter and the new knowledge you have given me.

Best,

Ninweh Gorges
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04/22/23

Citation page

Lorenzo, et al. “‘Reflective Writing and the Revision Process: What Were You Thinking?"

by Sandra L. Giles.” ENG 1101 O156 Fall 2020 Coleman, 9 Nov. 2020,

https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/coleman-1101-o156-fall-2020/2020/11/09/reflective-wri

ting-and-the-revision-process-what-were-you-thinking-by-sandra-l-giles/.

Wardle, Elizabeth, and Doug Downs. Writing about Writing. Bedford/St. Martin's,

Macmillan Learning, 2022.

“Wikipedia Deserves Its Spot in Higher Education.” Wiki Education, 14 Mar. 2023,

https://wikiedu.org/blog/2023/03/14/wikipedia-deserves-its-spot-in-higher-education/.