Lauren Li 1

WRIT 2
Reflective Letter

In the beginning of the course, we were asked to write a journal entry about our goals and

weaknesses as writers. At the time of writing the journal, I admitted that writing was not my

strong suit, and not something I particularly looked forward to doing either. I identified one of

my weaknesses as a lack of creativity, only being able to write well when it came to more

academic writings such as lab reports. However, what I enjoyed most about this course was the

flexibility it gave us in terms of what we chose to work on as writers—there was not one way to

achieve a polished final product. This really allowed me to target this weakness by choosing

genres to write in which gave me an enormous amount of flexibility.

Another weakness that I identified in the beginning was reluctance in writing about

anything personal. I did not think that there would be a need to address this weakness throughout

the course, however it ended up becoming a part of my revision process in reflective writing.

Upon writing my first draft of my reflection for WP #1, I had not included anything remotely

related to my personal backstory in terms of creating the project. As Giles said, “Reflection . . .

help[s] me step back from a draft to gain enough distance to ask myself, ‘Is this really what I

want the essay (or story or poem or article) to do? Is this really what I want it to say? Is this the

best way to get it to say that?’”(Giles 201). By reflecting on my reflection, I was able to see how,

without personal backstory to the process, my reflection of how I cultivated my piece was at best

boring and at worst an out of place, awkward, robotic essay that revealed little to nothing about

why I made it. By delving into my personal motivations behind why I chose the article I did and

why I chose the genre I did, I gave (at least I hope) the reader a much more cohesive picture of

the project as a whole. I think Stewart phrases what I’m trying to say perfectly: “Using a
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WRIT 2
personal story as a frame for your essay can be an effective way to draw your reader into your

ideas and then to help them reinterpret those ideas in the end” (Stewart 164).

Another activity that helped with this weakness was engaging in reader response

activities. Because they were anonymous, I did not feel self conscious about sharing my work,

and reviewing numerous other pieces of writing from my peers reassured me that we were all

developing writers and it was nothing to be ashamed of. Positive reader response from my peers

also contributed to lessening my self consciousness.

My strengths as a writer tend to be in the more technical aspects of writing, such as

grammar and citing sources. A memorable activity we did in class was talking about the

annoying way writers use sources, and I found myself grateful that I was not one of those

writers. However, in an article we read, the author Stedman used driving signals as a metaphor

for citations in writing, saying that “signaling is an almost artistic decision, relying on the gut

reaction of the driver to interpret what is best in times when the law doesn’t mandate use one

way or the other” (Stedman 255)—so maybe I can count citing sources as an artistic endeavor

nonetheless.

Through both of my writing projects, I have undoubtedly seen growth in myself as a

writer. I would say my largest aspect of growth has been in integrating personality into my

writing. While revising my reflection for WP #1, and adding personal backstory per Eugene’s

feedback, I noticed what a positive difference it made in both the cohesiveness and impact of the

overall reflection. In addition, by adding personality into each of the characters I created for my

WP #2, it made reading the entire conversation much more engaging and it made it much easier

to discern each character from another. It also, in my opinion, gave the reader an easier time

grasping the conflicting and supporting ideas bouncing back and forth in the conversation. I now
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WRIT 2
see that making writing a personal experience is a positive thing—writing does not always have

to carry such an objective tone, a more personable tone is effective in conveying a cohesive story

and engaging readers.

I hope to take this growth and apply it to other coursework by integrating a more

personable tone into my other academic writings. Although writing assignments in other classes

may not offer me as much leeway in terms of creativity, I can incorporate using first person in

academic writing. I remember discussing this in class, whilst reading the article “‘I need you to

say ‘I’’: Why First Person Is Important in College” by Kate McKinney Maddalena, which

discussed the numerous benefits of using first person in objective writing, including clarity,

integrity, ownership, and rhetorical sophistication. I am glad that I not only was able to learn this

lesson through reading the article but also by seeing its benefits in my own writing throughout

the quarter.

Granted, if I had more time, there are still things I would improve on, both in terms of my

final portfolio and myself as a writer. Although, I have the rest of my life to work on myself as a

writer, so I’ll focus on what I would work on in terms of my portfolio. I would add more content

to both of my writing projects in general—after all, the articles they were based upon were rich

in information, and it is only for the sake of efficiency that I did not include more in these

projects.

Overall, although writing is still not my favorite activity in the entire world, I can

honestly say that I am very proud of my final portfolio and all that I have learned from Writing 2.
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WRIT 2
Works Cited

Giles, Sandra L. “Reflective Writing and the Revision Process: What Were You Thinking?”

Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing, Volume 1, edited by Charles Lowe and Pavel

Zemliansky, Anderson, South Carolina, Parlor Press, 2010.

Maddalena, Kate McKinney. “ “I need you to say ‘I’”: Why First Person Is Important in College

Writing.” Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing, Volume 1, edited by Charles Lowe and

Pavel Zemliansky, Anderson, South Carolina, Parlor Press, 2010.

Stedman, Kyle D. “Annoying Ways People Use Sources.” Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing,

Volume 2, edited by Charles Lowe and Pavel Zemliansky, Anderson, South Carolina,

Parlor Press, 2011.

Stewart, Marjorie. “Weaving Personal Experience into Academic Writings.” Writing Spaces:

Readings on Writing, Volume 3, edited by Dana Driscoll,Mary Stewart, and Matthew

Vetter, Anderson, South Carolina, Parlor Press, 2020.