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Justin Jose

Professor Lopatko

Writing 2

11 June 2023

Reflective Letter
While I did not like the writing projects I do feel that it has helped me develop into a

better writer. These projects kept putting me in positions where I was getting stuck and unable to

move on. I had to force myself to improve my work whether I wanted to or not and by doing the

reading I was able to identify the situations I constantly run into. The issues that I revised in both

my writing projects were the organization of my writing, clarification, and the style of how I

presented it. First off my organization wasn’t really the best when I initially started writing.

When I start off any writing project I often just have an idea and write as much as I can

considering that one topic. It helps me just develop my thinking and see where I want to go

without directly committing to one thing. “First-order thinking is intuitive and creative and

doesn’t strive for conscious direction or control” (Elbow, 55). I feel that when I write I naturally

follow the first-order thinking because I see writing as a road of exploration. My first draft is

just writing whatever I want. I’m just writing until I feel content and I would consider this as my

way of scouting ahead. Going back to revise my writing I was able to see which direction I was

leaning toward and organize my writing in a structure that aligned those thoughts.

After I completed my first draft I went back through it organizing the structure and

rearranging the paragraphs to make it better. I often worked on the concentrated topic I chose

trying to ensure there was enough organization and clarification where one paragraph would lead

to the other or at least build off of it. Reading through both of my projects a second time there
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were times when I realized I could expand more on a certain topic or I could cut out a couple of

words to make it more precise. I was really just struggling with the best way to deliver my

thoughts to my overall audience.

I think the idea that was the most helpful to me overall as a writer was to think of myself

as my projected audience while I was in the revising stage. By doing this I was able to find flaws

in my writing such as when things were too vague or how I could make things more relatable. I

also found areas that needed to be expanded upon such as when I was quoting or citing sources.

In the Stedman reading, he went over the mistakes people make by citing sources and introduced

the concept of Armadillo Roadkill. The idea behind this concept is that authors will use a quote

out of nowhere with no explanation and leave behind the experience of having a “pleasant

activity… stopped suddenly short by an unexpected barrier” (Stedman, 295). After doing this

reading I realized that I had done this exact mistake in my writing. This reading felt like it

actually targeted me and though it brought up one of my flaws as a writer it provided me with a

solution which is to just give some background information.

Overall what I liked most about my work in this portfolio is that it allowed me to explore

my capabilities as a writer. I felt like I really identify some of my strengths and weaknesses and

was given ways to improve them. I also liked the fact that I was able to choose everything about

the project so I felt that it was all under my control. I honestly would just like to improve my

revising skills as I feel that it isn’t something that I’m not very good at as I’ve never focused on

it too much and I also want to be able to connect to my audience a lot more on my first draft. I

felt that I had to do more work trying to make a connection to my audience during the revising

part than anything else.

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I think the simple activity of revising my fellow classmate's work helped me grow

significantly as a writer. It allowed me to first off critique others and identify their weaknesses

that I then used to find my own weaknesses. For example, if there were plenty of grammar or

punctuation mistakes I would go back to mine and make sure there weren’t as many. If they had

similar situations or a similar topic that I was struggling with I would use their work as an

example and see how they were able to address the complication I was having. The simple

ability to compare my work with others during the revising process was just so helpful because it

either showed me what I could do to solve a problem, what I shouldn’t do, or how far I’ve been

able to develop based on revising my previous work.

One of the things that I’ve focused on throughout the course was how I could make

writing easier on myself and feel less like a burden. Whenever I write it’s usually for an

assignment or something important. I never willingly write on my own or for myself so it’s

always frustrating when I have to write because I know it isn’t for me. I’ve also always just

thought I wasn’t a naturally gifted writer. I could write as many papers as I want but I wouldn’t

write up to the standard that people believed I could or should be writing at. One of my biggest

weaknesses as a writer is being concise I feel that I’m always too broad when it comes to writing

about a topic but I realized that’s because I’m constantly writing for other people or the

audience. I didn’t really know what to do and I related to the Harris reading when it said “Trying

to figure out something to write about has been the frustration of writing students” (Harris, 101).

I get frustrated trying to figure out something to write because I’m trying to please everybody.

The truth is I should be writing for myself while using the audience more as a tool rather than

making addressing them the entire purpose. Despite this I feel like not knowing how to address a
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specific audience has allowed me to become a pretty good neutral writer in which I’m capable of

writing to a broad audience, but lack the specificity on things.

I’ve been working on this concept of trying to please everybody by keeping in mind who

I want to address specifically. I try to think of a specific audience when I first start writing and

when I revise my work I try to imagine myself as a member of that audience. I’ve honestly

become more aware of the different factors that contribute to making a writing assignment better

no matter what it is. I’ve always done just formal papers and assignments so writing in different

genres while using the same key points allowed me to break free from the usual crutches I fall

back on. For example, since I’m always writing formal papers as in-class assignments I just

generalize and think my audience will be my professor. This allows me to take some shortcuts

such as not having to go into complete details in points and skip out on conciseness or

clarification since they should just understand as the professor.

I believe that my abilities have developed enough to where I can say I have faith in my

ability as a writer to grow independently. For the longest time, I felt stuck writing in the same

format relying on the same tricks over and over again not knowing what to do to get better. I’ve

also constantly struggled with writing for an audience, and my goal was to get out of this cycle

and try to develop. I feel like I have developed even if it's in the slightest difference from the

beginning of the quarter by finding a way to address my audience. Now I simply want to write

more to see if my writing can continue to improve even by small increments.

Works Cited
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Elbow, Peter. Embracing Contraries Explorations in learning and teaching. New york:

Oxford U press 1986 p. 57.

Stedman, Kyle. Annoying Ways People Use Sources. p. 295

Harris, Joseph. Revising. p. 101