Writ 2 Final Metacognitive Reflection

When creating my WP1, the most crucial step in my writing process was thinking about

the audience I was writing to and shaping my language choices. “Navigating Genres” helped

inspire the recognition of my audience as I chose and shaped my genre. The purpose of my genre

in WP1 was to create a style of writing that could be easily read and understood by dyslexic

students. To produce a style of language that did so, I needed to first read the article whose

information I was attempting to translate very closely. The process of reading this article

multiple times was incredibly important in shaping my full understanding of the content I would

then write about so that I could accurately convey that information in my genre translation. After

reading the text to understand the main ideas, summarizing information involved lots of revisions

in order to make it as clear as possible. Some of these revisions included deleting parts of

information altogether, while at other times, it was my job to translate complex vocabulary that

over-complicated the reader's understanding of the content. Throughout the entire process, it was

crucial that I keep in mind my goal of appealing to dyslexic readers, thinking about how certain

words, sentence structure, or the overuse of data might disturb their understanding of the text.

When I revised my WP1 for my final portfolio, thinking about my audience became even more

crucial to my process. All of the revisions I made were with the intention of further increasing

accessibility and understanding for dyslexic readers. This process included noting where my

writing may have been unclear and revising it in a way that would be even easier to understand.

My favorite section of my WP1 was when I wrote in a more personal tone. For example,

when giving a definition for the term Morphological skills, I wrote, “Morphological skills are

essentially the ability to understand word and language structure.” When I needed to make a

reference to previous information I included, I said, “Remember those “Preliminary Tests” you
heard about earlier?”. Both of these times, I phrased my writing in a way that felt extremely

personal or casual. I enjoyed writing in this style because it helped me feel more personally

connected to my reader. In those sentences, I wrote as if I was sharing the information I had

found with a friend, making the information I was sharing feel much more interesting. I also

know that when I am reading, I love when writers use a personal tone because the language is

more familiar and easier to understand, making it feel more interesting.

The most challenging aspect of WP1 was understanding the article I was translating. I

was using an article that would be particularly challenging for dyslexic students to understand

because of its complexity; however, because I am dyslexic, it ended up imposing those reading

challenges on me. My process of understanding the study before I could even begin to translate it

was extremely long. Normally, when I read long, complex articles, I do my best to simply

understand the main idea being shared. In the case of my WP1, it was my job to translate all of

the major points of this study into a more accessible format; I had to understand each of the steps

of the study fully and extra details critical to the main findings.

The biggest thing I learned about writing from translating my genre is that academic

articles or large bodies of text are not the only valid ways to present information. I realized that

my academic career has led me to believe that if I was absorbing information from any genre

other than a structured article, it was not an appropriate means of learning new information from

writing. Because I shaped my entire WP1 around the concept that different brains require

different styles of writing, I learned how much value there is in using different genres to

understand writing. This also taught me that my chosen genre of short bodies of text in an

infographic or slideshow is the easiest way for me to process writing as a dyslexic student.
 My WP2 taught me a completely different set of skills than WP1. The most important

skill that this project taught me as a writer was backward and forward chaining, which was also

the most important step of my writing process. The original idea I had for this project surrounded

a single article on using personal narratives to teach social justice education. By using backward

and forward chaining, I was able to unlock so much new information that related to my idea in

different ways, ultimately enabling me to build a much larger conversation around social justice

education. I also found this stage of my writing process incredibly important because it is a skill

that I can take beyond my WP2 and use in other parts of my life when wanting to expand on an

academic conversation. Expanding my access to information allows me to learn more, share

more in my writing, and elaborate on my own thoughts and opinions of a subject.

My favorite part of WP2 was in my final revision process of transforming the Facebook

post I had created into a more dynamic conversation structured as a script. Similar to my favorite

part of my WP1, this step in my revision process allowed me to style the information I was

presenting in a much more appealing way. I added some of my personality to this new style, as I

was able to develop the “characters” whose work I had included in my academic conversation.

Also, this part of the writing process allowed me to make more connections between the “point”

each of my characters was making, which transformed my project into a more dynamic

conversation and allowed me to see how each of the articles I found were related. This process

eventually helped me recognize relating each article in my WP2 as being a “move” for the

overall success of my project. By looking at it as a move with a specific purpose, just as

Jacobson had suggested in his article about literary moves, I realized that making those

connections was critical and served a distinct purpose. Just like my WP1, the most challenging

part of this project was reading the academic articles in maximum detail because of the reading
challenges my dyslexia gives me. Once again, however, my complete understanding of each of

the articles was critical to developing my project, especially in relating each article to the other to

create my conversation.

By the end of developing my WP2, I felt that I had significantly improved my research

skills. Learning how to better use the UCSB library and various research databases, discovering

where to find articles that expand on each other's points, and practicing absorbing their

information and relating them back to each other are all skills that will be extremely beneficial to

future research I may conduct. Not only did I learn completely new ways to find information, but

I became more comfortable in using research methods I may have known before. This process

helped me discover what a “scholarly conversation” truly means and showed me that learning

about a conversation allows me to properly develop my opinions on the subject. I learned that the

more I know about a conversation, the more ideas I will develop around it.

Within my reflections, I definitely do feel like I used and analyzed sources efficiently.

When first creating my project builder 1.3, in which I had to analyze sources, I struggled a lot

with relating some of them to my WP1. However, I feel like I made a significant effort to try to

better understand them by discussing them with Maddie, which gave me a much better

understanding than just reading them. In the process of better understanding them, I also began

to understand which of the sources related most relevantly to my WP1 and which simply did not.

By learning what worked and what didn't in terms of relating sources to my project, I feel that I

properly analyzed each of them.

Throughout my work on both of these projects, along with the various other assignments

I completed in this class, I feel that I developed significantly as both a writer and a thinker. I

learned about my own style of learning as a dyslexic student and felt validated in that style by
gearing some of my work towards students who may learn in the same way as me. Thinking back

to before this class, I had always felt academically inferior because of my challenges with

reading and writing. Although I may still feel that way at times, this class has taught me to

recognize that just because I may learn in different ways, doesn't mean I am any less capable of

learning new and complex information. Also, the sheer amount of reading and writing that I did

in this class challenged me to practice my skills and prove to myself that I am capable of

completing large research projects, even if they intimidate me. This class has instilled confidence

in me as a writer, researcher, and thinker, and that is the most important thing I believe I will take

with me into the rest of my academic career.