Metacognitive Reflection:

A Journey

Yasmine Castaneda

Writing 2

Allison Bocchino

March 18th, 2023

 1

When first entering this course, I expected that I was going to have to read a lot more

classical literary work and work on the basics of writing. So when it turned out that the class was

more about writing conventions I was surprised and worried. Mostly because I’ve had issues in

the past with grammar, spelling, and the more technical aspects of writing. So during for my

revisions of my two writing projects, I saw myself looking back at class readings. One is the

chapter “Lesson 5: Emphasis” from Joseph M. Williams’s book Style: The Basics of Clarity and

Grace where it discusses how a certain structure of a sentence allows for more emphasis to be

placed on various information and how to guide the reader throughout the sentence. The other

reading I utilized was Kyle D. Stedman’s article “Annoying Ways People Use Sources”. Here

Stedman discusses common errors people use when integrating their quotes and advice on how

to fix them. Throughout this reflection, I not only discuss how this class has changed my writing

process and improved my understanding of writing conventions but also how these two sources

guided me while revising my writing projects 1 and 2.

My writing process has since changed after taking this writing class, this is because of the

class's emphasis on the revision process. Beforehand taking this class I had a poorly developed

revision process, I mostly revised my writing as I wrote. After finishing each paragraph I looked

back at what I wrote, revised it, and then continued until I was finished. Rarely did I ever look

back the next day to continue to revise my paper. This was why it was new to me when the class

required me to continuously revise my papers through peer review and my portfolio. Being

forced to look back at my writing has allowed me to be more critical of them, and it’s a lot easier

for me to see what I liked and didn’t like, also which sentences read wrong. So this class has

allowed me to look at the revision process in more of a positive light leading to the improvement

in my writing.
 2

As I revised my writing project one, I noticed that a lot of my sentences could be

rewritten to be stronger and more concise. Some sentences focus on placing more emphasis on

the important information while others were made to be more straightforward. For guidance, I

looked towards the readings we looked at in class for a group activity, specifically the lesson on

emphasis. Within this reading, it’s mentioned how the last words of a sentence are meant for

special emphasis while the first few are for context, so when revising we would want to place the

words that are deemed as important toward the end of the sentence so that it has more

significance.1 I took this advice when revising this sentence in my Writing Project 1, “Allowing

for people to join in on the conversation and expand on the topic is part of what the Feminist

Studies Displicline aims to do.” When I first looked at this sentence I noticed how the reader

could be lost, since all of the information was placed at the beginning it could lead the reader to

not fully absorb the information. So when rewriting it I placed the “Feminist Studies Displicine

aims to do” in the beginning and then ended the sentence with “join the conversation and expand

on the topic”. Leading to the revised sentence being, “Which aligns with what the Feminist

Studies Displiciline aims to do because it encourages people to join the conversation and expand

on the topic.” The context and topic being what the discipline aims to do, and then ended

strongly with the want to expand on the topic and join the conversation. This makes the sentence

easier to understand for the reader. I used this process for a lot of sentences throughout my

writing project 1 and even into the revision process of my writing project 2.

The revision process for writing project 2 was a lot more critical than the first project

because I received a lower grade than the previous one. I also receive more crucial feedback on

how to improve my writing project 2 reflection paper. One comment was “There were also a few

mechanical issues - a couple of run-on sentences and some issues with quotes. Take another look
1
Joseph M. Williams, Style: The Basics of Clarity and Grace (Boston: Pearson, 2015), 50.
 3

at Stedman.” from my instructor Allison Bocchino. Therefore I look at my quote a lot more

critically as well as looked back at Stedman’s writing about using sources. One error that

Stedman helped me point out about my quotes was “dropping in a quotation without introducing

it first.”2 Looking back at my quotes I noticed that this was somewhat of a recurring thing, an

example being:

A major word of advice that is said multiple times is to stray away from text-heavy slides

so that “The audience will be able to digest and retain key points more easily” and

advises to “Limit your slides to five lines of text and use words and phrases to make your

points”3.

I didn’t introduce where the quote was from, nor imply to the reader that quotes were on their

way, the quotes just show up with a boom. When revising this I not only made sure to note where

the quote was from in the same sentence and the previous sentence, but also got rid of one of the

quotes. Making my revision look like this:

The article mentions multiple times to stray away from text-heavy slides so that “The

audience will be able to digest and retain key points more easily.”4

I took out the last quote because it wasn’t necessary information and didn’t add any additional

value to the paragraph, it was just there. Not only did I revise my quotes to have a better setup

for the ready, but I also kept the rest of Stedman’s advice in mind.

This portfolio is a complication of a majority of what I learned throughout this class

through the process of writing both writing projects. This is because both projects deal with

writing conventions, and how we can identify different disciplines and genres through these

2
Kyle D. Stedman, “Annoying Ways People Use Sources,” Writing Spaces: Reading on Writing, no 2. (2010): 244.
3
“Tips For Making Effective PowerPoint Presentations,” National Conference Of State Legislatures, Last modified
August 08, 2017. https://www.ncsl.org/legislative-staff/lscc/tips-for-making-effective-powerpoint-presentations .
4
“Tips For Making Effective PowerPoint Presentations,” National Conference Of State Legislatures, Last modified
August 08, 2017. https://www.ncsl.org/legislative-staff/lscc/tips-for-making-effective-powerpoint-presentations .
 4

writing conventions. Specifically, writing project 1 had me look at two different academic

articles with a different lens, rather than placing priority on the content of the article. It had me

focus on the decisions made in the writing of that content, why these decisions were made, and

what that means for the discipline. This was still incredibly new for me, especially because I

found it difficult to pick up what exactly these conventions were. Even though writing project 2

still had me identifying writing conventions, the twist was I had to identify writing conventions

in non-academic writing. Each project tested me in an area I’ve never had to develop that much

throughout my years of writing. While it made me nervous, I found it very useful because it

always me to have a different perspective when reading and writing.

Now that this class has ended and I look back at my experience, I see how it has

improved my writing process and writing in general. Beforehand I’ve always had a negative

approach when revising my writing, but that has seen change and now I understand the

importance of it. This is the same with how I viewed writing conventions, I realize now that this

negative feeling towards writing conventions was rooted in my lack of understanding about

writing conventions. So being able to work on those skills has been proven beneficial. As for my

writing project, while they are both not perfect, they are a lot more cohesive and read better for

the audience than my original submission draft. If I were to revise it further, I would look into

reorganizing my paragraphs for writing project 2, so that I see whether it’ll flow better. Overall, I

leave this Writing 2 class as a better more informed writer.

Bibliography

National Conference Of State Legislatures. “Tips for Making Effective PowerPoint

Presentations.” Last modified August 08, 2017.
https://www.ncsl.org/legislative-staff/lscc/tips-for-making-effective-powerpoint-presentat
ions
 5

Stedman, Kyle D. “Annoying Ways People Use Sources.” Writing Spaces: Reading on Writing,
no 2. (2010) 242–255

Williams, Joseph M. “Lesson 5: Emphasis.” In Style: The Basics of Clarity Grace, edited by
Joseph Bizup, 44-56. Boston: Pearson (2015)