Pearl Feil

WRIT 2

Maddie Roepe

Winter 2024

Considering my levels of learning from lesson to lesson, it hasn’t all been linear. I

struggled a lot in WP1 with finding the right ways to do things as well as in WP2, however it

was good to know that I was learning, because after I struggled, I accomplished the assignment.

The readings from Dirk and Bickmore really helped me develop my understanding of writing as

a whole, because it helped me realize that genre was in every piece of writing I’ve ever written.

At first through writing the project builders for WP1, I thought that maybe I would’ve been only

using these readings for the first writing project, however learning about genre helped me

develop my writing skills for WP2 as well. This is because I was focusing on how the genre of

gothic writing is built from writers, or what writers do to create this genre together. Because

while these two readings helped me develop my own genre translation, they also helped me

analyze what authors were doing to create their genres as well. Dirk mentioned in their article

from their perspective in “Navigating Genre”, “I knew I was looking for other essays written

directly to students, and after finding many examples, I looked for common features. In

particular, I noted the warm, personal style that was prevalent through every essay; the tone was

primarily conversational. And more importantly, I noticed that the writer did not talk as an

authoritative figure but as a coach.” This excerpt of Dirk’s reading really encapsulates what I was

thinking and looking for when finding a scholarly conversation topic on gothic writing

techniques. It really helped me understand deeper what to look for in analyzing writing, rather
than genre alone. I found the text extremely rich and fruitful in my writing journey over the

course of this class.

When I first started getting into Bickmore’s piece on “GENRE in the WILD” I thought it

was going to be in reference to ecological aspects of the genre (which it wasn’t) however, it still

provided meaningful information that helped me understand concepts in this class. For example,

the reading mentions how genre has systems and sets, which proved to be useful in WP2 as well

as many authors recognise the patterns within a genre such as gothic fiction that propels the

genre forward. I found this topic to be particularly interesting and helpful in writing WP1 as the

genre translation as I started to notice how different ways authors wrote short ghost stories boiled

down into one big genre with multiple ways that I could develop a ghost story. I felt like this left

a lot of room for creativity and freedom however, too much of this was challenging, as I felt like

I didn’t know which direction to go in. This was the case a lot of the time, as I would overthink

what the course of action was going to be for a project builder, which I would then spend way

too much time on, ultimately, setting me back a bit. I think I can work on this in the future by

envisioning what the final product will look like in the long run, rather than tunnel visioning into

the project builders (although they were very helpful in creating the final writing projects).

Focusing on WP1 more independently, I found that writing in a new genre taught me how

fluid and versatile writing really is. I usually would write academic texts, analytical essays or

data sets, but WP1 really opened up my mind to the versatility of writing and how creative I

could get with it. It was fun to work with WP1 as I found myself interested in the ghost story

genre for a long time in my life, however, I learned more about the complexities of the genre

itself as I dove into the perspective of the writer, rather than the reader’s perspective that I was

used to. I think this really helped me learn more about ghost story writing as a whole, as I love
gaining new perspectives on the genres that I love. I also had never translated something of such

qualitative nature (such as the case study document) into something that was more creative. This

was very interesting and it made me want to explore more projects like this in the future.

In regards to WP2, my process of researching sources for the scholarly discussion was

difficult. I would search up articles on google scholar or the UC library search engine, only to be

tricked into citing books or dissertations at first. This was a bit disappointing, as I only began to

realize this later on in the writing process. It was painful to rewrite my PB 3, however it was

necessary in connecting the main themes behind each source. I found that many sources had

stronger voices than others, as I saw that Aguirre was a writer who was very fascinated with the

subject of gothic writing and narrative, as was Lokke. I feel more equipped to handle researching

sources in the future, as each mistake I made was a learning experience, and now I will be

careful to double check my sources (if they're peer reviewed, a book, etc…). I feel more

confident on the idea of scholarly conversation, as now I could explain to a friend what it meant.

In the beginning of WP2 project builders, I struggled to grasp what a scholarly conversation

really was, until I saw the examples presented in class which helped me a lot. Overall, I felt like I

didn’t really have much of a role in the scholarly conversation, besides bringing the sources close

enough together to where they could actually start “talking” to each other.

The reflections at the end of each writing project were places to share my journeys along

the way of creating these projects. I found them helpful to me as to what I could do better in the

future, however I think it would benefit me and the reader if I addressed the audience more, and

explained more. When I look at my reflections for WP1 and 2, I see that I reflected on the

process but not so much the information of the projects, and I feel that I could be more detailed

in the future while writing my reflections. However, I do believe that I connected the sources
together in a larger sense in my reflection as a whole. Even though I could have more substance

in the area of detail, my connections I feel were pretty solid.

As for my development as a writer, I think my stance on writing changed a lot. At first I

was in a mindset that the writing I had to do was straightforward and like in many of the other

classes where they’d have us type out reports and such, but then when presented with so much

freedom of choice in what we’d like to write and explore, I realized that this class was going to

become a lot more reflective on myself as a writer. I think I was excited to learn this, as I do it

for almost every subject, but this class would really help me understand how to improve my

writing as a whole. I think even outside of the classroom, it helped me with my expression in

writing as much as it did for my development in academic writing. I think that after taking this

class and diving deeper into what I was personally interested in for each project, it helped me

want to explore writing more creatively outside of class as well, which I’ve always wanted to do,

but never knew really how to exactly write well. I think I still have a long way to go in the

development of my writing, but this course really helped me explore more of what my passions

were and learn more about them from a writer's perspective. I didn’t explore many of the

subjects covered in this course prior to enrollment, so many of the concepts were new to me, and

I found this really helpful and educational for me. I learned about genre and rhetorical moves

through the readings mostly, and scholarly conversation came to me through examples of

students putting together their own scholarly conversations. Before I entered college, the only

reading that involved the process of writing in itself was a book I had read half of called Bird By

Bird (I still have yet to finish it), but I really would love to explore more of the process of writing

even after this class is over. My favorite strategies in this course involved building up to the main

writing project with project builders, as it helped me prepare for what I was going to implicate in
the final project through practice and refining my ideas and sources for each respective project. I

think what I’ve learned in WRIT 2 will benefit me in academic writing, creative writing, writing

emails, and even more forms of writing as it was just such an informative course that helped me

expand my skills and knowledge as a writer.