Sarah Agner Ms.

Fuentes English 1101 12-04-2013 Final Reflection Throughout English 1101 we have been required to write several papers in different styles. Our first paper we wrote was our literacy memoir, where we all were able to describe our personal literacy experiences growing up. The last paper we wrote was our discourse community ethnography. Along with the major papers we wrote in this class we also did a lot of in class writings and Moodle blogs for homework. All of our best works at the end of the semester go into our final portfolio that we will turn in as our exam grade. In this class we learned to think in different ways in order to write in different ways which is very helpful for other classes as well. When writing my literacy memoir, I felt very comfortable because I knew the subject perfectly. I wrote about all of my literacy experiences I had growing up, and described how those experiences have made me the writer I am today. This was my favorite paper I wrote in this class because it reflects how I write and I had a constant flow of ideas to write about. I believe that this turned out to be one of my best pieces I wrote this semester. Along with several other papers, we wrote an ethnography on a discourse community of our choice. For this assignment we had to observe the community we chose and interview someone from that community. I chose the club swimming discourse community because that is a community I am familiar with and am interested in. I went and observed one of Rowan Aquatic Clubs practices and after words Mckenzie Stevens answered questions for me. This paper was difficult for me because I had to write it in a very impersonal way. Nearly every class we would do in class writings of topics our teacher would give us. We would later talk about what we wrote about and often times post these writings on our Moodle

blogs. I think these in class writings helped me become more comfortable with writing because they did not have to be perfect, I just was putting my ideas onto paper. All of these writings, plus several more, are all a part of my writing portfolio. I have all the final and rough drafts included. I like how I can go back now and see how my writing improved from first to final draft. My portfolio makes everything I learned in this class very obvious and I am happy with how it turned out. Before this class I thought I had to write in a certain way. I had memorized all the writing rules that had been pounded into my head and I always followed them. This class made me realize that there is no one right way to write, the rules are more like suggestions. It was interesting to see how everybody wrote with the rules they learned growing up and how all of our papers varied drastically. Through this class I learned how to get all my thoughts down on paper first and then go back later to revise. This technique helped me a lot because I found myself having to take out thoughts instead of having to go back in and add more. I think this class will help me all throughout college because I am able to write papers easier now without getting as stressed out.