Hannah Midyette

Olivia Rines
UWRT1101
April 11, 2015

Final Reflection Rough Draft

We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to
arrive where we started and know the place for the first time T. S. Elliot. I believe that
UWRT1100 is really where my journey as a writer began. Sure, Ive been writing since

Haley Furguson 4/13/2015 9:59 AM

Comment [1]: I really enjoy this opening
quote! Great way to start the paper.

elementary school, but no one has made it interesting or enjoyable for me until now. I
was always just pushing through as fast as I could to get a writing assignment done. But
theres something about the way we explored topics in this class that made writing essays
more enjoyable. As this semester comes to an end, I shall not only reflect on my
experiences in this class, but continue to explore until there is no more exploring to be

Haley Furguson 4/13/2015 10:00 AM

Comment [2]: Interesting sentence, exploring
the class or future writing courses? It just made
me think a little J

done.
In the beginning, it was me against an essay. To be more specific, our first big
assignment was a Genre Analysis on our choice of genre. In class, we had been exploring
genre for a couple of weeks, which was difficult because Olivia had us really expand on
the topic and our own definitions of genre. It was confusing at first, but learning that you
could find genre all around you was really cool. When handed this assignment, I chose to
explore the genre of horror movies as these are my favorite movies to watch. The process
of writing my Genre Analysis was different from high school in that we had to first write
a Genre Proposal and then turn in two different drafts for peer review. If you read

Haley Furguson 4/13/2015 10:02 AM

Comment [3]: I really like that you have a
story-line sense to your reflection.

through all of my drafts, the sentence structure and information improves. When it was
time to start working on my final draft, a lady from the writing center on campus came
into our class and delivered a presentation on how to revise an essay. This was helpful
because afterwards we made a checklist of what needed to be included in our paper and
like usual, I was missing quite a few things. In my final draft, you can see that Ive
improved by making details more specific and taking out unnecessary information.
The second big assignment we were handed was a Micro-Ethnography that
involved observing and interviewing a community. This assignment included an essay

Haley Furguson 4/13/2015 10:04 AM

Comment [4]: Maybe reflect more on the
process. You did a great job already but if
improvement is one of your focuses for the
portfolio, reflect just a little deeper.

and a presentation. In our discussion forums we read about Swales 6 characteristics of a

discourse community and also how he defined a discourse community. In class we did
group work by picking a specific discourse community and then showing how it fits each
of the 6 characteristics. These smaller assignments helped me become comfortable with
the idea of a discourse community. I was really excited because I love learning about
different communities and how they function. At first, I chose to write my Micro-

Haley Furguson 4/13/2015 10:07 AM

Comment [5]: You are catering to an audience
more than just Olivia which is great. I also like
how you include your feelings about the
assignments.

Ethnography on a specific sorority on campus, but was disappointed when none of them
answered my email. My next option was Starbucks. I have a lot of social anxiety so it
took about a week to build up the courage to ask Starbucks employees if I could
interview them. The experience was awkward, but in the end it was satisfying to know
that I had done it by myself. Im not sure my writing improved drastically, but again, my
information became more specific throughout each of my drafts. For my final draft, I am
working on improving how the paper flows. Everything is a little choppy and not
everything seems to fit together. The most enjoyable part of this assignment were the

Haley Furguson 4/13/2015 10:08 AM

Comment [6]: Maybe include how your
intelligence of a discourse community improved,
and also gaining the courage to observe the
discourse community!

Haley Furguson 4/13/2015 10:08 AM

Comment [7]: Awkward transition

Haley Furguson 4/13/2015 10:09 AM

Comment [8]: Was?

presentations because I loved learning about everyone elses discourse community and at
the same time learning more about my peers.
Throughout this semester, everyday in class we were given a question to write
about in our daybook. I enjoyed this most because it gave us a chance to really think
about our opinions on different things. Im glad that we got to share these opinions with
each other. I think it brought us closer together as a class. Everyday in class we were also
assigned a discussion forum for homework. This was my least enjoyable part of the class.
Our professor would post an article or video and then we would individually write a

Haley Furguson 4/13/2015 10:11 AM

Comment [9]: Maybe discuss how these things
affected your writing and what you had learned
from the daybook entries and discussion forums

small paragraph back. I only didnt like them because I thought they were tedious and
difficult to read even if I did learn something by doing them.
One thing Ive learned about writing is that it takes time. Before this class I would
sit down and write my essay the night before it was due. I couldnt stand the idea of

Haley Furguson 4/13/2015 10:12 AM

Comment [10]: Great point. Maybe include this
thought in earlier paragraphs.

looking back over something to check if it was good enough. It was a real struggle for me
to grasp this concept even for this class, but since our Professor made it a requirement to
have change within our drafts I had to do it anyways. Id say my biggest success in this
course is learning how to not write a five-paragraph essay. Im not sure how I did it, but
its honestly made writing easier for me.

Haley Furguson 4/13/2015 10:13 AM

Comment [11]: Another great point! You
should definitely try to include these things in
your reflection of the big assignments in class.

Growth means change and change involves risk, stepping from the known to the
unknown. I believe with all of these assignments, I have grown as a writer. Without all
of these assignments, I wouldnt have learned more about writing at all. I believe
improvement says it all. But I also believe that my attitude towards writing has grown in
a positive way. I feel more confident in myself and my writing now, instead of feeling

Haley Furguson 4/13/2015 10:14 AM

Comment [12]: Love love these quotes and
how you include them in both the introduction
and the conclusion

like I suck and everyone else is better than me. Hopefully I will continue in my writing

Haley Furguson 4/13/2015 10:15 AM

Comment [13]: Maybe word this sentence a
little different instead of saying I suck

and my confidence.

Peer Response-Haley Furguson

Hannah,
I really enjoyed reading about the different aspects of this class within your paper
and your experience with them. You seem to have grown a lot in this class! I think that
you should reflect more with examples of things like improvement, especially with the
big writing pieces in this course. Just try to keep in mind the main points you want to
convey through your portfolio and use those as main points for your reflection. Also, do
not forget to include what you are using in your portfolio and why you are using it. You
must clearly state the contents you are using in your portfolio.
You have a really good way with writing to the audience, you definitely know the
attention grabbers and know what to include and what not to include when it comes to the
knowledge of the audience (Instead of just writing to Olivia). Overall you have a great
reflection and a really great structure to your paper, your writing style is reflected
throughout the entire paper and I really enjoy it. The main thing you would work on is
just reflecting more, including portfolio contents and using the main point of the portfolio
to strengthen your paper.