Tritt

Alex Tritt
Writing 2
De Piero
6-9-16
No Guts, No Glory
Yeah, Im super excited for all of my classes next quarter Except for Writing 2.
Every adult that bombarded me with questions about college over spring break got this response.
Ive never considered myself a bad writer, but Im certainly not a natural. No, Ive never
completely bombed an essay, but thats because I wont let myself. Ive had perfectionist
tendencies my entire life, especially when it comes to academics. Unsurprisingly, this mindset
has made the process of writing both frustrating and exhausting. While Im generally happy with
the outcome of my papers, its not without plenty of effort; the words just dont flow easily from
my mind to my furiously typing fingers. However, I dont rest until Im completely satisfied with
a word, a sentence, a paragraph. This means long nights spent writing and rewriting and rerewriting. For this reason, I wasnt looking forward to an entire class dedicated to the subject that
has caused me nothing but stress, frustration, and sleep deprivation. However, by the end of the
class, my view on the subject of writing and myself had completely changed.
My anxiety first began to melt away when we received our first email from Z. Now, when
I picture an academic writing professor, I picture the guy from Ferris Buellers Day Off
Conservative. Boring. Prim. However, it was clear even through email that Z is none of these
things. That first email radiated personality, and a laidback one at that. Phrases like Writing
2rs, a short and extreeeeemely cool chapter, hang tight, and catch you soon made it clear
that Z is not your average uptight college professor. Being the creepy, curious student that I am, I

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immediately googled Zack De Piero so that I could put a face to a name. As soon as I saw the
long hair, I knew that we were going to get along.
I was still apprehensive on the first day of class. What were we going to cover? How long
would our papers have to be? How the hell was I going to sit there for two hours twice a week?
However, as I had suspected, Z made it easy and fun. After getting to know each other, we
immediately dove into the central topic of the course: genres. Oh, yay! At first, I was relieved. I
knew what genres were Or so I thought. However, as I mentioned in my first thlog, Genre is a
broad term that I had previously misinterpreted; if you had asked me to name some textual
genres a week ago I would have said, science-fiction, horror, romance... The words that I used
are in fact styles of different genres. Dirks Navigating Genres article quickly cleared up my
misinterpretation of the word; pieces of writing are part of the same genre if they are similar in
format, conventions, purpose, and audience.
But, like, whats a convention? I had never really studied genres in high school, so I
didnt know any of the associated terminology. Wait Hold on Are we watching clips from
horror movies? Why are we OH! Horror movies have defining characteristics that make them
horror movies. Not all conventions are required of a text in order for it to be considered a
certain genre, but it should have enough defining characteristics before its placed in a certain
category. For example, a movie doesnt need to have blood and gore in order for it to be
considered a horror movie, but it probably has other characteristics (cacophonous sounds/eerie
music, screaming, and some form of evil being) that are the reasons why its placed in that
category, I explained in my first thlog. Clearly, I grasped the relationship between conventions
and genres early on. I can thank Z and his fun, unconventional teaching methods for that.

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Going into our first WP1, I was feeling uncharacteristically confident. We had completed
PB1A and PB1B, which solidified my understanding of genres and their conventions. Now it was
time to put that understanding to the test by comparing and contrasting the conventions of three
sources of the same genre that focus on a single topic. Okay, easy enough. I knew that I wanted
to focus on some sort of advertising because I [thought it would] be really easy to pinpoint
similarities and differences between, say, several brands of the same product, as I explained in
my journal on April 11th. As a self-proclaimed cereal addict, I decided that cereal boxes would
be a fun and outside-the-box (pun intended) genre to analyze.
However, as soon as I sat down to begin writing, I hit my first perfectionist roadblock. I wasnt
confident with my thesis statement, my ideas werent gelling together the way that I wanted them
to, and my paper felt like a disorganized mess. In addition, I was beginning to sweat because I
didnt feel like I had a lot of textual evidence from the boxes themselves that I could use to
support my argument. After a long, frustrating night, I reluctantly gave up. I wasnt happy with
my final draft, but I didnt know how to fix it. As I hit submit, the familiar feeling of
disappointment washed over me as I accepted what I assumed would be my fate: a C.
Holy moly, a 10/10?! Out of 125 Writing 2 students that Ive had, I dont think thats
ever happened for a WP1, applauded Z. I was in shock. Zs comments not only made me
incredibly proud, but they also immediately boosted my confidence in a subject where I had
always felt uncertain. For me, this was the first turning point in the class. I realized that I had
been way too hard on myself with the WP1; I needed to push the perfectionism aside and trust
my ability to construct an essay.
As I was still glowing with my newfound confidence, we began to focus on a new
concept that would be the focus of our WP2: moves. This wasnt a term that Id heard prior to

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this class, so I was a little uncomfortable with the idea at first. However, through Zs unorthodox
methods videos of The Rock and Michael Jordan I began to get a grasp on what moves are.
In writing, a move is a choice that the writer makes opening with an anecdote, using italics
for emphasis, asking questions, to name a few that has a specific purpose. Moves are
generally chosen based on a specific audience, and are used in ways that are meant to elicit a
response or persuade the reader, I explained in my fifth thlog. After completing PB2A and
PB2B, we had familiarized ourselves with the concept of moves and were ready to tackle WP2;
we had to analyze the moves and conventions of two scholarly articles and one non-scholarly
article about the same topic.
However, the perfectionist roadblock struck again. I was frustrated because I felt like I
grasped the concepts that we learned in class, but I crumbled when it came time to apply my
knowledge and use my analyses to support an argument. It was hard to organize my ideas
because so many of the concepts are interconnected, I explained in my journal on May 9th. I
knew that the organization of my WP2 was horrible, but I just couldnt figure out how to solve
the problem. Although I wasnt happy, I also wasnt surprised when I didnt get an outstanding
grade.
My less-than-satisfactory WP2 was actually a blessing in disguise, though. Sure, it
bumped down my confidence a bit (especially after my WP1), but how does one learn if all they
do is succeed? This was the second turning point in the class; I was given the opportunity to
apply Zs comments and really push myself to improve as a writer. After all, whether Im
interested in a class or not, I never half-ass anything that I do.
Thats when it clicked. Why was I trying so damn hard to be perfect? If I always
submitted so-called perfect papers all the time, Id never be able to improve as a writer.

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Whether I spend 20 minutes or 20 hours on a paper, there will always be something that I could
have done better. As Anne Lamott explains in her article Shitty First Drafts, All good writers
write [shitty first drafts]. This is how they end up with good second drafts and terrific third
drafts (93). I was letting my perfectionism get the best of me; I was trying so hard to create a
perfect first draft that I ended up overthinking the basics and trying to incorporate too many
ideas.
Luckily, Z gave us the opportunity to transform our good (or in my case, shitty) second
drafts into terrific third drafts with the portfolio assignment. I was able to take a step back,
evaluate my essay, and apply Zs comments. At the end of my revision, I was amazed at how
much I had improved in just a few short weeks. I had successfully written a specific thesis
statement and supported my central argument with an analysis of the moves and conventions of
each article. When you compare my original WP2 to my revised WP2, theres a world of
difference. I truly feel like that transformation displays how much I improved as a writer over the
course of the class, but I never would have gotten there if I hadnt tripped along the way.
Sure, this class taught me tons and tons about genres, conventions, and moves. The
concepts that I learned are incredibly valuable because theyre applicable to all different
disciplines; I can utilize the tips and tricks that I learned in this class to write a lab report, a
resume, or a Facebook post. But more importantly, this class taught me that its okay to not be
perfect. In fact, its better to not be perfect, because thats how you improve and grow as a writer.
Throughout the course of the class, I struggled with confidence and perfectionism; I spent
countless late nights stressed and frustrated, trying to construct pieces of writing that were
absolutely flawless. However, it wasnt until I submitted a less-than-adequate paper that I felt
like I truly grew as a writer. Im incredibly thankful that the relaxed and easygoing professor,

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who looked like he would let shit slide, knew when to buckle down and take his job seriously.
With even the smallest amount of constructive criticism, I was able to completely change the
way that I viewed the process of writing and immediately saw improvement in my essays.
Overall, this is a lesson that goes beyond the classroom; I can apply this in other aspects of my
life so that I not only improve as a writer, but also as a person.

Works Cited
Dirk, Kerry. "Navigating Genres." Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing. Vol. 1. Parlor Press,
2010. 249-62. Print.
Lamott, Anne. Shitty First Drafts. Language Awareness: Readings for College Writers. Ed. by
Paul Eschholz, Alfred Rosa, and Virginia Clark. 9th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins,
2005. 93-96.
My journals
My thlogs
Zs comments
Zs emails

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