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06-05-2016
Jennifer Johnson
Writing 2 Professor
Santa Barbara, CA 93535
Dear Jennifer,
To say that I have grown as an writer would be an understatement, I can wholeheartedly say that
I will be leaving this class with a lot of knowledge that will survive with me not only in my
remaining three years here at UCSB, but beyond into the real world as well. During this quarter
in writing 2 I have really began to look at writing as a whole process, which is what Shelly
Reid describes of writing in her article Ten way to think about writing. That is to say that the
whole process of writing is exactly that a whole lot of processing (a long one if I might add),
that goes beyond just writing to whatever prompt or assignment that are teacher may assign, but
rather a process that also involves two of many things, which is taking into consideration the
genre that we are writing in and our targeted audience. Something I would of never really took
into consideration or made sure to be aware of in the beginning stages of my writing process.
From my new outlook of looking at writing as a whole process I was also able to learn that
when it comes to the flow and organization pattern of my essay, being clear and well-conceived
is crucial into making sure that audience is not mislead or confused in my writing so they are not
left asking how? Or why? And one way to do that is to make sure that each sentence includes a
topic sentence that discusses or reveals what it is I am going to say to make it easier for the
reader to transition into what it is I want them to get from my overall work. Although that is

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easier said than done, I now know that my sentences need to be balanced and not sprawling
everywhere with lots of ideas and no connections.
Further, I have also been able to learn from the reading of Bunns article How to Read like a
Writer, to really identify the choices authors make in their writings as way to better understand
the choices I might want to make in my works, to strengthen my writing . Because from reading
Bunns piece I was able to realize that I wanted to effectively be able to tie together all my
narrative examples just as Bunn did when he cited the narrative example of the pink house, as
a way to relay to his readers how they have to warn their audiences what it is their about to
discuss all while still effectively staying on topic, and still tying it to the main theme of the
article. Because sometimes what tends to happen when I am writing is that I get lost in wanting
to draw in the reader that I forget that I still have to tie it all back to the prompt. From this
reading I was able to see that carefully examining and noticing the literary techniques that an
author might choose to make are key to bettering my own work and being able to properly relay
my central ideas. I was able learn I needed to ask myself questions about the content that I am
reading. For example, questions like does the authors language heighten the topic? Does the
author use precise wording? Is the text concise? Does the author have a lot of ideas? Etc. In now
practicing this I have been able to grow in evaluating the content of what is I am reading and
being able to imagine what different choices the author might have made instead, and what
effect those different choices would have on readers, as Bunn states in his article.
All of these new skills that I had learned I had to put into practice when writing my Writing
Project 1 essay on Genre conventions, and being able to identify the content of the scholarly
article that I had chosen to write about. I had to ask myself does the author acknowledge and
refute the views of individuals who might oppose his argument? If yes how so? Does the author

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rely other sources? Does the author use big words or common sense ones? All questions that I
was able to ask by reading Bunns piece and Learning How to Read Like a Writer as well as
the reading of Laura Carrolls piece Backpacks vs Briefcases, these two readings allowed me
to learn how to create my own claims, my own rhetoric, as I take a stand in what other people are
trying to say, because I was able to see that I had to first analyze how the author is writing by
evaluating contents such as sentence elements, the genre, language, etc.
Further, I believe that writing project 2 were I had to actually conduct research into the literary
practices of the whole Italian discourse was both the most challenging and rewarding project
that I did in all the projects that we had for writing 2 . In writing project 2 I faced a lot of
obstacles when it came to citing articles and using outside resources to support my claim, but I
must admit that it helped overall in my growth as a writer. I spent a lot of time in trying to make
sure that I successfully understood the sources that I was using and making sure that I was
connecting my ideas. Which I found I did successfully because there a was very good next to one
of my topic sentences that read; By Contrast, the literary practices of Italian also shifts heavily
in the direction of fluency during conversation practice, which combines both listening and
speaking skills. After examining from Percosi textbook, MyItalianLab, and my Italian lectures I
discovered that... being able to properly include evidence to support my claim is something that
I have forever struggled with in my writing. All throughout high school I would always receive
back paper that would have little citation in the margins asking me where the E? is, referring to
evidence. So being able to see that I could process the skills to properly cite in my analysis to
build my claim, only boosted my confidence in correctly being able to write analysis or research
papers. . I also faced a lot of challenges in including the interviews that I had done into my
research as well. Writing project 2 allowed for me to work on the biggest weaknesses that I have

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which is writing research paper and or analysis essays. During my fall quarter here at UCSB I
was taking an Art history class and one assignment that we had to do was write an in-depth
analysis essay on two piece of art work, and lets just say I didnt do well at all. With writing
project 2 I was able to learn how to successfully include citations in my work, use the articles
that I read to back up what I wanted to express, and properly include a works citied page. All of
which were areas that I had difficulty in my writing especially making sure that my sentence has
a centralized topic, that is a clear connection to what is I am going to address, never have I had
an issue with being able to draw the reader into my work, that was always my specialty, my
kryptonite was always preparing the a delicious meal, after I had sent out awesome invitation
cards for dinner at my place. And what I mean by that is I always had a challenge would being
able effectively tie everything to my idea that I wanted to convey, and effectively flow to the next
centralized idea. But when I can finally get what is I want to focus or centralize on the way I
word it can become both murky and confusing and result in a fragment. For instance when I
couldnt effectively convey what I wanted and it resulted with fragment being written on the side
Which was why at first I didnt really know what particular setting I wanted to choose, as
Kendrick relaying his perspective and inner feelings on and if given the chance fragments
would be something on my top list on things to work more on right behind going over more how
to use APA more properly. Overall Jennifer it has been a pleasure having you as my professor I
have genuinely been able to learn from your class and you patient, understanding, funny stories
that you would have to teach us the process about learning was true aid in me being able to learn
more about the writing process for example when you read that childrens book for us, and we
were able to see the different devices of an poem, a letter, a short, an invitation, etc. of the many
different writing conventions. it was a pleasure to have as my professor for both writing 1 and

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writing 2 and although I didnt really visit this quarter to your office hours I can rest assure you
that will definitely be seeing more of me during your office hours, especially since I will be
taking an English class this incoming winter.
Sincerely,
Teetee
Your Pretty Cool Student

Works Citied
Bunn, Mike. How to Read like a Writer. Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing
(2011):71-85. Web 4 June. 2016
Dirk, Kerry. Navigating Genres. Writing Spaces on Writings (2010):249-261. Web.4
June. 2016
Reid, Shelley. Ten Ways To Think About Writing. Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing
(2011): 1-22. Web 4 June. 2016

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