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Tommy Nguyen

Writing 2

December 4, 2019

Writing Portfolio

Metacognitive Reflection:

Before entering Writing 2, I was unconfident in my ability to analyze different pieces of

writing and to analyze essays that are able to answer prompts completely. Writing was not my

strong suit and I was not as eager to partake down the continuous path of writing persuasive

essays and rhetorical analysis like I did within my entire high school career. However, through

the introduction and emphasis of genre analysis, I was able to explore different writing styles as

well as improve on my own writing style. Through this writing class, I was able to expand my

arsenal of writing skills through the specific analysis of genres and their specific genre

conventions.

The introduction of genres was somewhat peculiar to me, as I didn’t see how we could

spend even an entire writing project on just genres. I believed that genres were just different

subjects that are often applied to books or movies; however, there was much more to how genre

is interpreted. According to the article “GENRE in the WILD: Understanding Genre Within

Rhetorical (Eco)Systems,” it identifies a genre as a “typified utterance that appears in a recurrent

situation.” To clarify, a genre is an act of communicating that can be defined with different

characteristics that can be found within repeated situations. Genres can be anything that are

spoken or written, have different features that separates it from other genres, and are repeatedly
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found within many scenarios. Through this my own definition of genre has expanded and I was

able to get into the genre analysis aspect of the writing class.

Through Writing Project 1(WP1), we were to gather multiple examples of a specific

genre we chose, in which I chose newspapers. By gathering multiple examples, we were able to

prove that we can find this genre in different situations and we were able to analyze different

characteristics that are found in each example. Additionally, I was able to analyze the examples

to find that the genre conventions, the different characteristics that are found within the

newspaper, were carefully chosen in order to achieve the purpose of the newspaper, which was

to attract readers in order to inform them about upcoming news, stories and events. I understood

the connection between the genre conventions and how these conventions help to serve the

genre’s purpose. With Writing Project 2(WP2), the introduction of two different academic

disciplines allowed for analysis of each academic discipline and the different purposes each

academic article has. The two different academic disciplines ultimately determined by many

rhetorical choices such as jargon which, according to Janet Boyd within her article “Murder!

(Rhetorically Speaking),” is terminology that is shared and used by others within the intended

audience. I was able to determine the differences in jargon in each academic discipline and how

the use of jargon appeals to different intended audiences. Writing Project 3 focused on genre

translation from an academic article to a non-academic article, which allowed for demonstration

of understanding different conventions for both genres and allows us to choose how each genre

convention is implemented with regards to context, audience and purpose.

When choosing which WPs to revise, I decided to choose WP1 and WP3. I chose WP1

due to the fact that it allows me to understand the structure of a specific genre and the different

reasons for including each convention and further develop my analysis skills. Furthermore, it
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was my first WP and would leave opportunity for large growth and improvement when revising.

My reason for choosing WP3 is because it was the lowest grade received out of the three WPs,

also giving myself an opportunity to improve my essay. One of my problems that I face with

writing is my inability to fully answer prompts to fullest. I would worry too much about

answering the first part of the prompt that I would often forget to plan and organize my essay so

that it transitions smoothly and answers each part of the prompt. Within WP1, I didn’t include

information about how constraints and settings influence the different genre conventions.

Therefore, I included another paragraph that addresses these aspects which further strengthens

my essay. Furthermore, I lacked transitions that would help the essay flow and connect between

paragraphs and separated one of my body paragraphs for more organization; the inclusion of a

title, footnotes and proper grammar was also resolved within the essay. Within WP3, I didn’t

answer the prompt fully and left out many explanations to my choices when translating genres

from academic articles to poetry. By adding explanations on different visual aspects such as the

use of font, pictures, rhyme scheme and sentence structure, I was able to properly answer the

prompts and give reasoning on why these conventions fit the genre due to its purpose it is trying

to fulfill. Additionally, I made sure that I added an example of a poem so that I could show

examples of the different genre conventions and how they are implemented into the poem.

Lastly, with the freedom of translating a genre into another comes some restriction that I had to

follow. The one restriction that was brought up within my essay was that I couldn’t completely

avoid the use of some academic terms in order to communicate and transform the main ideas of

the academic article into a poem.

Days where we had peer review were very helpful as my classmates were able to identify

the issues of the organization and clarity of my essay, as I was only worried about the content of
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my essays. Whenever I start writing an essay, I only worry about one point at a time and tend to

be stuck when trying to organize some of the points I would like to include into different

paragraphs; this would eventually lead to me excluding some points that I would like to be made,

as it didn’t fit into my essay and would seem like it was randomly thrown in. However, I wasn’t

able to realize this during some of the WPs and that’s where peer review seemed to help me. A

good majority of the feedback I received were about missing content that I could have

implemented, and organization tips on how I can help my paragraphs connect using different

transitions. Furthermore, it was useful when I received tips on which points to elaborate on.

Some of my points were broad and didn’t go into detail on reasoning and analysis. With this

advice, I was able to work on my ability to answer prompts with detail and organize my essays

successfully so that my essays transition well into each paragraph. I liked that by working on this

portfolio, I was able to work on my organization skills and learn to plan out my essays in order to

incorporate all the ideas I want to include in my essay. However, I still want to expand on my

vocabulary and include more variation within my essays, as I tend to repeat myself using the

same transitional words or reusing terms that could be referred to in different ways.

Overall, this writing project was an opportunity to expand on my essay writing skills

through exploring genres and their different conventions in order to carry out a purpose in their

pieces. Through this genre analysis, I’ve learned to brainstorm my thoughts by jotting down my

ideas on paper instead of going straight into writing my essay. Planning out my essays before

hand and creating a rough outline proved to be beneficial as it allows me to organize and sort out

my points that I would like to make within the essay. One of my strong features of writing now

would include my analysis of evidence that and the reasons to why this would support my essay.

Now that I am more confident in my writing choices, I can properly answer prompts to the best
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of my ability. Using the content that we learned in class, I am able to identify different genres

and find out what the purpose of each genre is. By identifying different genres that I write in my

everyday life, I can ensure that fulfil the purpose of each genre by using the genre conventions

within my writing pieces. For example, when I write a letter to someone, I know what the genre

conventions of a letter is and I can write a proper letter using these genre conventions.

Furthermore, I know what genre conventions are appropriate in different genres and can see how

each genre convention plays a role in the purpose of the genre. There are still some concepts that

were difficult, such as finding a suitable article to use for evidence and writing a conclusion that

effectively concludes your essay. However, through practice and revisions, I was able to write

essays that I am proud of. Some tricks and tips that I’ve learned throughout this course is the use

of different transitions and changing sentence structure by using complex sentence structures to

add some variation in the essays.

Bibliography

Bickmore, Lisa. “GENRE in the WILD: Understanding Genre Within Rhetorical (Eco)Systems.”

Press Books, Open English @ SLCC, 1 Aug. 2016,

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openenglishatslcc.pressbooks.com/chapter/genre-in-the-wild-understanding-genre-

within-rhetorical-ecosystems/.

Boyd, Janet. “Murder! (Rhetorically Speaking).” Writing 2: Academic Writing (2019): 79 - 86.