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Salma Cruz

Prof Monterrey

Eng 5

4 December 2020

Theory of Writing

Writing is defined as ​“the process of using symbols (letters of the alphabet, punctuation

and spaces) to communicate thoughts and ideas in a readable form.​”(EnglishClub). I do agree

with this definition and it makes sense to me, but I personally would define it using different

words. I would say writing is a way to express information or simply what goes on in one’s

mind. I have never considered myself a strong writer, in other words I have never thought my

work was clear or of good quality. I did not know what to expect directly from this class, but I

for sure did not know that what I was going to learn would be about my own writing. Going into

this class and acknowledging the four course goals, I never really thought about the parts and

process that goes on within writing.

A trend I saw within my own writing was that I write as if I were having a conversation

with somebody. I also addressed this in one of our weekly journal entries. I think this has its pros

and it's cons as well. For example, I like to believe my writing is personal in a sense. I think this

establishes a good connection with my audience. However, a con to this style is that I often lack

formality in my work. Now that this course is coming to an end, I think I can say I slowly

learned how to get out of this style, but fully though. For example, in one of my peer reviews,

my peer had given me the tip to maybe transition better amongst my paragraphs and different

topics. He told me that my paragraphs don't seem to end firmly. I understood his comments as I

jumped from one topic in a paragraph, to another without a smooth transition. I personally think
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this is because of my writing style. I do this when I talk in person as well. I can have a

conversation about one thing, and randomly jump into a different conversation as soon as a

different topic comes into my mind. After reading this comment from my peer, I then tried to

seal off ideas in my paragraphs before I begin introducing a different topic. Since then, when I

revise my papers I look for this same error. I proceed to correct them as best as I can. I am still

struggling with changing my writing style (for the better) but I do think I have made progress in

this mistake I often would make. Relating back to goal number three referring to the reflective

and metacognitive process, I would say I met this goal.

The first course goal focuses on developing an awareness for how communities shape

reading, writing and research. I would say that I met this goal. When I entered this course, I had

no idea what a discourse community was. I didn’t know what the correlation was between this,

genre and rhetoric was. Now I know that a discourse community is how a group of people who

are similar or can be grouped together, communicate amongst one another. The ways they

communicate are referred to as genres, and rhetoric is the act of convincing somebody. One thing

I do think took me a little more work along the way was identifying what groups would be

considered a discourse community. I thought that any group of people could be fit in to be

labeled as a discourse community. After learning more about the term and the different

requirements that are met to use this term, I now have a better knowledge. Swales and his

characteristics werent’ as clear to me. The way I was thinking was any group can meet these

characteristics if you think about it. I was wrong and now have a better understanding.

The second goal was to explore my own identity in relation to the politics of language. I

would say I achieved this, specifically in the literacy autobiography. My introduction to my

paper was a reflection on my first experience with literature, which was in the Spanish language.
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This was my first language growing up. As I got older and the vocabulary used in school got

more complex, I realized some words that I didn’t know the definition of sometimes had a latin

root, which could be connected to a word in Spanish. So, this ultimately helps me when I am

reading a text that is at a high level. Also, since Spanish is such a big part of my life I realized

that when I have to write about anything having to do with my personal life or my culture, I

enjoy it more because it reminds me that I am bilingual. This motivates me to write further. The

language is a part of my identity. Also, I would say that my style of writing is similar to myself

and my personality. My writing is often very personal, I like to connect to my audience. In

person, I am like this as well. I would say that I am a very inclusive person when it comes to

being around other people. I like to give people a sense of comfort, since I used to be really shy

and reserved myself.

The third goal was to meet a reflective process. I would say I met this goal, because in

other classes I have been in, I was used to turning in my first draft of writing just to prove I did

the work, and never really would receive feedback on it. Some classes only required seeing the

final draft. So with this class, as I received feedback from my own peers I felt as if I was looking

over my paper with them as I read their comments and noticed details I normally wouldn’t. This

helped me give a better version of my writing once I looked over the revisions. Also, when I

gave other feedback on their papers, I noticed some things in their writing that were done in a

smooth way, and gave my inspiration on how I can better myself and my own work. I also did

notice details that could have been done differently (as a form of improvement), and noticed

similarities to my own work.

As for the fourth goal, I do not think I really achieved it. A big part of the goal was to

write rhetorically in an informal and also in a formal way. I believe that I cna get my point across
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more in an informal way. The way I write is very much like a conversation. When it comes to

using formal vocabulary, I can’t really make sense of my writing. I should have met this part of

the goal and mastered formal writing, but I have not reached that part as a writer yet. I hope to

further develop my writing as my education goes on, and to be stronger in this style of writing.
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Works cited

Benwell, T. (n.d.). What is Writing? Retrieved from

https://www.englishclub.com/writing/what.htm