Dear Eugene,

The writer who attended the first lecture for Academic Writing on September 22, 2022 is

not the same writer publishing this portfolio on December 7, 2022. The seven weeks I was

fortunate enough to participate in this course completely changed my perception of the writing

process. The two projects presented in my portfolio demonstrate the skills I acquired through

class assignments and readings. Writing Project 1, Genre Translation and Explanation, explores

the method of understanding the audience, purpose, and context of an academic article and

translating these three components to fit the conventions of the genre, TikTok. Writing Project 2,

Exploring a Conversation about Writing, demonstrates my interpretation of a scholarly

conversation about possible strategies for the academy to incorporate space for authors to

establish identities in their writing. Both assignments required us to address certain ideas, but

allowed us to creatively convey them. This room for creativity enabled me to construct a voice in

my writing that was previously undiscovered.

Perhaps one of the most perspective-altering ways this class has changed my view of

writing is the use of rhetorical decision making. Learning to explain the reasoning behind

authors’ choices has furthered my comprehension of writing. Recognizing these choices,

especially in terms of audience, purpose, and context, not only helps me consume information

more effectively, but also enhances my own writing. The use of metacognition was especially

beneficial in creating Writing Project 1. “The ability to perceive the very steps by which success

occurs and to articulate the various qualities and components that contribute in significant ways

to the production of effective writing” (Tinberg 76). While reflecting on the new TikTok I

created, I used this newfound understanding of metacognition to evaluate my ability to

effectively translate genres. I was able to thoroughly explain my reasoning for the rhetorical
choices I made in the translation. In Writing Project 2, by continually asking myself, “Why am I

including this?” I was able to successfully convey each scholar’s ideas while focusing the

conversation around my research question.

In my revisions, I continued to use metacognition with an even greater understanding of

each assignment’s purpose. The TikTok I created barely fit the conventions of its genre, so I

reformatted it to be even more effective in reaching my target audience. The TikTok was more

visually appealing, and included more music genres discussed in the original article. This attempt

to make the TikTok more prone to virality and include a broader audience better accomplishes

the goal of a successful genre translation. In my reflection, I deepened my analysis of my

reasoning for excluding information necessary to the academic article because of its irrelevance

to the new genre. Writing Project 2 challenged me to include every aspect of the assignment

through dialogue to fit the conventions of a podcast. My revisions focus on increasing the

amount of interactions between the participants, instead of them all separately presenting their

ideas to the group. In addition, I continued to shorten the introductions as recommended by my

peers. I would like to note that I also believe acknowledging aspects of early drafts are proficient

in terms of the assignment is an equally important part of revising. There are some things I do

well.

My strengths as a writer are organizing my ideas into a clear structure and maintaining

focus. The positive feedback I received from both my peers and yourself centered around the fact

that they knew exactly what points I was attempting to make. “Intentions—a sense of audience

and purpose and of what the writer wants the essay to do—are essential to a good piece of

communicative writing” (Giles 198). As a writer, I make my intentions clear to the audience.

This is primarily evident in my writing through my use of topic sentences at the beginning of
paragraphs that address what I am discussing. In addition, I only include relevant content in my

writing. I believe every sentence in my writing can be used to support my claims and ideas.

However, this often leads me to succumb to my weakness in writing.

The hardest part of writing for me is effectively explaining my ideas. In fact, I often

forget to include thoughts that are essential to the audience's comprehension. Previous to this

class, I frequently attempted the impossible task of creating a perfect first draft. Peter Elbow’s

“Teaching Two Kinds of Thinking” really changed my attitude towards the writing process. He

states, “first order thinking often brings out people's best and most intelligent thinking” (Elbow

37). This quote made me consider the possibility that I might be missing out on my most

intellectual writing by trying to organize my thoughts as I write. Through the freewrites assigned

in class, I was able to practice using first order thinking. Writing ideas as they come to my mind

and not immediately worrying about structuring them has greatly improved my writing since the

first day of class. I now have a better understanding of my voice, and am able to produce more

creative language.

There is still room for improvement in my writing. Sadly, I missed out on the last three

weeks of this course due to the UAW-2865 strike against the University of California. As a

result, my projects are revised mainly on my perspective of what needs to be refined with little

input from other people. Although I have proofread each project multiple times, I am not

confident that they are completely free of grammatical errors. I currently possess basic grammar

skills, but could use more practice. My sentences do not always read clearly, which is why I

appreciate constructive feedback. In the future, I will both request and provide feedback as

taught in this class, especially the tactic of restating what the author is saying from the reader’s

perspective.
 I am proud of everything I have written in this class, even my journals! I have applied a

great deal of effort to succeed, and I hope this is evident in my portfolio. Thank you for helping

to increase my confidence in writing, and reminding me that it is possible to use a unique voice

in academic writing.

Sincerely,

Lola Merrill
 Works Cited

Elbow, Peter. “Teaching Thinking by Teaching Writing.” Change: The Magazine of Higher

Learning, vol. 15, no. 6, 1983, pp. 37–40., doi:10.1080/00091383.1983.10570005.

Giles, Sandra L. “Reflective Writing and the Revision Process: What Were You Thinking?”

Writing Spaces. Readings on Writing, by Charles Lowe et al., vol. 1, Parlor Press, 2010.

Tinberg, Howard. “Metacognition Is Not Cognition.” Naming What We Know, Classroom

Edition Threshold Concepts of Writing Studies, by Elizabeth Wardle and Linda Adler-

Kassner, University Press of Colorado.