March 17, 2023

Dear Mx. Pennington,

Throughout these past ten weeks, my perception of writing, and Writing 2, has shifted
drastically. I started this class thinking it would be a boring class where I wrote essays every
week, but my expectations were immediately turned around. The Writing Projects not only built
on everything we read about and learned in class, but allowed me to explore creative genres and
push myself to better my writing. With every new reading, writing exercise, Writing Project,
reader response, and revision, I’ve been able to build on my understanding of how I write, and
what academic writing looks like for me. I’m still in the process of finding what works for me,
and what doesn’t, but I know that’s okay and that I’m in a better place than I was at the start of
the quarter. Both Writing Projects, and their subsequent revisions, have given me many
opportunities to learn and grow.
As I revised my Writing Projects, I read my work like a writer, like Mike Bunn urged me
to in “How to Read Like a Writer”, and thought about each decision I made. He writes that when
you read like a writer, you should be, “questioning why the author made certain decisions.
Considering what techniques could have made the text better” (Bunn 85). As I read, I highlighted
areas that needed improvement, wrote notes on what I changed and why, and noted what
elements worked. Each initial version of my Writing Projects are annotated with three different
colors, pink, green, and purple, indicating different actions I took in the revision process. Pink
notes indicate a minor change, green notes point to something I removed completely from my
initial version, and purple notes indicate an area where I added something completely new. I
found that changing the colors both helped me organize my thoughts, and allowed me to clearly
indicate what I changed. I was inspired by the practice I had in annotating the readings I’ve done
for this course, and Bunn’s suggestions for reading like a writer. Through repeated practice, I
found out that it’s really helpful for me when I use different colors to point to different kinds of
ideas, and include notes to remind myself of something later. Being able to work on this skill
throughout this class, especially during my revision process, has been incredibly helpful, and I
know I’ll implement a similar system when I do readings for other classes in the future.
Without a doubt, Writing Project 1 has been my favorite assignment that I’ve done this
quarter. It allowed me to take something I loved learning about, groundwater, and translate that
information into something I loved making, a zine. The audience I chose to translate my article
for was UCSB students, as a way of sharing something I loved and thought was important with
my peers. The progression of each revision I’ve done on my zine truly embodies the message of
Anne Lamott in “Shitty First Drafts”. Lamott emphasizes how important it is to let yourself go
crazy in your first draft, to make something as shitty as you need it to be, as long as you get all
your thoughts on the page. The idea is that, no matter what you put down on that page, you have
time to revise it and work through everything to find what’s really important. I made many major
changes in my final version, taking the critique I received from you, and taking my own thoughts
into account. The final product looks incredibly different from my first draft. My initial product
was on paper, so I decided to remake my zine digitally on Canva, both so that I could include all
the changes I wanted to, and so I could explore another way of creating zines. At first glance,
they look nothing alike, but when you look at the content and organization, you’ll see that most
of it stays consistent between both versions. I also added two more pages, with completely new
information on them at the end. These were inspired by the comments you left on my initial
version, asking me to play more into the genre conventions of a zine, and to connect it more to
my audience. The second to last page includes solutions that readers could implement in their
own life, as well as groundwater policies and news from Santa Barbara County, both playing into
genre conventions and relating it back to my audience. The second page also plays into the genre
conventions of a zine, including a back cover with extra information linked through QR codes
and my own contact information.
The second Writing Project was much less daunting than the first, though it's prompt for
me to summarize a conversation was new. I decided to make a Twitter thread depicting the
conversation between scholars on the connection between digital media, technology, and the
classroom. My revision process for this project was much more subtle, except for changing it
from dark mode Twitter to light mode to avoid a watermark. Most of my work was in rewording
the tweets for clarification, and to add more information on the research of each scholar. I read
each tweet critically, and made sure that everything I included had a purpose. The most major
change came in the form of adding my own voice at the end. In my initial version, I just had two
summary tweets that fell flat. My new, revised version has four summary tweets that synthesize
the information from each scholar into a cohesive argument. Those, with the minor changes I
made to every tweet, make the final product much more of a conversation between scholars.
This class has allowed me to participate in metacognition, to think about my writing and
the decisions I make. I’m so much more aware of every choice I make while I write, and
afterward during the revision process. Because writing is a process! You need to check in with
yourself at every step of the way, and think about why you’re doing what you’re doing. This is
true during every shitty first draft, and second revision, and every revision after that. No matter
what genre I’m writing for, be it a formal essay, a Twitter thread, or a bright and colorful zine,
writing will always be a process. I know I’ll take what I learned in this class and bring it with
me, not only throughout the rest of college, but throughout the rest of my life.

With love,
Aidan Robertson
 Works Cited
Bunn, Mike. “How to Read Like a Writer.” Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing, vol. 2,
Edited by Charles Lowe and Pavel Zemliansky, Parlor Press, 2011, pp. 71-86.
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. Martin’s,
2005: 93-96.