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Zakira Malimar

Andresson

Writing 2

05 June 2023

Cover Letter

Welcome to my writing two portfolio where you can view the work that I did in

this class that helped me navigate through different genres. In this cover letter, I will

reflect upon my experience in this class. My portfolio will also include my writing

project one where I translated an academic article into a children's book, which allowed

me to navigate through a genre I was not used to. It also includes my writing project two

where I analyzed different articles and the conversation they held. These pieces helped

me navigate genres and understand the purpose of writing in academics.

Learning to understand other writing styles and conventions through genre

exploration has helped me gain a sense of self-understanding of my writing style. I have

found out what kind of writing is easy and hard for me, and what tones I am comfortable

with. I lacked academic creativity in many of my previous writing classes. Not only was I

limited to formal essay writing styles, I only knew how to write them. Writing two has

opened up a different door to academic writing for me. Having more control over what I

could write made me feel more confident in my ability to succeed. Although informal

writing in the academic setting still feels quite abnormal, I prefer it over formal writing.

Informal writing allows me to express myself in a way that makes my writing feel
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purposeful and less forced. Without writing in different genres and understanding their

conventions I don’t think that I would ever even think about writing in any other format

that is not MLA.

Reading essays like “Teaching Two Kinds of Thinking” by Peter Elbow and

“Navigating Genres” by Kerry Dirk helped me consider and attempt other forms of

writing as they introduced me to a different perspective of writing. These essays helped

me grasp the concept that writing is more individual and creative than I originally

thought. Elbow’s essay addressed the idea of using two kinds of thinking to help develop

writing pieces and Dirk wrote about the differences in various genres. Elbow introduces

the idea of first-order thinking and how beneficial it can be to the writing process even if

it isn't extremely critical and logical. Elbow, “cannot resist calling first-order thinking a

bonafide kind of thinking because it is a process of making sense and putting things

together” (28). I found myself using more first-order thinking after this because I used to

struggle with finding what to write, but instead, I started to just write down what made

sense to me, then alter it in a way that unified it. This helped me break a barrier in writing

because I had a really hard time writing the way that I wanted to versus writing for a

grade, Dirk speaks upon various genres and their conventions. He mentions, “genres

function by taking what is often quite theoretical in the field of rhetoric and composition

and making it a bit more tangible” (250). Helping me understand that there is more than

one way to write successfully, you just have to learn how to do so. Both pieces helped me

because they made me write in a way that I was confident in, not a way that I thought

others would perceive as ‘good’.

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Though I have discovered ways to make me feel more comfortable in the writing

space, I think there is still room for improvement. When it comes to writing I struggle

with getting my point across. Sometimes it feels impossible to get my point across, but

other times I get my point across too quickly. For example in my writing project two

rough drafts, I sometimes had little elaboration or too much elaboration. The lack of

consistency made my argument feel weak, but with the help of my peers, I was able to fix

it to the best of my ability. One way I have worked on improving this issue is inspired by

an essay that we read for class called, “Shitty First Drafts” by Anne Lamott, who

emphasized that writing a horrible first draft can help you produce outstanding work.

Writing the first draft isn’t ever going to be amazing, but creates an outline for success.

Bad first drafts, “ always turned out fine, sometimes even funny and weird and helpful”

(paragraph 8). So with this in mind, I always just wrote what felt write and fixed it

multiple times to the best of my ability. There are a lot of weaknesses that I face in

writing that have to do with my lack of confidence in my writing, but only practice and

time can fix those issues. Regarding my strengths in writing, I think I am good at

reflecting upon my writing and always finding ways to be better. The perseverance to

improve has helped me become more passionate about writing which motivates me to

write, even when I don't feel very confident.

Although this class has taught me a lot, there is still a lot of room for me to

improve. I would continue to explore writing in more genres if I had the time. The more

genres and conventions that I expose myself to, the more likely I am to tweak my writing

style to something that improves my confidence and skill. I think writing two is one of
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the only classes where it is highly acceptable to write informally and be extremely

expressive in your writing. No matter how much I struggled (and still do) with writing,

this class will always be one that I enjoyed because it made writing less dreadful. I

typically feel like a robot when I am writing essays, but the freedom and creativity that

we are given makes me wish I was able to explore and practice many other genres of

writing. Not only because I struggle with my writing style, but because it was nice to

write in formats that weren’t MLA. At first, this practice was very scary and I shied away

from it as much as possible, I regret not writing creatively more often when I was

allowed to do so. In regard, I am extremely grateful to be even given the opportunity

because without it I would probably be trapped in a box of formal writing for a while

longer.

Works Cited

Elbow, Peter. "Teaching two kinds of thinking by teaching writing." Re-thinking reason: New

perspectives in critical thinking (1994): 25-32.

Dirk, Kerry. "Navigating genres." Writing spaces: Readings on writing 1 (2010): 249-262.

Lamott, Anne. "Shitty first drafts." Writing about writing: A college reader (1994): 527-531.