Rodriguez1

Roselyn Rodriguez Ruiz

Maddie Roepe

Writing 2

03 December 2023

Metacognitive Reflection

As I entered this course, Writing 2 at UCSB, I often thought about my worries with

writing. I often thought to myself, What if I am not as good at writing as other students, or what

if I am not able to truly grasp the complexity of the assignment? Little did I realize that writing is

not wrong; instead, it offers opportunities for improvement. Everyone’s writing has a purpose: to

target an audience, which can be done through a variety of genres and rhetorical strategies.

Throughout the course, my professor, Maddie Roepe, was able to tell us more about genres. As

we discussed in class with my peers what we thought genres were, we all tended to respond

similarly. We all had a brief understanding that genres are different forms of information that can

be presented but didn’t understand that genres help writers communicate to create conversations,

as Maddie suggested. I wasn’t quite sure what this meant until I explored the readings that were

assigned to the class and got more into the projects and essays that revolved around this concept.

Within my portfolio, I was assigned two main assignments: WP1 and WP2. For my WP1,

the goal of the assignment was to work with scholarly articles and be able to effectively translate

them into a new genre of choice. This assignment demonstrated to me that a scholarly article can

be changed into a simpler form to target a different audience. Genres serve to keep information

accessible while being able to talk about the original purpose of the article. Writing in a different
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genre has taught me to make informed writing choices, such as by analyzing and reflecting on

why those choices were made. The types of analysis that I discovered over the course were

figuring out the intended audience of the scholarly article and asking myself what they did to do

so.

One of the readings that emphasized the need for organization and evidence in writing

was the How to Read Like a Writer article by Mike Bunn. The article talked about the different

types of processes that go into writing and genres. One thing that was most helpful from this

reading was how he says to find the pieces of writing that are unclear and figure out ways to

avoid such issues. As I first went into this project, I encountered difficulties with being able to

translate my information and found that the reason I was going through this difficulty was

because I wasn’t able to identify what the reader was trying to achieve. This was the most

important step that I was missing, and as I was able to revise my work, I realized that I had to

make changes in the way I presented my genre to make it more effective. I was able to do this

through revision, which was one of the strategies that Maddie taught us. Although I was unable

to understand how I could translate this information at first, this made me realize that the way

you present your information reflects how well you can identify strategies that can be

incorporated into your new genre.

For WP2, the goal of the assignment was to be able to take a scholarly article and use a

different type of genre to create a conversation. I enjoyed this assignment overall, as I was able

to understand that conversations are built from research articles to develop new information. Just

as in WP1, I see that changes in genre are creative and have a purpose to serve different
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audiences. This project was a good research experience, as I was able to understand how

conversations are created by one another and how they depend on each other. I feel that now that

I understand that researchers tend to connect with each other, and while reading articles, I should

also utilize different articles that express similar ideas as well. I loved the idea of a scholarly

conversation because the conversation can be fun and it can resemble a regular conversation you

could have at a party, demonstrating that writing is a social activity.

When we talk about almost anything in particular, we tend to take sides, and this is what

scholarly communities share as well. They take sides to identify a problem and a solution, which

shows that writers have a role in being able to communicate. I was able to see this as I was able

to communicate through a flip book and quickly identify what the problems were and how

writers were able to build arguments with each other. Not all of them necessarily had to talk

about the same thing, but there was a correlation between the sources that helped one another,

such as creative writing impacts from activities and teachers incorporating creative writing into

their curriculum. One of the readings that helped me understand this idea more was "On Genre ''

by Clint Johnson. This article stood out to me because Johnson argues that genre is a form of

social action that helps us participate through a community of writers. I felt while reading this

article that I was able to understand that in a scholarly community, writers have similar goals,

ideas, and questions that are effectively targeted through different rhetorical strategies such as

their organization and speaking styles, use of grammar, context, etc.

This class has helped me change my writing approach as I learned how to analyze the

research articles and provide a new way of interpreting information through the UCSB Library
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and Google Scholar. I was also able to reflect on my choices of rhetoric through the revision

process. Writing is a process, and it takes multiple drafts to figure out what we actually mean

when we write our thoughts down. Through my essay, I noticed that previously, I wasn’t able to

connect with my own evidence as I seemed to be too vague about my topics. But, as I continued

through the process of drafting, I incorporated my own evidence into WP1 about my personal

experience of stress and anxiety, which helped me build credibility for the argument.

Throughout the quarter, another important skill I have acquired is persuasion through the

use of emotions, logic, and ethics to appeal to an audience. While reflecting on some of the

information I learned in my AP Language and Literature class in high school, I was able to

understand that these forms of rhetorical skills can be used in different ways for different genres.

Writing 2 has been said to be an "introduction to college-level writing,” and I have seen how this

writing is distinct. Writing is more aimed at using supporting evidence for different types of

academic studies. Writing is a study, and as a writer, I want to continue learning about writing

techniques such as second-hand thinking. When looking back at revisions, I saw I was able to

take a more controlled thinking approach, which gave my writing clarity.

As I addressed some worries I had at the beginning of the course, I figured out that my

worries about my writing are no longer negative. Reading "Mistakes are a Fact of Life” by

Andrea A. Lunsford and Karen J. Lunsford helped me understand that writing is imperfect and

mistakes are what make us become better writers. They address the importance of being able to

correct yourself and figuring out the errors you have made, as text can be improved and

shouldn’t be something you should stress over. Genres are a good way to figure out what type of
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writing suits you the most. In the beginning of the course, our class was able to go outside and

explore the genres used to project information around campus and see if we were able to identify

them. I found this useful in recognizing that genres are unique and can be used in a variety of

forms, like flyers, comics, advertisements, posters, etc. Genres are shortcuts used to carry

information to help you address ideas in a concise way.

The last concept I was able to explore through Writing 2 was this metacognitive essay.

This metacognitive essay has allowed me to do an introspection of my understanding of genres,

reflection, revision, and rhetorical analysis. Overall, I felt that I was able to understand how

important the incorporation of these strategies into my writing is, as they helped me define my

own writing style as I consider my audience. For example, for my WP1, I was able to change my

approach when targeting a younger audience and use different appeals, like asmr, while being

brief, persuasive, and assertive.

In conclusion, Writing 2 has broadened my understanding of genres, research, rhetorical

strategies, scholarly conversations, and the revision process. I now recognize how genres serve to

communicate between scholarly articles and communities. They can be presented in various

forms, such as flipbooks and short content videos, through persuasion and brevity. Engaging in

similar strategies used by writers, such as rhetoric, organization, and grammar, allowed me to

have a more controlled thinking approach. This metacognitive essay and projects throughout the

process of analysis have extended my approach for the future of my understanding of the study

of writing. I would recommend this class to further incoming students at UCSB if they hope to

get a sense of how to analyze research articles and genres.

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Works Cited

Bunn, M. (2011). Writing spaces. Writing Spaces. “How To Read Like A Writer”, Volume 2.

Pg 71-85.https://writingspaces.org/past-volumes/how-to-read-like-a-writer/

Johnson, C. (2020, July 1). On genre. Essentials for

ENGL121.https://pressbooks.howardcc.edu/essentials/chapter/on-genre/

Lunsford, A. A., & Lunsford, K. J. (2008). “mistakes are a fact of life”: A national comparative

study - JSTOR. Mistakes Are A Fact Of Life: A National Comparative Study. Pg. 781- 806

https://www.jstor.org/stable/20457033