‭1‬

‭Benjamin Sabu Zacharia‬

‭Allison Bochino‬

‭Writing 2‬

‭16 March, 2024‬

‭A metacognitive reflection of my journey through writing this quarter‬

‭In this reflection, I will explain the different aspects of writing I’ve had the opportunity to‬

‭grow, reflecting on how Writing Project One allowed me to learn of genre conventions and their‬

‭universal usage throughout different genres. Following this, I will also address what I’ve learned‬

‭from Writing Project 2, an extension of the first Writing Project, enabling me to apply my novel‬

‭knowledge of genre conventions for my own purposes of creating a news article. Finally, I will‬

‭talk about my last assignment, the Writing Portfolio, in which I learned the significance of‬

‭revision and deeper reflection in my writing. Throughout all of this, I will ultimately address‬

‭what I’ve learned from these Writing Projects holistically and how I’ve come about the‬

‭conclusions of my own writing I’ve arrived at towards the end of this quarter.‬

‭Writing Project 1 saw me rigorously researching the different genre conventions of‬

‭research articles in academia, along with the respective discourse communities. Going into the‬

‭project, I’d only a vague description in mind of what a genre even was. In retrospect, the topic of‬

‭genre was truly one of the overarching themes of Writing 2 this quarter. In one of the first‬

‭readings introduced to us in the quarter, Bickmore delivers a concrete definition of genre: “‬‭A‬

‭genre is a typified utterance that appears in a recurrent situation.”‬‭1‬ ‭Before seeing this definition‬

‭of genre, I didn’t really specifically know what a genre was. Sure I could give a few examples of‬

‭1‬
‭Lisa Bickmore, “Genre in the Wild: Understanding Genre within Rhetorical (Eco)Systems,”‬‭Open English‬
‭ LCC‬‭, August 1, 2016, accessed March 17, 2024,‬
S
‭https://pressbooks.pub/openenglishatslcc/chapter/genre-in-the-wild-understanding-genre-within-rhetorical‬
‭-ecosystems/.‬
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‭the really popular genres, like fiction for example, but genres came broadly in all types of forms,‬

‭both in writing and in other types of communication. I hadn’t even considered a book to be a‬

‭genre itself before I learned how a genre was formally defined in writing. But really, a genre is‬

‭any type of communication that fits a characteristic and is often recurrent.‬

‭In Writing 2 specifically, the first Writing Project was mainly devoted to academic‬

‭genres. This meant analyzing and describing the genre of research‬‭articles. Around this time is‬

‭when we learnt of genre conventions and discourse communities. Melzer defines a discourse‬

‭community as having the following five properties: “A broadly agreed upon set of common‬

‭public goals, mechanisms of intercommunication among members, use of these communication‬

‭mechanisms to provide information and feedback, one or more genres that help further the goals‬

‭of the discourse community, [and] a specific lexis (specialized language).”‬‭2‬ ‭Using this definition‬

‭of a discourse community, I could better analyze the genre conventions used between the‬

‭researchers of the 2 disciplines I’d chosen to research for my Writing Project 1: Economics and‬

‭Education. In this project, I closely analyzed the different genre conventions used in the genre of‬

‭writing research articles, and how the usage of these specific conventions expedited the process‬

‭of efficiently communicating ideas to others in the same discourse community. Most notably, I‬

‭focused on the differences between the audience and the types of evidence used between the 2‬

‭disciplines. Overarchingly, my primary goal with Writing Project 1 was to demonstrate how‬

‭Economists used data-heavy models to propel their quantitative research, in contrast to how‬

‭Educationists used a qualitative meta-analysis of different literature to create novel research.‬

‭Throughout the process of this project, I learned how to analyze complex research,‬

‭disassembling the paper to learn: what the author's purpose was with the paper, how they went‬

‭2‬
‭Dan Melzer, “Understanding Discourse Communities,” essay, in‬‭Writing Spaces: Reading on Writing‬‭,‬
‭vol. 3 (Parlos Press, n.d.), 102.‬
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‭about writing the paper, making use of genre conventions specific to their purpose, and what‬

‭audience they had in mind when writing their paper. I would use this newfound knowledge of‬

‭genres and discourse communities for my next Writing Project.‬

‭In the following Writing Project 2, I had to translate my choice of research papers to a‬

‭different non-academic genre. I figured the best way to go about this was to publish my very own‬

‭newspaper about the economic research of secondary education. Though I learned about‬

‭discourse communities and genres in the previous project, I was finally able to apply them‬

‭myself when creating my translation. Firstly, of course, I needed to research the specific genre‬

‭conventions of newspaper articles and how they were relevant to the purposes of delivering‬

‭news. Primarily referencing BBC Bitesize’s resources on writing newspaper articles, I concluded‬

‭that my news article would just deliver the highlights of the research article as concisely as‬

‭possible.‬‭3‭I‬ found the translation itself to be relatively‬‭trivial, as the newspaper was basically just‬

‭summarizing the main inferences made by the economists towards the end of their paper on the‬

‭effects of work during secondary school on later employment outcomes. The majority of my‬

‭growth in writing through Writing Project 2 came in the latter part of the project, the‬

‭metacognitive reflection. I think the process of criticizing oneself is naturally tedious as it can‬

‭often be hard to find strengths and weaknesses in one's own writing. I do ultimately find the‬

‭process to be enriching once the writer has concluded their reflection as it sometimes allows a‬

‭breakthrough in their writing. By this, I mean that it allows the writer to find their own style of‬

‭writing. I found my style of writing to change dramatically over the course of Writing 2. I now‬

‭find myself to be a lot more assertive in my writing, rather than implying some ideas in my‬

‭writing, I can now confidently express them. A common example of this change is in the form of‬

‭3‬
‭“Writing a News Story - News Writing - GCSE Journalism (CCEA) Revision - BBC Bitesize,”‬‭BBC News‬‭,‬
‭n.d., accessed March 16, 2024, https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zpmq9qt/revision/3.‬
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‭my thesis. I often found my argument to be implied in the thesis, but this time around I make an‬

‭effort to explicitly state my argument, even using the first person at times to emphasize my point.‬

‭Overall, Writing Project 2 offered me a chance to reflect on my writing, and in turn, revise my‬

‭work. The greatest revisions, however, were made during my portfolio project.‬

‭The revision process involving the portfolio project was comprehensive, covering all‬

‭types of revisions from the global to the local scale. Most of the revisions I made throughout the‬

‭writing portfolio revision were in the form of modifying my analysis and reasoning. I found my‬

‭thesis and evidence to be strong as is, if not slightly lacking, but my analysis was substantially‬

‭lacking in quality. Though my analysis did explain how my evidence supported my overarching‬

‭argument, it didn’t elaborate enough. A lot of the space used in my essays were essentially‬

‭wasted conveying relatively trivial ideas in larger phrases. Hence, a major part of my revision for‬

‭this portfolio project was cutting down on the word count to integrate more ideas in fewer words.‬

‭A smaller, but still significant amount of the revision was devoted to the minor grammatical‬

‭errors. These errors often made my paper less smoother to read and at times even awkward. I‬

‭especially focused on errors made towards the start of the paper, as these errors often slow down‬

‭the reader's momentum in reading.‬

‭To conclude, I found my journey through Writing 2 to be very developmental as I learned‬

‭more writing strategies and skills to further bolster my writing and give it more meaning.‬

‭Between the 2 Writing Projects and Portfolio assignment, I’ve learned how to write for specific‬

‭audiences and how to integrate specific conventions to communicate my ideas more effectively‬

‭to others in my discourse community. I’ve also learned how to be more critical of my writing and‬

‭improve upon reflection. Lastly, I’ve also learned how to revise my papers to address issues‬

‭ranging from as minor as a spelling error, to as large as my argument or line of reasoning itself.‬
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‭Bibliography‬

‭Bickmore, Lisa. “Genre in the Wild: Understanding Genre within Rhetorical (Eco)Systems.”‬

‭Open English SLCC‬‭. Open English @ SLCC, August 1,‬‭2016. Last modified August 1, 2016.‬

‭Accessed March 17, 2024.‬

‭https://pressbooks.pub/openenglishatslcc/chapter/genre-in-the-wild-understanding-genre-within-r‬

‭hetorical-ecosystems/.‬

‭Melzer, Dan. “Understanding Discourse Communities.” Essay. In‬‭Writing Spaces: Reading on‬

‭Writing‬‭, 3:102. Parlos Press, n.d.‬

“‭ Writing a News Story - News Writing - GCSE Journalism (CCEA) Revision - BBC Bitesize.”‬
‭BBC News‬‭. BBC, n.d. Accessed March 16, 2024.‬
‭https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zpmq9qt/revision/3.‬