Talchuru 1

Satvik Talchuru

Kaaronica Evans-Ware

Writing 2

19 March 2024

Final Reflection Essay

When the news reached my fifth-grade self that my father had received a job offer in San

Jose, I felt a mix of anxiety and excitement. Leaving my school in India, my friends, and

everything I knew behind was scary. I was confident writing Hindi, but writing in English felt

like entering a different world. I remember trying to recite dialogues from my favorite Disney

sitcom 'Lab Rats' during the flight to California. Fortunately, my parents had the thought to enroll

me in English writing and speaking classes as soon as I began 6th grade. I adapted to the

language quickly, gradually increasing my use of English by speaking and writing at home.

Though I still see myself as an introvert, I've made massive strides in my ability throughout high

school and leading up to the start of this writing course. Before signing up for this class, I had

feelings of regret for not taking AP Language and AP Literature in high school. I was in a fixed

mindset, convinced that I shouldn’t take those classes because I won’t get an A in them and my

high school GPA would suffer. However, a quarter into my time at UCSB, I realized it was time

to face my fears and tackle my weakest subject: writing.

Since completing Writing 2, my confidence has grown significantly as I've made notable

improvements in managing my anxiety about writing, improving my revision process, and

simply beginning to put my thoughts down on a paper. Reflecting on the past few weeks, I can

say that this course has been a great learning experience, offering the most improvement out of

all my Winter classes. After writing detailed reflections on Writing Projects 1 (WP1) and Writing
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Project 2 (WP2), I've honed a deeper understanding of my writing style, determining my

strengths and addressing my weaknesses. My approach toward assignments has evolved and it

includes a research-driven approach with more structured writing.

What immediately caught my eye in the course were the readings assigned by Professor

Ware. Unlike the literature and stories that typically overshadow writing class syllabi, these

readings delved into the principles and process of writing. This shift in focus offered a different

perspective on writing, allowing me to engage in weekly reflections on my strengths and

weaknesses through the Project Builders. For instance, in Mike Bunn’s How to Read Like a

Writer, Bunn emphasizes we should “[try] to understand how the piece of writing was put

together” and “think about how the choices the author made and the techniques …are influencing

[our] own response as a reader” (Bunn 3). Bunn influenced me to step into the author’s shoes and

ask why the author chose specific words or why the author decided to incorporate certain writing

styles. He reassured me that asking questions and engaging with a text while reading is beneficial

for a deeper understanding of both the content and the craft behind it. Another significant piece

that influenced me during this course was Anne Lamott’s Shitty First Drafts. Lamott explains

that writing begins with just starting and describes the importance of creating more and more

flawed first drafts. This push was crucial in reducing my fear of beginning essays, significantly

reducing the time I spent drafting them. It also shifted my focus toward prioritizing the multiple

rounds of the peer review process, enhancing the quality of my work. Overall, I felt more

satisfied with my final submissions as I didn’t fear imperfection and was confident in the

knowledge. It was a step towards the right direction and that’s all I needed to know.

Reflecting on my journey through this course week by week, I've discovered more about

myself as a writer with each passing lecture. In the first week, we delved into the principles of
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various genres, a topic that initially seemed straightforward to me. However, I quickly came to

understand the importance of how information can be presented and how certain genres can

create a stronger connection with the reader. For Project Builder A, I took the initiative to

explore the genres of lab reports and research papers, which are prevalent in my major and career

in statistics and machine learning. Further, Lammott’s Shitty First Drafts allowed me to fully

settle into this class as I felt relieved to hear that credible authors and reporters struggle to

produce perfect and satisfying results on their first attempt. I understood that it was not worth

overthinking what to write because no one was examining my work word-for-word.

Moving on to the second week, I felt more comfortable skimming through the extensive

readings provided in Canvas with annotation strategies as I began to underline the thesis

statement, main ideas, and important supporting pieces of evidence. I enjoyed reading Ann M.

John’s article, “Discourse Communities and Communities of Practice” as it displayed a fresh

perspective on each interaction within different types of academic, social, or political groups.

The text guided me to tailor the structure of my Project Builder B and Writing Project 1 to a

specific audience, ensuring I used appropriate language to convey my message. I carried out

extensive research on the structure of personal letters and verified that my writing met the

assignment's objectives, while also learning how to write on a interpersonal level.

The third week journal included me breaking down Peter Elbow’s “Teaching Two Kinds

of Thinking by Teaching Writing”. After finishing the reading, I concluded that first-order

thinking was harder for me because it requires exploring new ideas and detailed analysis, while

second-order thinking, which involves logical reasoning and eliminating unnecessary content,

comes more naturally to me. To counteract this, I did 10-minute free-write sessions before any

writing task, helping me unlock my creative potential, and I continued this practice before
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starting WP2 and the Project Builders. By the end of this week, I felt like my writer’s block was

slowly disappearing and I was learning to launch myself into any writing assignment with this

newfound confidence and not worrying about the quality of the initial content.

As we got deeper into the course and closer to midterms, I felt weeks four, fix, and six

were crystal clear in terms of instructions and assignments. In these weeks, I put my head down

and applied everything I've learned to draft and revise my WP1 while preparing for my WP2. My

WP1 focused on the effects of physical activity on sleep quality and this assignment was really

personal, as I see many family members and friends struggle with physical inactivity and sleep

deprivation. To address this, I made a personal letter to my best friend, translating scholarly

research into a caring message. I wished to communicate the information I learned in a way that

was caring and turned large, scary statistics into motivational phrases, while retaining the

ultimate purpose of the topic. Moreover, these weeks pushed me to practice critical thinking, a

skill that I began to incorporate into my approach to writing. The knowledge gained from the

readings in the initial three weeks were crucial, not only in streamlining my writing process but

also in easing my writer’s anxiety. By week six, as I noted in my journal, my perspective on

writing had transformed. I began to view my initial drafts not as end products but “as evolving

works of art, open to constant improvement.” This change in mindset was pivotal, allowing me

to approach writing with a sense of freedom and creativity that I haven’t done before.

Weeks seven and eight involved me focusing more on drafting and revising of the WP2.

Tasked with translating scholarly articles into an email directed to UCSB's writing department, I

initially felt lost. However, as I recalled Elbow's concepts of first-order and second-order

thinking, I began jotting down random thoughts, a strategy that helped me choose which ideas to

keep in the final draft. This approach significantly streamlined my writing process and I have
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never felt more content with the final submission than with any of my previous assignments.

This process would’ve taken me twice as long and I probably would have not been as proud of

my work if I didn’t apply Elbow’s principles. Self-critique and peer review were also crucial,

leading me to produce what I consider my most impactful academic work until now. My early

drafts were critiqued for being repetitive and list-like, but I looked at the writing from the

perspective of the audience and constantly re-evaluated my choice of words and made the email

sound like an analysis of a discussion. Although I believe I have a lot more to learn, I can

confidently say that I have improved in being able to accept criticism and utilize it to improve

my writing in ways I haven’t thought of before. Thanks to Writing 2, I was able to fully explore

myself as a writer and make mistakes without having costly consequences.

Reflecting on this journey from my initial move to California to my current journey at

UCSB, I recognized how much progress I made. Overall, I believe I have exceeded my

expectations on my progress as a writer at the end of Writing 2. Embracing academic challenges,

from overcoming language barriers to confronting my fears in writing, has helped me become a

confident reader and writer. Not only have I nearly eliminated writer’s anxiety in my assignments

but I also feel like I am more comfortable in translating information between genres and utilizing

writing conventions in my work. I believe what I have learned through this course will stick with

me for the rest of my undergraduate and post-graduate years as I will be focused on synthesizing

large data into non-academic jargon. Ultimately, Writing 2 has been an instrumental part of

growth during my first-year at UCSB and I look forward to applying the skills I gained here to

future academic endeavors.

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Works Cited

Bunn, Mike. “How to Read Like a Writer.” Writing Spaces: Reading on Writing, vol. 2, Parlor

Press/ The WAC Clearinghouse, 2011, pp. 71-86.

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

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

Johns Ann M. "Discourse Communities and Communities of Practice: Membership,

Conflict, and IDiversity." Text, Role, and Context: Developing Academic Literacies.

Cambridge, New Yoric Cambridge UP, 1997.

Lamott, Anne. Bird by Bird. Anchor Books, 1997.