Danielle Williams WRD 103 Professor Garvey Reflection Letter

This WRD class has been a learning experience. The papers assigned have not been the easiest but I believe we learn the most from things that come as a challenge to us. This is specifically why I chose the gender and language paper to revise and edit. So far in my first round of editing the paper I ve learned to define/ focus on purposes, demonstrated how genres shape reading and writing, integrated my own ideas with others and recognize and articulated the value of using multiple drafts to create and complete a successful text. In the beginning of this paper it was hard to see the purpose or goal of this assignment because it was limited in many ways. We were being asked to come to a conclusion about gender all from one conversation, This can be pretty hard to do if you don t have a lot of content which is why this paper becomes about analysis of genders and the language they use. The main goal seemed to be to help us to understand, from our own observations, the distinct differences or similarities in conversational skills with males and females. In my paper I thought they would be completely different and after stating that I gave my reader some content of the conversation, analyzed, and expressed why my hypothesis was wrong. This genre of writing is more relaxed or more interesting in my opinion than the previous assignments which is also one of the reasons I chose it. In my papers I often have problem with structure and how I m going to write it whereas the structure of this one was more free flow and easier to go by. I just did my intro, Group 1, Group 2, analysis of similarities and differences, conclusion. In the intro, analysis and conclusion I learned to integrate my own thoughts about how I expected the gender

balance to turn out based on previous experiences and I ve learned that this helps the reader clearly understand your position and whether your hypothesis was right or wrong. In conclusions, I ve learned that there is positive value in using more than one draft to create a successful text as well as peer editing. At the start of editing this paper I felt as if it was the best thing Ive written (average for others but great for me). I still feel that way but after receiving feedback and suggestions I can see where the paper may need work on. Essentially these drafts are purely for my benefit and helps in making my paper/ argument stronger. Peer editing has made my papers stronger as well because of the insight offered by a new set of eyes viewing my paper other than the professor. Peer editing is beneficial primarily because the playing field is even and your peers are ultimately trying to offer suggestions that can help build your paper.