1. Choose a song or musical composition that communicates your experience with writing

and UWRT 1102. Consider including a video of the song. Explain your choice.

The song that communicates my experience with writing and UWRT 1102 would be

“Life is a Highway” by the Rascal Flatts. This song reminds me of how writing is a

highway that I could write all night long and finally reach a destination at the end of a

highway soon. For example, I did the inquiry proposal and annotated bibliographies to get

to my destination, the thesis. This reminded me of this song because we all drive the

highway and finally reach the end of it with the accomplishment of finishing a paper or

reaching our destination. One set of lyrics is, “if you’re going my way, I wanna drive it all

night long,” and this reminds me of our conferences when our classmates agreed and

encouraged on the strengths and the writing. I always knew that my classmates always had

my best interest in mind during peer review. Another set of lyrics is, “There was a distance

between you and I, a misunderstanding once, but now we look it in the eye.” This reminded

me of the writing process because, often times, I reach a road block in writing or the way I

am writing does not necessarily match up to what I was thinking it would turn out to be in

the end. Moreover, when I would hit a roadblock, I just needed to look it in the eye with a

new focus and perspective and be able to reach the end of the highway.

2. If you were to teach this class, what ideas would you emphasize?

If I were to teach this class, I would emphasize the conferences and more process

writing. These seemed to have helped me the most in succeeding in this class. I was always

given clear feedback that I could improve on, not only in my current paper, but also in

general for other classes. I feel as though I improved a lot since the inquiry proposal and I

wish we could have done more writing workshops to help each other with formal papers. I

would also emphasize the ideas of more critical reading, picking out the most important

things, and applying it to our individual papers. The book, “They Say, I Say,” helped me

improve my writing and if I were to teach the class, I would use more books to help the

students write their papers.

3. Explain how your understanding of rhetorical knowledge has changed over the course of the

semester using at least 3 examples from your writing. Ex: Did you shift an assignment to better

fit a particular genre like a proposal?

My understanding of rhetorical knowledge has changed over the course of the

semester. For example, when I wrote my inquiry proposal, I wrote it more about the

content and my personal opinion on standardized testing. I’m very comfortable and

familiar with that genre of writing, more of a research paper style. After peer review and

conferences, I realized my paper needed to shift to more of a genre with questions, different

directions of research, and proposing my ideas with minimal detail. Another example of

rhetorical knowledge would be demonstrated through my thesis. This assignment was

originally introduced as a research paper so I was thinking it would be more objective with

no opinions. Through the writing process of my thesis, I was able to form a new

understanding of a genre. For this genre, I was able to incorporate my opinions and

scholarly articles with other arguments. I was able to learn how to formulate a balanced

research paper with my opinions included this time. Lastly, my rhetorical knowledge was

changed through my daybook entries. This was my own opinion and interpretation of the

article or excerpt of a book assigned. I had to shift these to the genre of a journal writing,

that I was less familiar with, by writing about my thoughts on readings rather than specific

questions with correct answers.

4. Explain how critical your critical reading has improved during the semester. Ex: In what ways

did you read across texts for connections and patterns in your inquiry?

My critical reading has improved throughout this course and was primarily

displayed through my annotated bibliographies. I had to make connections between texts

and choose my sources with the most educated and pertinent information to my topic. As I

was reading a wide array of articles, I needed to read critically to find the disagreements,

agreements, and research between all the writers. To keep my thesis balanced, I needed to

choose from several viewpoints and perspectives to ensure that this paper was not biased.

After I chose my seven sources for my annotated bibliographies, I read through each

article to pick out the most profound quotes, ideas, and summaries to put into a concise

paragraph. This skill taught me to decipher through to find the most pertinent information

out of a large body of writing. Another way that I have learned to read more critically is

through my inquiry proposal. People have thousands of viewpoints on standardized testing

and through my writing process of the proposal, I chose which questions that I wanted to

focus and center my paper around. I got to choose sources based on the patterns created

through “They Say, I Say” to show opposition and patterns through opinions. I will be able

to use these critical reading skills in future classes to choose the most important ideas to

focus on and future inquiries that I need to address.

5. Discuss your composing processes. Ex. Did you conduct additional research while revising or

after consulting a colleague? Provide at least 3 examples to support your assertion.

Composing processes is one of the most important things that I learned and was

able to apply it to my drafts and final drafts. Composing processes now hold value to my

writing process and it is a crucial part of the way I develop a paper that is worth reading.

My first instance was when I had to write drafts for each of the major papers and improve

from the drafts each time I wrote a new addition. I would revise and edit each paper to

make it stronger and aimed towards the main idea. The second example of how composing

processes are important, is through peer review and conferences. I was able to get a

different perspective on my paper and understand my audience’s viewpoint. My class

would give me helpful points to make my paper understandable and I could see where my

audience stood on standardized testing. Lastly, I used composing processes by planning for

each writing workshop. I used main idea web diagrams and outlines to find the foundation

of the writing and then was able to go into more depth after each planning session. I was

able to take the information from my brain and organize it into a paper for a smooth flow

of ideas.

6. Provide at least 3 examples of your knowledge of conventions. Ex: sentence level changes,

MLA citations

When I began this class, I thought that I knew everything about punctuation and

conventions but I learned much more throughout the course. For example, I learned about

how to use appositives to make a paper sound more professional and add extra details. In

my thesis, I used appositives to show the author’s credentials. Through this class, peer

review, and writing workshops, I was able to learn the template of “They Say, I Say.” I was

challenged to use more transitions between the varying viewpoints. I was challenged to

provide a smooth transition into a cohesive paper that would be understandable and get

the point of my topic across. Another way, my knowledge of conventions has improved is

through my higher quality sentences. Through reading assigned articles, I was able to

replicate the level of sentences and sentence structure.

7. A) Explain the importance of reflection in learning processes. B) Explain what you think is

important in providing commentary on others’ work and receiving commentary on your own. C)

Provide at least three examples of your nuanced use of commentary in your writing projects.

Reflection on learning processes are important because it shows us all the things we

have learned over a course of time and how we have effectively applied this to our life. It

shows how much we have grown as writers before a paper and after a paper. Reflections

show the writer all that we have learned and help us to understand why the process

matters in the grand scheme of things. I think it is important to provide critical

commentary to others’ work because we can provide our opinions as an outside reader to

help them make the paper more understandable. In addition, we can add a new perspective

to the writer to see what a reader thinks about it and how they can shift their focus. It is

also important to receive critical commentary because it demonstrates new ideas that we

can add to the paper and how we can make our paper easier to understand to someone who

is not fully devoted to the topic. They can show us areas of weakness and what parts of the

writing process that we should keep the way they are. On my inquiry proposal, I was told

that it should sound more of a proposal with questions and different directions that I could

go instead of jumping into the paper with analysis. I was able to shift the topics to more of

proposing my topic rather than trying to get my audience to understand my position on the

topic and why it matters. On the thesis, I was told that I did a great job at balancing

between arguments of my scholarly articles and my own. This encouraged me to keep the

balance of the writers and stay on the track that I began with my draft. The third example

is that in my conference, my peers said that I should add my personal experience with

standardized testing and I was able to add this and it definitely made my paper stronger.