Sie sind auf Seite 1von 5

Ryan Burns

De Piero
Writing 2
15 March 2015
TIL
I went into Writing 2 pretty frustrated that I had to take a class teaching me how to write
because I felt that coming into college, if one of my academic skills was polished enough to
succeed right away at UCSB, it was my writing. I got a 35 on the ACT writing section, I got As
on almost all of my high school essays, and I wrote at least fifty news articles in my two years in
high school journalism. So, honestly, I dreaded showing up to this class on the first day. As I
went through the motions for the first two writing projects, I made the decision to try to get the
most I could out of the next couple weeks because Im already in the class, so might as well take
advantage of the practice I was getting. So in this metacognitive reflection, I want to talk about
the big takeaways I got from Writing 2 rather than the material I learned, because a large portion
of the class materials was review for me.
First, I want to explain why I chose to revise my first two writing projects despite your
suggestion to rework my third project with the chance of publishing it in Starting Lines. I chose
those two because I know I could have done a lot better on them, even though I got an A and a B.
My problem all of high school wasnt intelligenceschool is pretty easy for me whenever I
apply myselfbut I definitely struggled with effort. So far in college, too, Ive sort of skated by
to a 3.5, but for the last month of this quarter, I really tried to put forth my best work. In the third
writing project, I tried to get too creative or eccentric with my younger genre, and I guess it

didnt come off as well as I had hoped with its audience (you), but I was extremely happy with
the actual essay and the process I used in writing it, so I figured I had more to learn from in my
first two essays. Because of this step up in effort, I think the biggest takeaway I had in Writing 2
is that if I try anywhere near my hardest, I will be very successful in college.
Like I said when we worked with Everythings an Argument, the course content was
mostly review from my Speech and Rhetoric class in junior year of high school, so I was kind of
turned off to what we were learning at the beginning of this course. But as the quarter went on,
something clicked in my head that told myself to just take in as much as you can, even if it is
review, because practicing things I already know cant hurt, even if it doesnt help that much. In
that, I found that just writing and revising and writing was good for me because previously, I
never paid much attention to the process aspect of writing a successful paper. I used to just write
an essay in one go, turn it in and get a good grade, without any great deal of preparations or
revisions. For the last project and portfolio, I really worked hard at improving those aspects of
my writing because I know I have the thoughts necessary for a successful paper, but organizing
and refining them into a well-crafted, no-nonsense argument wasnt my strong suit.
To work on my organization and selection of what information is most useful to
furthering my point, I used outlines, reverse outlines, peer editing, and a few more tactics. Before
I made an outline, I made a list of all of the key sections of my argument in no particular order. I
then used the outline to organize them in the most logical waysomething I struggled with in
WP2as well as finding and placing evidence where I thought it would be most effective in
supporting my personal reasoning. Reverse outlines, contrary to normal ones, were completely
foreign to me when we first did one on our first writing project, but I thought that they really

helped me in identifying my purpose of any given paragraph, allowing me to evaluate these goals
after I was done writing a draft. By doing this, I think I learned how to be hypercritical of my
own writing. Prior to learning what a reverse outline was, I kind of just scanned my essays and
changed phrases or words that I didnt really like, which of course are important changes to
make. But since learning a way to break down my argument and evaluate the importance of the
different things Im saying was a completely new skill that offers a way to improve the
conceptual aspects of my papers. Rather than just little changes that make my argument sound
better, the reverse outline helps me improve the argument itself. Using these two forms of
outlines have really helped me in organization and cutting out what is unimportant, but
sometimes editing my own writing hits a wall, and then I have to turn somewhere else if I want a
paper to improve any more.
Peer editing, like outlines, is often required for high school papers, but once I got here,
because it wasnt required, I just dismissed the possibility of getting feedback from friends or
classmates because it took extra time. For the last few essays in all of my classes this quarter,
though, I tried to get as many eyes on my writing as possible because even though it took a little
more effort, peer editing helped the quality of my essays more than any other writing strategy.
The first couple times I asked for peer help, I went to kids in my classes, but I found that its far
more beneficial to ask the people who are the harshest editors or the best writers. For that reason,
I started going to two friends, Kristen and Olivia. I had edited a couple of their essays the
Summer and Fall Terms, so I knew they were good writers that could offer good feedback for me
to build upon. They each offered different styles of editing though, and by using them both, the
suggestions I received on my papers had a great balance between micro and macro changes.
Olivia focuses on smaller things like grammar, diction, and sentence structure, while Kristen

focuses on higher concepts such as my arguments logical reasoning or an inconsistent tone from
paragraph to paragraph. These two friends have helped me on past essays, and because I paid
attention to what they had to say, I notice a lot of smaller things that can improve my writing that
I wouldnt have paid any attention to before collaborating with them.
I also realized, because of you, that a passionate teacher makes a world of difference.
Even though the course itself might not have urged me to submit my best work, I felt like I
should put forth the same effort that the teacher is putting into the class. You, unlike almost all of
my high school teachers and, unfortunately, some of my professors and TAs so far here, are very
obviously passionate about learning. From the first couple emails and classes, I could tell that if I
was willing to work, you would definitely do your part in helping me grow as a writer, and I
never really appreciated the effort that good teachers put into their job in hopes of helping their
students as much as they possibly can.
But if I had to say I took one thing away from Writing 2, it would be the importance of
practicing my craft and finding a voice by studying what compels me. As I mentioned before, I
wasnt looking forward to this class, but once I started working on the assignments, I really
appreciated how much more interesting work is if its something I like doing. Thats why I wrote
about soccer and basketball. I love sports. It made the tedious task of practice a little more
exciting, and, personally, I learn most when I am engaged and fascinated by the subject material
because it allows me to express myself and my interests. Finding a voice in my writing was
never easy because I only ever wrote about bullshit like analyzing boring books that my teachers
thought would best fulfill district standards, but since realizing the opportunity for selfexploration through research presented to me at UCSB, Ive tried to take full advantage.

Practicing something like writing, which can be extremely mundane at times, is a lot more useful
and fun when I write about a topic I am passionate about. The same goes for my daily life. Now I
know that whatever jobs I chase or friends I make, I better like them, because spending all of my
time on something or with someone that I dont care about for the rest of my life sounds
absolutely terrible.

Das könnte Ihnen auch gefallen