Evan Barnett

UWRT-1101-002
4/12/15
Olivia Rines

Final Reflection
Coming into the New Year, I was excited for returning back to school. After a long
hiatus that consisted of me working and saving up money I realized that getting myself back on
track was long overdue. I mentally prepared myself, with encouraging thoughts about how I
could do this no problem, I had done things similar to this before, etc. I was slightly worried
about how working 40 hours a week and going to school at the same time would work out. I
thought about this problem of and on during the few months before the start of school. I
remembered back to my first year of college straight out of highschool. I was still young, and
easily distracted. I lived on campus and soon met a girl that I foolishly spent more time on than
my studies. Plus you had the usual jokers who would stay up all night in the high rises, raising
hell.
Due to my mistakes, and my failed attempts at succeeding in school, I figured out I
needed a way to be alone to focus. What better way than to move out? Im 21. I work full time,
I just recently purchased a brand new car, my finances are in orderI wanted to put one of the
final pieces of being grown up into the puzzle. So I found an apartment extremely close to
work that would limit my spending on gas. I told myself, I will be disciplined. I had

everything worked out in my head, and I knew I was going to be successful. Unfortunately, as I
have learned in these past few months, life has different plans.
After attending the first few classes and hearing about Genres, I was quite surprised.
Who would have thought you could think about ordinary, everyday things in this perspective? It
did open up a whole new meaning to me. However my primary thought was, why should I
bother to classify these things as Genres?. It almost felt like someone, somewhere had tried
very hard to create something that didnt need recreating. As I reflect now, however, I can see
how each topic that we learned about were all linked together. I can see the lineage in my head.
Genres were nearly the preface for discourse communities.
I still remember the day our professor brought up the list of topics for the Genre Analysis.
I had a quick panic attack. What if someone chooses something I wanted to do? If they tell the
teacher before me? What If I am stuck with something I completely do not care about? These
thoughts whirled through my mind as I frantically studied the screen. Nothing was too
appealing, but one genre did catch my eye, and that was News Articles. Since I worked so
frequently, I often found myself tired and wanting to unwind. Conversations at work often
turned to current events, stuff I hadnt heard about. Eventually, I started reading the news, online
and in print. I learned there was so much going on in the world and that it could possibly affect
me. So I began to care about the news, and tried to read as much of it as I could.
I do remember being completely blank on what to write for this topic. At the time, I
didnt fully grasp the concept of how News Articles pertained to Genres. I did some searching
and came up with a few ideas. Namely, The style of writing, Biases, social aspects, etc. The
lightbulb had went off , and I began furiously researching examples for my Analysis. Luckily, I
remembered many instances of news from the past couple years that were prime examples.

Eventually, I had my Analysis typed and ready to go. Upon receiving the feedback, I was pretty
disappointed. It seemed as if my professor essentially told me that what I chose as examples
were not really genres of News Articles. I was quite confused. I had gotten good feedback
from peers and family members alike. However, there was no time to think about it, as it was
time to move on to the Micro Ethnography.
Once again, I had an internal panic attack upon hearing about this assignment. I had to
interview people as well as observe them? In a community I wasnt familiar with? I knew I was
going to have trouble with this assignment. After it was introduced, I distinctly remember flipflopping on communities. I tried thinking of the most viable options in terms of agreeing with
my schedule, willingness to interview, and capability of being observed. Initially, I sought out to
do car enthusiasts. This was dispelled by the professor with the claim of the group being too
large to be a discourse community. I talked to her after class about suggestions, and I
ridiculously arrived upon the truck drivers community. I still dont remember what went
through my mind at that time.
Eventually, after still a mind block on which community to do (Mustang enthusiasts,
Recreational shooters, etc.) I met with the professor and we finally decided on a topic that would
work the best: My job. I have been working there for over a year and a half, and have formed
numerous bonds with the employees there. Plus, I spend 40 hours a week there, sometimes
more. As I thought about the idea more, the more it made sense. I believe the activity in class
that required us to complete the Swales Concepts chart was extremely helpful. I was able to
provide examples for every Concept. To my elation, it was a discourse community, one which I
knew intimately about. I was set!

Now, when I write, most of the time I prepare many practice runs. I outline what Im
going to say with bullet points. I write a paragraph conversationally discussing what points I
need to get across. This partly helps me get my main thoughts onto paper, and mentally prepares
me for the task at hand. Since this was such a dense assignment with multi-faceted approaches,
I knew I had to dig deep. Unfortunately for my professor, I think I ended up digging too deep. I
wrote a total of 3400 words on how the Dealership qualifies as a discourse community. I
remember as I was writing this, I broke it up into many parts I thought needed to be included,
Such as my own experience working there, each of the six concepts, how dealerships work, etc.
There was a lot of material to cover. And looking over it now, I realized I could probably have
cut some of the material out. At the same time however, the dealership really is that complicated,
and I had never written 3400 words before. I was quite surprised and (admittedly) somewhat
proud.
Interestingly enough, this boiled over to my presentation. Once again, I spent several
days agonizing over how I was going to compile all the necessary information into a 5 minute
presentation. Oh, and the fact that I needed to speak in front of the class. I employed the same
tried and true processes however, and was ultimately successful. I spent hours reciting my
presentation from memory, preparing the material and streamlining the flow. Upon the
presentation day, I was fairly nervous. I dont speak much in class; how will my classmates
will react to me going on about dealerships? Luckily my preparation paid off, and I only messed
up the first sentence (I did my dealership on a micro ethnography).
My in class experiences havent been too notable. The daily discussions were always an
anxious affair for me. The questions asked I always felt were too personal to share, or I would
be lambasted for my answers. As such, I didnt participate much. Unfortunately, some of our

grade does rely on participation, and I have not done well in that respect. Honestly, the
discussion forums didnt go to well either. I remembered to do those most of the time, but when
I did was usually extremely tired from work and I had the hardest time responding to a
classmates post. I feel many of them relied heavily on quotes to meet the word count or was
mainly fluff meant to get it done. Overall, I am sort of an introverted person. So discussing
topics I do not feel strongly about with people I barely know is a challenge.
Im honestly not sure if my writing has improved or not compared to several years ago. I
do think I have adopted a more laissez-faire attitude with how I write. I feel myself rejecting the
formalities and wanting to write conversationally. What Im putting down is 95% of how I feel
and think of it in my mind. I guess what Im saying is I dislike limits and constraints. I still need
to work on my Let me do what I want to do, how I want to do it attitude. It is clear that this
way of thinking is not a successful direction in schooling.
That was definitely one of my biggest struggles. The others were dealing with physical
and mental blockades, due to work and personal life. A lot of unexpected things have happened
in these 3 months; It has been a rollercoaster for sure. I regret not hunkering down and
completing assignments on time. I would go back and do a lot of things different. As much as I
like to think of myself as grown up in many ways, I still have some other areas that need working
on. If I had to pinpoint it, I think what I enjoyed most about this class was thinking about things
in different ways. I should be no stranger to this, considering my hobbies. In the Auto world,
its easily understood why people consider cars are more than Point A to Point B appliances. In
the writing world, I am starting to see why it is important to consider things in different lights,
and notice how they affect each other in different ways of thinking.

One of the biggest changes of my writing style is my almost never ending planning for
the different assignments. Therefore, I believe it is paramount to include my notes, outlines and
other brainstorming articles within the portfolio. Those became the basis of how I completed my
assignments, and are a true indicator as to how I think and the way I write. Surprisingly it is far
different than how I did it years ago. I believe most of my writing is important to include
because it represents my change in writing style along with an interior reflection on my current
circumstances in life. I look forward to creating the portfolio.