Taylor Preston

Preston 1

De Piero
Writing 2
3 December 2015

Metacognitive Reflection
Reflecting on my Writing 2 experience, I can genuinely say that my outlook on and
approach to writing have changed drastically. I never imagined that a mere ten weeks would
have such a positive impact on my writing skills. A class I once imagined I would drag my feet
to every Monday and Wednesday quickly became the most enjoyable and beneficial class Ive
taken in my academic career.
Signing up for classes at orientation this summer, I recall adding Writing 2 to my schedule
and immediately groaning. A two-hour class? About WRITING? I could barely sit through an
hour long English class in high school without becoming extremely bored. Needless to say, I was
dreading the class as I walked to Phelps Hall on the first day. That day, not only did I have no
seat because there were crashers, I was forced to listen to terrible country music all class. After
the first week, however, I realized that this course was nothing like high school English, and the
instructor was intelligent and knew the material like the back of his hand. As my initial
skepticism and negative outlook wore off, I found myself enjoying the class and being
challenged academically.
Over the course of this last quarter, Ive become more secure in my writing and more open
to constructive criticism and feedback. I had always gotten good grades in English, so when
WP1 came around, I wasnt too worried about completing it and getting a high mark. When it

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came time to write it, however, I found that writing about writing was more difficult than Id
initially thought. My rough draft was just that: rough. I wasnt looking forward to the peer
review workshop. I was pleasantly surprised, however, when my group members gave me
constructive feedback. Id never liked the idea of other students reading my writing before this
class, but I learned that others can have super helpful tips and ideas. De Pieros comments on my
essays were even more helpful, as I could see exactly what I needed to improve on.
During the first or second week of school, we read Teaching Two Kinds of Thinking by
Peter Elbow and another selection about rough drafts, both of which were super eye opening for
me. I would even go so far as to say that these were the most helpful publications Ive
encountered in my academic career thus far. In high school, I stressed out about rough drafts,
attempting to put all my thoughts in chronological order and make sense of everything right
away. This was a difficult and time consuming process, one in which I spent more time sitting
and staring at the computer screen than writing. After reading both of these pieces I started
writing rough drafts that were purely stream of consciousness. I found that I got more ideas
down in a shorter period of time this way, and actually ended up with a more solid argument. My
WPs went through probably four or five drafts before I was satisfied with the outcome.
WP2 was definitely the most challenging writing project for me. I set myself up for failure
with this project when, in my journal, I wrote that a discipline is a punishment. I soon
understood the concepts but still had a hard time writing about them. I ended up with way more
information for the paper than I needed, and picking and choosing my battles was a battle in
itself. In my journal from November 2nd, I wrote that I [was] struggling with my intro, my title,
my thesis, and my organization for this essay. I wasnt surprised when I got C+ on this project,

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but I was momentarily discouraged. This was around the point in the quarter that I realized I
couldnt procrastinate with my assignments the way I did in high school. This course not only
helped me as a writer, but as a freshman college student finding out the importance of time
management skills.
With WP3, I decided not to wait until the Sunday before class to do my rough draft. I spent
a considerable amount of time on it, and I was very confident in the outcome. This writing
project was my favorite, because I was able to express my creativity and think outside the box. It
wasnt until De Piero put my introduction paragraph for my analysis on the board and I got my
fifteen minutes of fame that I realized how far Id actually come as a writer. My introduction
included a good hook, rhetorical questions, and quotes from both the scholarly article Id used
and the course readings all of these were things I would've never thought to add to an intro
before. Id made substantial progress not only from senior year English, but from our first
writing project just weeks before as well.
My revisions of my writing projects for this portfolio are two pieces of writing Im very
proud of. One of the most useful things I learned from this course is the importance of a strong
thesis statement. My original WPs both lacked a driving thesis, which in turn made my papers
weak. It wasnt until after both of these writing projects that I started to grasp the concept of a
thesis that passes the arguability test. (Better late than never though, right?) I spent a lot of
time re-writing my theses, and Im now confident that they are rock solid. I also realized that
both papers needed some serious restructuring. As I wrote in my journal on October 19th, The
comment about restructuring my paper was the most helpful, its obvious that it would benefit
from different organization. Changing my theses and structure meant I had to do a ton of

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revising and rewriting. The finished product, however, is worth all the work. The difference
between my original submissions and my revised ones is astounding. My theses, organization,
use of evidence and course readings, and overall argument have improved ten-fold. The in-class
activities, readings, and feedback from De Piero and my classmates are all reasons for this
improvement.
The best part of this course was definitely the instructor. Not a teaching assistant, but a
teaching ASSOCIATE, he was by far the best teacher I ever had. (Not just saying that because
hes grading this paper either). I wouldn't have come as far as a writer without his instruction.
His genuine interest in my learning and understanding of the topics was the main reason I was
motivated to complete my assignments and show up to class. The daily writing and process tips
he had in every lesson plan improved my writing tremendously ten weeks ago, I had no idea
what an oxford comma was or that there is a difference between a hyphen and a dash.
In my journal from October 7th, I explained that I [wanted] this class to help me become a
more interesting writer, and I believe that I achieved this. The progress I made from WP1 to
now is undeniable. After all the blood, sweat, and tears, I can honestly say my improvement as a
writer was worth the challenge. Not only did this class teach me how to write about writing, it
also prepared me for the multitude of essays I will be faced with throughout the rest of my
college career.