Herrington 1

Ashley Herrington
Robert Arnold
UWRT 1101
November 6, 2014
Midterm Refection
Dear Robert,
Writing has been an essential part of my education for as long as I can remember. I have
grown as a writer with every english and writing class I have endured. However, UWRT 1101
has showed the most improvement in my writing. This course has exposed me to writing
different genres that I had never experienced before. All of these different pieces led to an
increase in my writing literacy.
College writing is much different than high school writing. In high school we were told
rules of what was forbidden in writing and now all those rules have gone out the window.
Teachers taught you the basic rules, but they also threw in rules that had no basis to why they
were rules. College writing is much more lenient and allows you to write what you feel even
if it isnt in an intellectual tone.
Literacy had always meant your ability to read and write to me. It was not until we wrote
a literacy narrative that I realized you can be literate in anything, it does not have to just be
reading. Focusing on showing, rather than telling my story made this paper difficult for me.
English papers have always been argumentative, analysis, or research. I had only written a few
papers in all of my history that have focused on me. Because this was new to me I wasnt sure

Herrington 2
where to start. To write this paper I read sample narratives to gain knowledge. These papers gave
me ideas of what to write and how to convey thoughts into ideas. Because of this paper I have
learned how to write papers about myself and convey my thoughts more easily. The altered book
project was a new concept for me. Although it was not writing, it was based off my previously
written narrative. Putting my words into a visual form was challenging. I am not the most
creative which led to frustration when completing this project. When I had finished I realized
maybe I wasnt as uncreative as I thought.
The found genre paper was the least challenging for me so far. Although I had never
written a review before, it was easy to follow along with the other papers. To complete this
assignment I had to find reviews and mimic them to write my own. This gave me the ability to
develop a list of criteria and base my own writing off of this. It showed me how important
writing is in everyday life. It is everywhere not just the classroom.
The reflections we write with every paper help me realize why I write what I write. In
high school you just wrote a paper and never thought about it again. Now I am forced to look
back at my papers and think about why I choose to use words, ideas, etc. I have realized how
much I have grown in writing in the last few months. Being exposed to the many genres has
allowed me to gain knowledge in writing and will help me in the future.