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Sarah Freeze
Zack De Piero
Writing 2
March 16, 2015
Metacognitive Reflection- My Writing 2 Journey
As I reminisce back on this course, I have come to recognize that I actually
learned more than I realized and expected in the beginning. This class mainly focused on
the theme of genres and their conventions, along with writers inclusion of rhetorical
features and moves, all of which were new concepts to me. Additionally, this course
gave me the opportunity to take this knowledge I gained and apply it to my own writing,
which has greatly changed me as a writer and will hopefully strengthen my future
pursuits in academia.
One of the main goals of this course is to teach students genre awareness. I have
come to the understanding that genres are categories of work from what readers expect in
a typified piece. Genres are everywhere and there are many different types. Each genre
is made up of conventions, which are expected patterns that appear in each unique genre.
Conventions are components of writing such as language, punctuation, and types of
evidence. Genre awareness helps me as a writer because it draws my attention to details
that I did not notice before in writing and, as a result, it makes me pay more attention to
my own writing. In class, I was shown many different genres of writing, so I now have a
better idea of the expectations for my forthcoming academic writings.
Another essential part of good writing is being able to discern moves that
writers make. Once I understand what these are, I can apply them to my own writing. A

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move is an action or technique that an author makes in his or her writing. They are
uniquely combined and some examples are italics and the use of rhetorical questions. In
class, I read From Fairytales to Facts: Remixing From One Genre to Another, which
served as an example for me to identify the authors moves. This was helpful because I
saw that Sarah Wilson constructed her piece by explaining how she chose what to include
in her genre translation, describing the intended audience and including quotes from the
course readings. She also had the moves of using casual language and tone and writing
in first person. Identifying these moves involves breaking apart the writing and seeing
the techniques that the writer chose to use to express his or her words. This assists me as
a writer because it allows me to gain ideas that I can use in my writing.
I also learned about rhetoric. Rhetoric is the art of persuasion and the art of using
effective language for specific purposes. Class discussions were especially useful in
learning this topic because we elaborated on the reading about rhetoric. I put into practice
what I learned, for example, by beginning my WP 3 with a few rhetorical questions in
order get the readers hooked in my writing. Understanding the importance of rhetoric is
necessary in order to know how to persuade readers to agree with my papers arguments.
Personally, I think that our work on thesis statements has helped me the most.
Before this course, I already knew that a thesis statement is a sentence or two that
summarizes the subject and main ideas made in the paper. A thesis statement involves a
persuasive opinion and supporting statements. However, I enhanced my understanding of
this topic in learning that they should be specific, narrow, sustained with evidence, and
arguable. Argumentation drives the paper in a forward direction and it answers the why
question. As you write the paper, the thesis statement is subject to change and this is

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called a working thesis statement. However, once the essay is complete, the working
thesis statement will develop into a concrete thesis statement. I have come to understand
this through handouts I was given and class discussion. In class, we repeatedly examined
thesis statements and this facilitated my newfound understanding of their format pattern.
Additionally, I can remember many other lower order things that I learned in this
class. To begin with, I learned about independent and dependent clauses. Independent
clauses contain a subject and a verb, whereas dependent clauses are simply incomplete
sentences. I also learned about compound subjects and compound verbs. Furthermore, we
reviewed that similes compare two things using the words like or as and metaphors
compare two things as if they are the same thing. We also discussed the difference
between hyphens, which are used to combine two words and when a word is falling off
the end of a line, and dashes, which are used to make a list or pause.
This class also explored the idea of first order and second order thinking. First
order thinking is creative and unrestrictive writing. It involves spilling all of your
thoughts onto the page. Second order thinking involves critical thinking and has a more
structured way of writing. I also gained a better understanding of disciplines, which are
subjects, such as writing, archeology, and history. When students learn about them, they
realize the main difference among them is the content they contain.
Furthermore, I would like to point out the usefulness of outlines. For my entire
writing career, I have always used a straight up outline, which clearly separates my
ideas into paragraphs with an introduction, body, and conclusion. However, this class
introduced me to the idea of a reverse outline. Reverse outlines involve going back

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through the essay I wrote and then devising an outline. I think that this is a good idea
because it causes me to realize what in fact my essay is really about.
I was also presented with many tips that I think are valuable. To begin with, I
learned that breaking up paragraphs into smaller sections is extremely important and
accommodating to the reader. I like the idea of breaking up paragraphs and inserting a
counter argument because they are great ways for lengthening a paper. Also, if I am
unsure as whether to cite something, I should always do so because this avoids
plagiarism, which also prevents unintended negative consequences. Following our
discussion about first order thinking, I endeavored to write down everything that I
thought would be useful for my WP. After I organized these thoughts into large
paragraphs and decided how to separate the paragraphs, I added commentary and
transitions. This tip was very effective because I was able to come up with some good
ideas and I have applied this to my other PBs and WPs.
In class, there was a handout passed out that discusses the differences between
popular magazines and scholarly journals. Some of these differences are the purpose,
audience, appearance, authors, content, writing style, and examples. This will impact my
thinking, writing, and researching because I now have a clearer understanding of what
makes a genre a genre and how writers use different moves to get their main points
across, so I will be better suited to tailor my forthcoming writing toward my intended
audience.
Additionally, the Writing 2 WP3 Preparation handout helped me think about:
context, demographic information, audiences values and priorities, and what I have in
common with the audience. Drawing attention to these ideas makes me think in-depth

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about what I should consider as I compose essays in order to communicate my thoughts
clearly and effectively to my intended audience.
Lastly, the class went over what teachers look for as they grade students work.
They grade based on two main categories. One category is textual criteria, which are the
aspects of reading experiences. This consists of judging how interesting an essay is, the
personality of the writer, and the idea of showing not telling. Textual features, which are
elements of the text, include grammar, format, and clarity. Reading and discussing this
handout gave me a better awareness of what is valued in my essays and this is beneficial
because now I know how to enhance my essays.
I also was encouraged to ask any questions I had in this class and to not feel
embarrassed or awkward if it was perceived as a dumb question. Because of this, I felt
comfortable asking all of the questions I had and, consequently, I do not feel that there is
any material that does not sit right with me.
However, I know I still need to contemplate more about the context of genres
because I have struggled with identifying and understanding that component of genres.
Nevertheless, I think I have a fairly good grasp on it because the information was clearly
presented, so I now realize that understanding authors motives for writing something is
important because it gives additional insight about their writing. I can better connect to
my intended audiences when I understand why I am writing a certain piece. I believe this
has been difficult for me to understand because I do not have enough experience at
identifying the context in writers works, as it was never asked of me before.
Writing this metacognitive reflection has shown and reminded me how much I
learned in the past short ten weeks. I can honestly say that studying all of these topics in

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this course has greatly improved my writing knowledge and skills. I use to think that
writing involved simply answering the given prompt and doing my best to include
sentence variation and correct grammar. Because of the coursework involved in this class,
I now understand that writing encompasses much more than those two components, and I
am excited to be maturing as a writer.

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