Portfolio Reflection Essay
Initially, I took UWP 1 in my last quarter of college solely to satisfy my requirement to apply for my master's program. However, it turns out that this class shifted my perception towards writing and taught me how to write like a reader. Back in high school, I always thought writing was to answer the prompt given by teachers, and the process of revision was to fix up my grammar mistakes. Improvements in thinking and writing were demonstrated in the process of writing my Discourse Community Project. I have learned key concepts such as ideas of genre, discourse community, and rhetorical analysis through every reading and discussion prompt we had. Assignment such as 10-Minute Writing allowed me to practice free writing to brainstorm my ideas for my DCP. Activity such as Library Scavenger Hunt allowed me to explore different search engines and has improved my research skills. In addition, I incorporated feedback from my peers and professor through multiple revisions of my essay. Towards the end of this class, I think I have demonstrated the understanding of five learning outcomes in UWP1: Rhetorical concepts, processes, knowledge of conventions, research, and metacognition.
The term “Rhetorical concepts” seems like jargon to me before taking this class. In the class reading “Backpacks vs Briefcases” by Laura Bolin Carrell, the author defined two triadic frameworks of rhetorical analysis: 1) exigence, audience, constraints; and 2) logos, pathos, ethos. (pg 48,52). Rhetorical Situation and Rhetorical Analysis of Introduction & Methods Sections activity allowed me to practice my understanding of key rhetorical concepts such as exigence, audience, language choices, context, and genre. After these exercises, I further developed the concepts in my Discourse Community Project. In my introduction section, I established my own credibility as a health worker myself (ethos) and articulated the problem that my essay was responding to (exigence). In addition, I kept in mind questions such as: “What can students gain after reading my essay?”, “How can I guide my audience using different language choices?”, “How can this genre help respond to the rhetorical situation?”. I believed that by doing so, my audience can better understand my purpose through the context I provided, and they can follow the organization of the essay more effectively. These rhetorical concepts link up paragraphs of my essay congruently into a completed project.
Prior to this class, I thought of the writing process as: read prompt, do my research, start writing, correct my grammar, and turn it in. However, I learn that it’s more complex and requires thoughtful strategies in order to produce a strong paper. In the reading, “Revision Strategies of Student Writers and Experienced Adult Writers”, the author Nancy Sommer stated that an experienced should revise by developing a framework of the entire essay and focus on a cohesive argument (pg 384). Sommer mentioned that the problem with student revision strategies that was that they would focus on wording instead of the context by google search synonyms of certain words and select word choices that sound more academic. This is exactly what I did on my revisions before taking this class, and the consequences were a weak argument and an inconsistent flow of ideas in the paper. For my DCP, I revised my essay through multiple revision cycles and focused on just a single improvement at a time for each revision. Afterward, I would reread my essay as a whole to make sure every paragraph has a smooth transition and the overall connection of the essay is established. Also, I incorporated feedback from my peers and instructor to strengthen the context of my paper, because they were reading my paper from a different point of view and were able to notice issues that I might overlooked. As I went back and reviewed each revision I wrote from the beginning, I have noticed how every section were connect together to make my argument effective. The recursive process of revision is crucial strategy to acquire in order to produce a good writing.
Setting up conventions in a paper was also essential to provide the reader with a sense of what the paper is going to talk about. In the activity, Conventions of the Literacy Narrative Assignment, I learned about how authors can utilize and navigate the language, organization, narrative point of view to illustrate the genre and contexts they are writing. For example, the tone of the narrative genre will be more casual and require the author’s self-opinion in comparison to a research paper genre. When writing a narrative essay for my sociology class, I tended to use conventions such as dialogue or anecdotes to add more dynamics to the essay. Also, I would expand plots and build narrative suspense and resolution to keep the audience gripped. On the other hand, to utilize the skill in my DCP, I would write in an unbiased and formal tone to establish the credibility of the paper. In addition, since this is a research paper, I organized it into sections: Introduction, Method, Discussion/Result, Conclusion; so that the audience can follow along with the context straightforwardly. Also, I included textual and imagery evidence from other scholarly articles to support my purpose. Understanding different conventions for different genres of writing can help me better established my purpose and structured my writing.
Researching is another important skill that I acquired in this class. Although I did encounter many assignments in the past that required research, the activity such as Library Scavenger Hunt is the actually first time I accessed the school’s library website. I used only Google Scholar and PubMed for my previous research and did not notice that the UC Davis Library contains relevant databases for almost any subject. By following the procedures listed on the assignment, I was able to see a variety of databases that librarians have recommended for research in the medical field. I was able to find several articles about communication in the medical profession by searching on some key terms and had the access to the full article online. This skill allowed me to collect new information and integrate it with my real-life experiences to support my arguments in the DCP project. The research method can be beneficial to many different classes and even in future careers.
The last learning outcome I encountered this quarter is metacognition. I never heard of this word before, and yet this word revolves around every part of my writing processes. Starting by writing cover memos for my DCP draft, I would have to read over my writing and reflected upon the strengths and weaknesses. The readers would read the cover memos and immediately know where to put their focus on certain areas before they read the entire essay. Then as I received the feedbacks, it drove me to reread areas that were pointed out by my peers, and I was able to raise my awareness and improve on the rhetorical choices that I made. Many times, reading an essay from a different perspective can notice some issues that the writers might miss even if they reread their essays a couple of times. The process of metacognition allows me to reflect on my own essay based on feedbacks and ideas from my peers and instructor.
If I had more time to work on my portfolio, I would spend it on the revision of my discussion section. Since there are still a lot of evidence and examples that can be included to show my audience the medical settings and situations they will encounter. As I revised my essay, I noticed that the most important aspect of writing and reading I need improvement on is the analytical skill on the evidence I collected from scholarly articles. Often, I had great evidence selected to support my argument, however, I failed to develop a clear and on point explanation that ties to the particular disciplines. In addition, I needed to invest more effort in establishing a smooth transition from paragraph to paragraph. I noticed that in my DCP, I tried to focus on mention one point for each paragraph and neglect the fact that transitions and connections were missing. With the understanding of rhetorical context, a variety of different research strategies, and revision methods I learned from this class, I can improve my reading and writings in both academic and professional settings. For example, the research paper genre I learned by writing DCP is widely used in science majors, and research techniques can be useful in medical settings. Overall, UWP1 has taught me many useful writing techniques that can be applied in different settings.
Initially, I took UWP 1 in my last quarter of college solely to satisfy my requirement to apply for my master's program. However, it turns out that this class shifted my perception towards writing and taught me how to write like a reader. Back in high school, I always thought writing was to answer the prompt given by teachers, and the process of revision was to fix up my grammar mistakes. Improvements in thinking and writing were demonstrated in the process of writing my Discourse Community Project. I have learned key concepts such as ideas of genre, discourse community, and rhetorical analysis through every reading and discussion prompt we had. Assignment such as 10-Minute Writing allowed me to practice free writing to brainstorm my ideas for my DCP. Activity such as Library Scavenger Hunt allowed me to explore different search engines and has improved my research skills. In addition, I incorporated feedback from my peers and professor through multiple revisions of my essay. Towards the end of this class, I think I have demonstrated the understanding of five learning outcomes in UWP1: Rhetorical concepts, processes, knowledge of conventions, research, and metacognition.
The term “Rhetorical concepts” seems like jargon to me before taking this class. In the class reading “Backpacks vs Briefcases” by Laura Bolin Carrell, the author defined two triadic frameworks of rhetorical analysis: 1) exigence, audience, constraints; and 2) logos, pathos, ethos. (pg 48,52). Rhetorical Situation and Rhetorical Analysis of Introduction & Methods Sections activity allowed me to practice my understanding of key rhetorical concepts such as exigence, audience, language choices, context, and genre. After these exercises, I further developed the concepts in my Discourse Community Project. In my introduction section, I established my own credibility as a health worker myself (ethos) and articulated the problem that my essay was responding to (exigence). In addition, I kept in mind questions such as: “What can students gain after reading my essay?”, “How can I guide my audience using different language choices?”, “How can this genre help respond to the rhetorical situation?”. I believed that by doing so, my audience can better understand my purpose through the context I provided, and they can follow the organization of the essay more effectively. These rhetorical concepts link up paragraphs of my essay congruently into a completed project.
Prior to this class, I thought of the writing process as: read prompt, do my research, start writing, correct my grammar, and turn it in. However, I learn that it’s more complex and requires thoughtful strategies in order to produce a strong paper. In the reading, “Revision Strategies of Student Writers and Experienced Adult Writers”, the author Nancy Sommer stated that an experienced should revise by developing a framework of the entire essay and focus on a cohesive argument (pg 384). Sommer mentioned that the problem with student revision strategies that was that they would focus on wording instead of the context by google search synonyms of certain words and select word choices that sound more academic. This is exactly what I did on my revisions before taking this class, and the consequences were a weak argument and an inconsistent flow of ideas in the paper. For my DCP, I revised my essay through multiple revision cycles and focused on just a single improvement at a time for each revision. Afterward, I would reread my essay as a whole to make sure every paragraph has a smooth transition and the overall connection of the essay is established. Also, I incorporated feedback from my peers and instructor to strengthen the context of my paper, because they were reading my paper from a different point of view and were able to notice issues that I might overlooked. As I went back and reviewed each revision I wrote from the beginning, I have noticed how every section were connect together to make my argument effective. The recursive process of revision is crucial strategy to acquire in order to produce a good writing.
Setting up conventions in a paper was also essential to provide the reader with a sense of what the paper is going to talk about. In the activity, Conventions of the Literacy Narrative Assignment, I learned about how authors can utilize and navigate the language, organization, narrative point of view to illustrate the genre and contexts they are writing. For example, the tone of the narrative genre will be more casual and require the author’s self-opinion in comparison to a research paper genre. When writing a narrative essay for my sociology class, I tended to use conventions such as dialogue or anecdotes to add more dynamics to the essay. Also, I would expand plots and build narrative suspense and resolution to keep the audience gripped. On the other hand, to utilize the skill in my DCP, I would write in an unbiased and formal tone to establish the credibility of the paper. In addition, since this is a research paper, I organized it into sections: Introduction, Method, Discussion/Result, Conclusion; so that the audience can follow along with the context straightforwardly. Also, I included textual and imagery evidence from other scholarly articles to support my purpose. Understanding different conventions for different genres of writing can help me better established my purpose and structured my writing.
Researching is another important skill that I acquired in this class. Although I did encounter many assignments in the past that required research, the activity such as Library Scavenger Hunt is the actually first time I accessed the school’s library website. I used only Google Scholar and PubMed for my previous research and did not notice that the UC Davis Library contains relevant databases for almost any subject. By following the procedures listed on the assignment, I was able to see a variety of databases that librarians have recommended for research in the medical field. I was able to find several articles about communication in the medical profession by searching on some key terms and had the access to the full article online. This skill allowed me to collect new information and integrate it with my real-life experiences to support my arguments in the DCP project. The research method can be beneficial to many different classes and even in future careers.
The last learning outcome I encountered this quarter is metacognition. I never heard of this word before, and yet this word revolves around every part of my writing processes. Starting by writing cover memos for my DCP draft, I would have to read over my writing and reflected upon the strengths and weaknesses. The readers would read the cover memos and immediately know where to put their focus on certain areas before they read the entire essay. Then as I received the feedbacks, it drove me to reread areas that were pointed out by my peers, and I was able to raise my awareness and improve on the rhetorical choices that I made. Many times, reading an essay from a different perspective can notice some issues that the writers might miss even if they reread their essays a couple of times. The process of metacognition allows me to reflect on my own essay based on feedbacks and ideas from my peers and instructor.
If I had more time to work on my portfolio, I would spend it on the revision of my discussion section. Since there are still a lot of evidence and examples that can be included to show my audience the medical settings and situations they will encounter. As I revised my essay, I noticed that the most important aspect of writing and reading I need improvement on is the analytical skill on the evidence I collected from scholarly articles. Often, I had great evidence selected to support my argument, however, I failed to develop a clear and on point explanation that ties to the particular disciplines. In addition, I needed to invest more effort in establishing a smooth transition from paragraph to paragraph. I noticed that in my DCP, I tried to focus on mention one point for each paragraph and neglect the fact that transitions and connections were missing. With the understanding of rhetorical context, a variety of different research strategies, and revision methods I learned from this class, I can improve my reading and writings in both academic and professional settings. For example, the research paper genre I learned by writing DCP is widely used in science majors, and research techniques can be useful in medical settings. Overall, UWP1 has taught me many useful writing techniques that can be applied in different settings.