Greyson Wilson

Mrs. Thomas
UWriting 1102-017
12/1/15
Final Reflection
1. Choose a song or musical composition that communicates your experience with writing
and UWRT 1102. Consider including a video of the song. Explain your choice.
If I had to choose a song from this year to describe my experience it would probably be
Gonna Know We Were Here by Jason Aldean because while it might not be a perfect fit, I
think it has a lot of parallels to the way I feel about all the UWriting work I have done in the past
half year. A part of the song that is repeated several times is Ain't scared to ride this train, make
a few marks, leave a few stains. Might slam just a little too hard, might take it just a little too far.
Might burn out like a firework, like a shooting star across the sky, and we may not be around in
20 years but theyre sure gonna know we were here. Which in this scenario would be referring
to all the time and effort we have all put into the writing we have done over the course of our
time here un University Writing 1102, and the mark we leave behind us in the form of our thesis
papers, daybooks, and free-writes.
2. If you were to teach this class, what ideas would you emphasize?
If I was teaching this class the main thing I would attempt to emphasize is the importance of
thinking critically about what we were reading this semester, both as a class and as individuals,
for our annotated bibliographies and thesis papers. The reason I think it is important to focus on

critical reading and thinking is because the information and ideas that you can gain by truly
analyzing someones writing can become the essence of your understanding of certain topics.
Then, only once you have meaningful information and ideas to share do you begin to apply your
rhetorical knowledge, composing processes, knowledge of conventions, and critical reflections to
create something that is truly great. Without a good base to work from, the rest of those skills
cannot be used to their greatest potential.

3. Explain how your understanding of rhetorical knowledge has changed over the course of
the semester using at least three examples from your writing. (ex. Did you shift an
assignment to better fit a particular genre like a proposal?).
One of the biggest things that I learned this year is to keep the overall focus of your writing
in mind throughout. In previous classes I would kind of just let myself go on tangents about
whatever within my writing and it always wound up feeling disjointed. Another things I learned
is that it is important to keep ones audience in mind when writing. This is especially true in the
case of writing a thesis paper since your target audience can vary so wildly. Whether you are
writing to scholars in the field, or to laymen who want to build up a base understanding of you
topic can have a huge impact on the vocabulary you should include, and how much explanation
you do on some of the main concepts. My thesis paper was meant for my classmates and
teacher, so I knew I would probably have to explain what secularization means since a lot of
people wouldnt know off the top of their head. Finally I began annotating my reading a lot in
order to more quickly remember what the main ideas were. This really helped when it came time
to make my annotated bibliographies since some of the articles I chose to use were rather long.

4. Explain how your critical reading has improved during the semester. (ex. In what ways
did you read across texts for connections and patterns in your inquiry?)
I really do feel as though my ability to read critically has improved this semester. Thinking
back, I think a good example of that is reading each of the articles for my annotated
bibliographies and pulling out information that I knew would become useful later on when I sat
down to write my thesis paper. I had to keep in mind the core concepts that I would be
addressing in my thesis, and make sure that each individual article was providing information
that could be supported by the others. The information I found all fit into the topics I knew I
would be writing about which were: What is secularization > evidence of secularization >
reasons for religion in politics > reasons for secularization > possible effects of secularization.
5. Discuss your composing processes. Ex. Did you conduct additional research while
revising or after consulting a colleague? Provide at least three examples to support your
assertion.
Before taking UWriting classes my composing processes could be described as hollow, or
nonexistent. Taking UWriting has taught me the value in developing good composing processes.
A good example of this is the evolution of my inquiry question. Initially, my question was How
has technology changed the social and psychological development of youth in the United States.
But as I began to research I realized that there would not be enough information available on that
topic for me to write a good research paper. Eventually my question evolved into the general
development of youth in the United States. I began to think about the effects of religion on the
maturation of American youth, and finally my question took the form of My paper seeks to
uncover the validity of the claim that the United States is becoming more secular, to find out
what caused the transition, and to explain some of the effects that secularization might have on

our society and government. If this had taken place a year or two ago, I probably wouldnt have
done enough research to discover that my initial inquiry question wasnt good enough and been
set back several hours on my paper.
Another example of my composing process can be seen in my first draft of my thesis
paper, where at the end I listed out the main points I still wanted to address once I came back to
it. That really helped me because usually I would have had an idea of where I wanted my paper
to go, but I would trust that I would just remember that until the next time I sat down to write.
This time, however I didnt have to stress out about remember my intentions when I got back to
writing. Heres what I wrote:
Left to discuss:
Polarization of politics leading to many in the middle being pushed to the left.
Fuzzy fidelity, cultural shift, generational replacement, societal tipping point.
Examples of popular opinion changing rapidly around certain social issues.
Examples of progressivism in the United States.
Finally, an area in which my composing process really improved this year was setting several
smaller deadlines for progression on my annotated bibliographies and thesis paper. That really
helped me to look at my work with a fresh mind each time and be able to analyze what was good
and what needed improvement.
6. Provide at least three examples of your knowledge of conventions (ex. Sentence level
changes. MLA citations).

Some good examples of my knowledge of conventions that I learned over the course of this
class come from my thesis paper. Before this year I really didnt understand how to properly cite
my sources, and as a result would always feel on edge when taking information from online
articles or things of that nature because I didnt want to be accused of plagiarizing. Heres an
example of one of my citations:
Main, Douglas. "Study: America Becoming Less Christian, More Secular." Newsweek.
Newsweek LLC, 12 May 2015. Web. 9 Nov. 2015.
Similarly to learning how to make a citation, I also learned a more streamlined way to
introduce the author of one of my sources, and give their credentials without creating a large
break in my writing. Ex: In his article titled Why Secularism Is Good for the U.S. David
Niose, attorney, author, activist, and President of the Secular Coalition for America, explains
Finally, this year I feel like I have really mastered parallel sentence structure. In my opinion
parallel sentence structure is very important because without it, sentences can become very
confusing to understand. A good example of this from my thesis paper is Candidates soon began
openly denying evolution, discussing their faith, holding prayer rallies, and attempting to
downplay the importance of the separation of church and state.
7. Critical reflection: a) Discuss an example of choices made during a composition. b)
Explain what you think is most important in providing commentary on others work and
receiving commentary on your own. Provide at least three examples of your nuanced use
of commentary in your writing projects.
A) Initially, the reason I wrote my thesis paper the way I did was because I felt that
incorporating my opinion into a controversial topic like religion would be more likely to make

someone who disagrees with the points I was presenting just tune out entirely. The reason I felt
that way was because religion is a very personal thing for many people, and to hear someone say
that it can be a detriment to society, or a hindrance to progress is a thing that many religious
people might not be willing to even consider. In the end, though, it left my paper being a bit
boring.

B) What I think is most important when providing commentary on someone elses work is to
make sure that you keep the larger picture in mind. It is very important to try not to focus too
much on one small portion of someone elses writing, but rather to ensure that they are writing
towards their end goal throughout. Some of the commentary I received on my thesis paper was
that it felt a little bit too mechanical, and lacking in opinion and flair that you could expect from
a good, passionate writer. In my opinion that was really good feedback. I was able to take a step
back, judge my work objectively with that issue in mind, and try to incorporate my own voice
into the paper so that it seemed more personal, rather than a robot listing off numbers and stats.
Also, it is important to make sure your commentary is constructive. This may seem
obvious, but I think some people might forget that many kinds of criticism only address the
negatives, without providing and insight on what might improve someones writing. No one
seemed to have an issue with that in our writing class, but I think it is an important thing to
remember.