Brian Coyle

Allison Bocchino

Writing 2

10 June, 2024

Metacognitive Reflection

Over the course of this quarter, I have learned a lot from my mistakes and it has allowed

me to become a better writer. Coming into this class, I was used to a more traditional writing

style, coming straight out of AP Language and Composition in high school. This class definitely

was different to me at the beginning. I was unsure what genre conventions even were. I truly

learned that there was much more to writing and literature than I thought. I guess I was correct in

what I thought genres truly meant and were. However they remain to be way more in-depth than

one would think. As I learned new ways of writing and thinking, I really had to adapt these new

methods into my traditional way of writing. I really learned through all of the activities that we

did in class, even though I did not think they would help me they really did. The best example I

can think of is when we had to write a genre translation of Little Red Riding Hood, where only

little information was given to us and we had to use our rhetorical skills to produce a new genre.

This activity was mentioned in the works of Janet Boyd1, and it unlocked my creative potential in

genre translation. Through this activity I was able to understand and find the creativity I needed

in creating my new genre in Writing Project 2.

What I learned in Writing 2 about genres was that they are not just a theme, but they are

anything that contain words and can mean something. For example, a book can be a genre, a

1
Janet Boyd. "Murder! (Rhetorically Speaking)." In Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing, Vol.
2., 2011
plane with writing on its wing can be a genre. It can be anything that can relay a type of

language. What I have learned in this class specifically about rhetoric was actually through

Boyd’s work called Murder! Rhetorically Speaking. It was through the activity that I mentioned

about earlier, but just like the students in the intro of the article, I could not define what rhetoric

truly was. From this article I learned that rhetoric is the ability to persuade the reader with

writing conventions and skills. In the case of my Writing Project 2, I wanted to convince readers

that I could translate an academic article into a non academic genre in the form of a sports

journalism website. Rhetoric allowed me to unlock my creative side in order to convince the

audience of whatever I wanted them to. I also appreciated peer editing as a writing process, it

helped me get honest feedback from multiple sources. After taking this class, I wouldn’t say my

old writing style is gone, but I would say it has evolved. I think that I can take what I have

already learned in other classes and take what I have learned in Writing 2 and apply them

together to get the best of both worlds, in a sense. I would have to be careful in doing so, but I

now know the requirements of each style of writing, and I now know what genres, rhetoric, and

writing processes can mean for my improvement of writing. I would ultimately call myself a

flexible writer, as I can apply many different styles to fruition.

For Writing Project 1, my main issue was a mix up between my two genres.

Unfortunately, the two genres that I chose were too closely related in the realm of history. So the

first step to revising the writing piece was to find a new genre. I found a science article that

acknowledged football players’ shoulder injuries and how they have recovered after surgery. The

piece contained a lot of conventions very different to my original piece, which was perfect to

write about. Another one of the main issues that I had with this writing project was the overall

writing structure of the essay. I organized the paragraphs by genre rather than the conventions
that should have been compared. This made it very confusing to the reader and very jumbly.

What I did to fix this was an overhaul on organization, writing by convention rather than article.

I also revised some citation errors that I had in my footnotes, broadened the genres to make them

more distinct from each other, and I cut some words to keep the writing concise.

For Writing Project 2, I had not as much to fix. I had to fix the introduction paragraph of

which I knew I was not happy with from the start. I finally found a way to grab the attention of

the reader in the revision. I also fixed some citation errors in the footnotes that I had in WP1 as

well. I clarified the genre that I was translating the academic article to, which is a sports

journalism web page article inspired by an ESPN web page. I also needed to include another

source that was on the syllabus which was an easy fix but was my error in the beginning. I also

needed to expand on why I chose the certain conventions I chose in my new genre but also

keeping the entire piece concise, which were achieved. I had to stick to one genre instead of

picking multiple which was confusing for the reader, however I didn’t need to change my genre

translation. I had to further explain why I chose to implement the genre conventions that I did,

which was not as clear in my original writing.

This portfolio really made me look at how I have changed as a writer over the course of

the quarter. In the beginning of the quarter, I had a rough start adapting to these new methods of

writing, and completing this portfolio has really put into perspective how I have learned from my

mistakes. It has allowed me to see where I went wrong and come back even stronger as a writer.

I would say that my strongest feature of my writing abilities would be the acknowledgement of

rhetorical devices and how I can use them. Whenever I write I always think why am I writing

this, to who, where, when. I always think of the circumstances of the situation and I adapt my

writing style to appeal to that audience. I would use different tones or language to appeal to that
audience. I think that is where I strive the most because I have a firm understanding of rhetorical

devices especially after this class. I think that I can easily apply what I have learned in Writing 2

into other classes at UCSB. I actually found it convenient that I took this class this quarter as I

had other classes that required me to write essays. This allowed me to understand my structure

and balance in writing styles within a new academic environment. My only regret is not taking

this class at an earlier quarter, because I had other classes that I took that could have used the

skills that I learned in Writing 2.

The concepts that were the most difficult for me at the beginning of the quarter was

understanding how to compare and contrast genres through certain media, which was basically

what we did in Writing Project 1. I was very confused on what the assignment was asking for at

first, because I was out of my comfort zone as a writer. I would say that it was the most

untraditional writing assignment I had ever done. I think that may have played a part in my low

grade for the assignment, although I thought it was not a bad piece of writing. I just

misunderstood the two genres I was using which was an error on my behalf. From there as the

quarter progressed, I was able to pick up some methods from classmates through the peer

editing. My classmates managed to point out some things that I had not before. Just by reading

their work, I was able to implement some similar ideas into my writing, such as simplicity,

concision, and consistency. Some of my favorite strategies that I learned from this class were the

ones that I learned in our assigned readings. I like how the readings we were assigned were

actually relevant and helpful to what we were writing about in class. One of my favorite readings

was the one by Giles2, in which I actually implemented into my Writing Project 2, which

2
Sandra L. Giles. "Reflective Writing and the Revision Process." In Naming What We Know:
Threshold Concepts of Writing Studies, edited by Linda Adler-Kassner and Elizabeth Wardle,
80-97. Logan, UT: Utah State University Press, 2015.
regarded the writing and revision process which is huge in this class and in writing as a whole.

Peer editing is something that I will keep in mind forever now, whether it be someone in my

family, a friend, a teacher, or anyone. Just for someone to read my paper and find something that

I may have missed could be crucial in having a great paper.

Giles, Sandra L. "Reflective Writing and the Revision Process." In Naming What We Know:

Threshold Concepts of Writing Studies, edited by Linda Adler-Kassner and Elizabeth Wardle,

80-97. Logan, UT: Utah State University Press, 2015.

Boyd, Janet. "Murder! (Rhetorically Speaking)." In Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing, Vol. 2.,
2011