Heena Dulull

UWRT 1102
Final Reflection
Song that represents my experience in this class

If I were teaching this class: I would put extra emphasis on expressing your
thoughts and ideas. I think thats one of the most important things to teach in a writing
class. Some kids, such as myself have a hard time transferring their thoughts onto paper. I
would also emphasize the importance of organization. Before this class, my ideas would
be all over the place and sometimes in places they didnt belong. Creating an organization
chart before starting to write can help a lot. Sometimes I get stuck in the middle of their
papers and Im not sure how to continue. Having a format can save that from happening
and I would make having one required. Being original is also important so I would
require a reflection at the end of every paper to see where the idea stemmed.
Rhetorical knowledge is the ability to analyze and act on understandings of
audiences, purposes and contexts in texts. My understanding of rhetorical knowledge
has changed over the course of this semester. While writing I was more focused
on the purpose, that way I was more focused on the topic. Its
important to provide examples in your writing because it then makes it
clear and easy to understand for your audience. By having a purpose in
your writing, youre writing writing to accomplish a goal the entire
time. If the purpose is clear the audience will more likely understand.

In this class, we practiced writing towards an expected argument. For

example my topic was on college students dating while in college, so
my audience was mostly targeted towards young college students in
relationships. But in this class we also focused on how others that may
not be dating feel about this topic and if they would be able to relate.
Making it easy to understand and relatable for any audience is also a
good strategy I learned in this class.
Critical reading is the process of reading that goes beyond just understand a text,
it involves carefully understanding the readings strength and weaknesses and also why
the author might feel the way they do. The most success in writing Ive had
was mostly in understanding what it is I am reading and why it was
written in a certain tone. Many times we might read a paper and not
like how negative the author is being towards a certain topic, but
sometimes there is a much deeper meaning behind why the author
might feel the need to say some things. But I have noticed when
writing its okay to talk about your own writing sometimes, because
everyone isnt always going to feel the same as you, so sometimes
while writing you might have to target other audiences and also be
more positive while creating papers/pieces of the portfolio.
My composing processes came from both additional research while revising and
also peer review. Peer review helped me tremendously while writing my paper because I
was given feedback on my paper and also an audience. I was able to go back a fix the
mistakes in my paper and notice the reactions of others. My inquiry proposal was

probably the most challenging, I was worried about grabbing the readers attention. Peer
review allows a diversity of opinions to be brought to the table other than my own. Its
also a judgment free zone, your writing will not be perfect at peer review so the feedback
youre receiving back from your classmates will only benefit your paper.
Knowledge of conventions are formal rules and guidelines that help shape the
paper. Depending on genre, writing can look quite different. For example writing a letter
and writing a paper have two completely different outlines. You cant format a writing
paper the same way you do a letter. It is important when using other peoples' ideas that
you show in your work whose ideas they are. I practiced this in my writing projects,
where, for each of my sources, there is an entry in the works cited area of the paper.
These citations are in the MLA format. It is important to have a consistent format for
citations so that people know what the information means. It is also important that any
direct quotes from other writers are surrounded by quotations. Otherwise, the use of other
writers' words could be considered plagiarism.

Critical reflection is the reasoning process to make meaning of an experience, is a

writer's ability to articulate what theyre thinking and why.