Dadhwal 1

Ashima Dadhwal

Sophia Bamert

June 7, 2017

UWP 1

Reflection Letter

Dear Sophia,

Initially when I first came to class on the very first day, I was not excited at all to take

this class. I was dreading the fact it was required for me to take UWP 1 to fulfill my lower

division requirements. I tried to avoid taking the class for as long as possible. I thought this class

would be like any other English and writing class Ive taken in the past, where I was told how to

write and what to write with a set of rules given to me. However, I quickly realized this class

would be much different when I read the articles for this class and we discussed more about

those articles.

Reading the articles that were assigned for class helped build up my confidence with

writing and helped me appreciate this class a little more. My favorite article was Good

Grammar Come from Privilege, Not Virtue really helped me understand how in this class I will

need to focus on the content of an essay rather than where the placement of a comma needs to be.

Knowing this as I wrote my essays I felt as if a lot of pressure was lifted off my shoulders. I used

to focus so much on if my essays grammar was perfect that overall the quality of my writing

was not good. But with the help of this class I was able to focus a lot on the content of what I

write which helped me write better.

I decided to include my Place Narrative 2.0 essay in my portfolio. In this essay I wrote a

letter to a friend, Caitlyn. I told her about the two different perspectives I have of my preschool-
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8th grade school. One perspective was of when I went to that school and the other perspective

was how I view the school as a college student at UC Davis. Since Caitlyn attended a different

school, I was not quite sure why exactly I was sharing my perspectives to my audience, Caitlyn.

A question I would always ask myself while writing the first draft was Why am I writing this to

Caitlyn? Why is she my audience? I took me awhile to figure out exactly why I was writing to

her. So, for my final revision I decided to focus on answering my question on why I choose the

audience I did. In the first paragraph, I started by giving more of my reaction towards the

conversation between me and Caitlyn of her describing her middle school. I felt that was

important because without that conversation, I would not have written to her. Her describing the

middle school she went to really made me want to show Caitlyn the difference between our old

schools. The conversation made me realize how different our schools are and how I used to see

my school as a big school but now see it as small building. I wanted Caitlyn to also see the

different views of my school and in the end compare it to her old school. I wanted my audience

to question herself after reading my letter. I want her to ask herself if after reading my letter does

she view her middle school differently now too as a college student like I do. Also, another

change I tried to make in my essay was to write a little more informally. I wanted to write to

Caitlyn the way I would write to a friend. In the first and last paragraphs, I tried to engage with

Caitlyn as if I was really talking to her.

For my discourse community essay I wrote about Bhangra being a discourse community.

My argument was how if a bhangra team uses social media or practices differently to expand

their team, there will be a positive effect in return for the team. I observed two teams and spoke

to one person that was on both teams and analyzed my observations afterwards. For my revision

I decided to focus on analyzing my secondary sources more. I had secondary sources, but I did
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not connect it to Bhangra for the readers. In the first paragraph I explain what a discourse

community is but I did not explain how Bhangra is a discourse community. However after I

revised it I shared what common goals are between people in the community. In the second

paragraph I revised it by explaining why the secondary sources are relevant and why they help

my argument. Another thing I tried to revise was my conclusion. Instead of just saying what the

results were in my conclusion, I tried to explain the so what, now what in that paragraph. I

tried asking myself what UWP 1 writers could take away from my essay as the audience.

If I had more time to revise the Place Narrative 2.0 letter, I would have tried to make the

letter more informal so that it would have made it seem like I was writing to a friend more.

Although I did try to make it informal, I feel like I could have made it better with more revision

time. Another thing I would have improved was making it even more clear as to why Caitlyn is

my audience. For my discourse community essay, something I would have worked on if I had

more time would be my conclusion. If I had more time I would have tried to been more clear on

why Im writing this paper to UWP 1 writers. I also would have tried to find more secondary

sources to make my argument stronger.

Overall in the class I feel as if I learned a lot about analyzing readings, finding different

literacies in writing, and revising many essays. I believe I have reached the goals a student in

UWP 1 needs to satisfy by the help of these assignments. Revising my essay and discussing the

process I went through allowed me to become a more effective writer and reader. I was able to

learn a lot about my own writing style and from this class I was able to build the confidence I

was lacking. By taking this course, I can take the skills of rhetorical reading, writing, and

revising my work to future classes.

Sincerely,
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Ashima Dadhwal