Daniel Duque

Professor Zicherman
UWRT 1101
17 November 2014
Last Thought
English is a complex and confusing language, from writing to reading it contains many
rules and exceptions that may or may not make sense. It ranges from words that have different
meanings depending on the context but are written the same to words which make no sense in
their pronunciation, like Wednesday, why is it not pronounced wed-nes-day? And it is because of
its complexity that as a student I am indoctrinated to do a lengthy study of the English language,
which began as soon as I started going to school when I was a child, in another country. All of
the knowledge I have accumulated so far has settled to this moment as I take a freshmen English
class in college. In this class I have been introduced to a new level of writing, I have developed a
better understanding of myself as a writer and of key components in writing. Not to mention the
many other things I have learned and what I continue to learn in UWRT 1101.
This semester I learned many different things. The first lesson I learned was how much
different writing in college is than writing in high school. In high school there were a lot more
rules and restrictions when writing about prompts teachers assigned. In college formatting is still
important and there are rules but there is more emphasis on the content and the writers ability to
be creative. I also learned more about genre, before I had a narrow view of what genre was, but
now I understand what it is on a much more different level because I understand its many

components. Other important topics I learned about were story-telling and peer-reviewing. These
are just some of the key things I have learned so far in this semester.
My writing has not improved dramatically since I have been in college but I have learned
many important things that have helped develop my writing. Most obvious is the fact that before
college I only knew how to write in a five paragraph essay format, now I have learned that the
format of the essay depends on the type of essay being written and even then it can vary. More
importantly however I have learned how to give and receive peer editing. I can now read peers
paper and make comments on it both positive and constructive as well the fact that I can take in
constructive criticism and apply it to my writing. These are the most important lessons I have
learned thanks to this class. The second reading that impacted me was by Richard Straub
There were three readings that influenced me and gave me a lot to think about when I
was writing about them for the discussion forum and they all come from our assigned book The
Subject is Writing. The first reading that influenced me was by Donal A. McAndrew and it spoke
about how many high school teachers focus more on grammar and formatting when grading
papers than its actual content. It helped me get a better view of my peers because most of them
experienced teachers who were biased and mostly cared about formatting. My teachers were not
like that, they placed strong emphasis on both format and content. The second reading that
impacted me was by Richard Straub, this essay talked about the art of responding to students
writings. Before reading this the only type of peer editing I had done was once or twice in high
school and I only focused on the grammar. Now I have learned to focus more on the content and
how to give both positive and constructive criticism to my peers. The third reading is by Hans
Ostrom, this particular reading did not have an impact on my writing but it did make me reflect
on my understanding of other cultures and how I can develop the mentality to become more

accepting and tolerant of other cultures. These three reading were the most influential to me
because they resonated when I reflected and wrote about them.
The piece of writing I am most proud of is the first essay we wrote about literacy, which I
titled A Literal Change. Before this essay I had never considered a moment that changed
literacy for me, so this assignment gave me a lot to think about, and I was curious as to how a
narrative essay from my perspective would be like. I was proud of this essay when I finished
writing it because I had never written a narrative essay before that and it seemed like I had done
an adequate job, it was also interesting to read over a story I had written about myself. Now I am
more comfortable with narrative/story telling essays.
I did not struggle with many things in this class but the one thing that gave me some
trouble was the group work for the genre project. Since many components of this project
required group work, a time had to be scheduled for my partner and me to work on this project
and we had a difficulty doing this so we often ended up doing work at the last minute. Another
issue with this was that we did not know how to properly split up the work, for us to get the most
out of the project it was better for us to both work on one thing. However it was much more
efficient for each one of us to work on a different step. These were the main obstacles I faced
during this course but they were due to my lack of initiative so I was able to learn from them.
There are several things I enjoyed about this class, however my absolute favorite was
writing in our journals. It is a simple tasks so it does not require strenuous effort and at the same
time I can write and think without being worried that I am not being proper or adequate enough.
And often the topics related to what were talking about in class so it is a great opportunity to
either begin to process a topic or to simply reflect on it. Not to mention we have the option to

simply write about our day. These are the qualities that made writing in my journal the most
enjoyable thing in class.
The thing I enjoyed least about this class was the group part of the genre project. For the
most part I did enjoy working on the genre project and it was a great learning experience so I
acknowledge any bad encounter I had with it was due to my own fault. The reason it was my
least favorite part about the class is because I did not manage my time wisely with it so I stressed
about it a few times. In the end the project worked out well and I learned a thing or two about
time management.
English and writing are paramount to becoming educated in America, so it is incredibly
important to me that I have a proper understanding of it as well as a handle of how to create it.
Being in a college English class has taught me a vast amount about culture, genre, essays, storytelling, and many other things. And it is important to note that is how I learned about these things
that is most important. I learned about culture through watching a TED talk about it and reading
an essay on culture, I learned about genre by writing essays and creating a presentation, and I
learned about story-telling and literacy through a narrative essay. And having a journal to write
out thoughts was the most proper way to put everything together that we have learned in class.
Over all I have learned a vast amount of things and I feel more prepared than ever to write a
college essay.