Reinhold 1

Tyler Reinhold
De Piero
Writing II
March 16, 2015
What I Discovered
My experience in Writing 2 this quarter has been one hell of a ride. I have learned so much, read
so many pages, and have had a blast doing it. I started off uncertain with my writing, but now I
feel that I have blossomed into a beautiful writing rose.
First I'll start with the course readings. From the beginning I knew that this class was
going to be awesome. The decision for the first reading to be an educational comic strip style
piece on writing was brilliant. I easily understood and connected with that material. I enjoyed
many of the next readings and especially Kerry Dirk's Navigating Genres. Dirk spoke to me and
in such a deeply personal way. It was so easy to understand her. Many of the following readings
were great. The articles that had a personal voice were my favorite. I could definitely connect to
and understand the author and their purpose. I enjoyed Peter Elbows Teaching Two Kinds of
Thinking by Teaching Writing on first-order and second-order thinking. The ideas in that article
were so profound and really made me think. I sat there reading and could really understand what
the author was saying and I knew that I personally participated in these thinking methods. The
article allowed me to use the first-order and second-order thinking methods in my writing. Firstorder for quick write-ups and rough drafts and second-order for thorough papers. I understood
the purposes and uses of these thinking methods. My favorite readings had to be Understanding
Rhetoric by Alexander and Losh, and Writing with Pictures by McCloud. These readings

Reinhold 2

happened to be the last two, leaving a sweet taste in my mouth. I already mentioned how much I
loved the first reading Understanding Rhetoric, but damn were the last two good as well. The
pictures matched the words so well and helped put a purpose to every word on the page. Pictures
and words worked together in a fun and entertaining way that had me hooked from the start. The
visuals allowed me to understand the words and the words helped me to understand the pictures.
Those comic strip style readings were very effective for me.
The Writing Projects were a huge stress for me. Before any large paper, I always lose my
mind. The Project Builders would help ease that stress and let me cut loose by having some fun.
They were my favorite activity this quarter and a great way to get my brain thinking and get my
head in the right place for the actual WP. I really enjoyed writing the PB's because they gave me
a certain sense of freedom that I did not completely feel in the WP papers. I felt that I could
discuss whatever I wanted and just let my words flow. It was definitely an exercise of my firstorder writing skills. I would just let whatever I thought flow out of my head and onto my blog. I
thoroughly enjoyed this free sense of writing, where I could express what I was really feeling. I
also liked to know that my writing in the PB's would not be graded extremely harsh or critically.
Being able to use my personal voice is always something I enjoy. I can become one with the
page and the words which I am constructing unto that said page...but really, I just feel that I can
better express myself and create a real connectable persona by using my personal voice. Plus,
writing is hella fun and when the topic is fairly open ended, there are endless possibilities in what
you can write. That is why the Project Builders were my favorite assignments this quarter.
Next are the actual Writing Project papers. These had me biting my finger nails and
pulling my hair out for weeks. Typical college student, I start the writing only a week or two
before the due date (translation: the night before), and would stress on what to write and even

Reinhold 3

how to write. I get extremely worried when I know my writing is going to be combed through
with a fine toothed pick. I also dislike having to use a scholarly voice in my writing. I prefer to
write as I would talk and prefer to use colloquial terms and jokes. I have learned that a lot of the
slang words I use are not acceptable when writing in a scholarly voice. Although I did not enjoy
the scholarly voice I had to use in the WP's I still attempted to make the most out of them. I tried
to place some humor in my papers, and I did place some slang in some paragraphs, but I learned
a lesson while writing the WP papers. That lesson was that what you write is not always the fun
part, but the actual writing process itself can also be fun.
I felt that I wrote WP1 strongly. I felt that I had covered all of the bases and picked great
sources for my genre of advertisement. I did not know what to expect from how I would be
graded. I did not know whether I would be receiving many comments or just given a grade like
many teachers do. I put all of my effort into constructing a well thought out paper that I had fun
writing. The most difficult part of WP1 was using the course readings. I did not want to simply
throw quotes into my paper or just sound like I cared about the readings. I actually did care, so I
reread the articles and tried to find quotes that worked well with my paper. I tried to put meaning
and good use to each quote I used from the course readings.
Next, WP2 was a bit less stressful. I felt that the topic was more difficult than WP1, but I
knew I could handle it. Everything I had learned in class had led me to this very moment of
forging my paper! I really just did my best at trying to explain myself and use my sources well.
Again, I had trouble using course readings but I believe I used them far more effectively in this
WP than I did in the first. I also attempted to use the comments from WP1 to help me write my
WP2 paper. I thought about everything that was said and tried to put those commentaries to use. I
used more formal language and tried to better explain myself. My writing was building and

Reinhold 4

building on top of itself. However, this paper was simply difficult to me. At times I felt myself
getting lost in my own words and thoughts. I believe that my finished paper was decent but not
great. Still, I tried to have fun in the process of writing of the paper.
By far, my favorite Writing Project was WP3. Maybe it was because I got to spit some ill
bars over a super-hot beat that was fire, but the whole process was a blast. I had no clue what I
wanted to translate my genres into. I had some ideas, but I was never committed fully. Then I
thought of the idea for a rap. That made perfect sense for me in appealing to the younger
audience. Then I began thinking about my grandmother and my other grandparents. I had to
think about what they liked to do. The first thing that came to my head was the newspaper. I
know my grandma loves to read the paper. She grew up reading it and the articles with
interviews are her favorite, so why not doing an interview style newspaper article? For some
time I debated whether or not I actually should rap my song. After thinking about it and with
some strong encouragement from the King of Rap De Piero, I decided to head into the studio,
(aka my dorm room with a headphone mic as the studio mic and Windows Movie Maker as the
beat maker) the most technologically advanced station on the West coast. Making the song was a
bit hard, but the work definitely paid off. It was a very fun process. I also enjoyed the reflection
essay in WP3. I could openly express my feelings and talk personally to the reader, similar to
now. I did not feel shackled down by the constraints of a scholarly academic voice. I could say
words, jokes, and phrases I could not even think about while writing a scholarly essay. Overall,
WP3 was a blast to make and I felt it was by far my strongest Writing Project.
This portfolio process has been very informative. Going over my past WPs has taught
me so much. At times I was shaking my head thinking why would you say that? or what the
hell were you thinking?, but other times I was impressed with some of my thoughts. I believe

Reinhold 5

revising my WPs made them far stronger than they were originally. This is definitely in part
thanks to the comments left by De Piero. Those comments helped me to realize the
improvements I needed and helped guide my revisions. I had a couple main takeaways from my
revision process: to explain myself better, to create an argument in my thesis, and make sure
every word in my paper has a meaning. This revision process has taught me so much more than I
could have imagined.
I can honestly say that this course has taught me how to write. I knew how to write
before, but did I actually know how? I knew the basic steps and mechanics, but now I know so
much about the thinking and the writing process. I can use all the skills I have gained in this
course and apply them to all of my future writings. This class made me realize that the writing
process itself can be very fun and that all forms of writing can be enjoyable to write. I had no
idea what conventions were, what rhetorical devices were, or what the hell moves were, but now
I have learned. I feel that I can think and write so much more clearly now. This course helped me
to not only learn how to write, but how to think and express myself.
All in all, if I could I would take this class all over again, but only with De Piero. This
course was not just helpful to my writing skills, but also to my personal skills. I feel that I have
grown as a person throughout the process of this class. My writing and thinking have improved
so much, but my total being has also been enlightened. Knowledge is the greatest gift of all, and
I got my moneys worth in this course. Thank you for that.