Vitaly OConnor

Olivia Rines
UWRT-1101

Final Reflection
In the beginning I was full of doubt, not exactly confident. Never gave writing
much thought. The complexity competes with me at a rate that often leaves me
wondering if I should indeed leave this to the professionals. I want to master elements of
writing I do not yet understand. But if I ever dare to try to express myself in reality, I
realize that the cluster caused in the moment of expression is far too great to ever keep a
clear head on what is important. However like everything else, practice makes perfect.
When this first class stared, I told myself that there wouldnt be a time of weakness. That
I would not fall, but a series of unfortunate events has caused the opposite. I know within
that I have what it takes to write a piece that may hold some value to someone other than
myself.
In this paper Ill be going through a brief description that will sum up everything
Ive experienced and learned in this class. The daily notebook is a unique way to express,
train and open up the mind. It allows me to express myself in any way I wish, and at the
same time sets me on a path with enough structure to accomplish the needed task. I never
thought a random topic written about daily could have influence in my overall
perspective of writing. Its like warm up before a soccer game. It got me in the writing
zone, motivated me to express myself more often, in a writing form. So every class we
would get to pick a random topic. It was always a question and the question was; what

if. Being that the topics would have this question, it made the writing options very wide
open. Freedom in writing is what I chose to focus on. There was no structure other then
how the information fit the topic. It was a benefit because I had the freedom to wake up
my mind in any way I chose fit. (Always with a form of guidance) My development in
writing has taken a better turn; I tend to express myself more freely. I understand things I
havent for a long time, the online activities are very fun, forced interaction with other
students writings are brilliant. I love the diverse views all my classmates have. Not
exactly all of them. Havent read all the writings posted.
Id like to break down a few things Ive learned, beginning with a genre and how
it breaks down. As the artist I am to accurately use information, break down, accumulate,
regenerate and express. A genre is understood as a concept, that is the most basic of
thought. Examples would be: opera, mad hatters tea party, grocery store, etc. Those
concepts break down into schemas and mental models. Schemas are known as clusters of
information that helps better understand ones concept. They break down into three types.
The first is world-knowledge; all the knowledge found within the world that one might
use as advantage in understanding a concept. Back to opera, an individual may think of
music, or fancy clothes, whine vs. beer etc. If an individual is given the genre of a
grocery store such as meat, fruit, pie, milk etc. my come to mind to better understand the
genre. The second; understand the text. Taking the genre grocery store for example, to
better understand the genre, understanding texts that may answer questions like what?
Where? How? Why? Etc. Now the third is found within the self-experience one has in
this world, helping them better understand the world around. Ex: if an individual has selfexperience of a grocery store visited previously, they may remember that the coco roasted

almonds are in isle eight not six. Because understanding a concept helps one understand
the world surrounding. The trails of concepts that build up ones perspective are known as
mental-models, these mental-models are interconnected concepts that act as a building
blocks. Ive also learned how text plays into genres. Genres tend to be ideal and texts
play as actual manifestations of genres. For example one may think of movie that
would be classified as the genre. The text further and better explains the genre. For
example: I want to watch an action movie The information saved and further used in
the further is known as genre knowledge. This is thought of as all the information
accumulated and saved over the years about a certain genre. Anything that helps one
better understand and better comprehend a genre is known as genre knowledge.
Intertextuality is textual information passed on from one text to another, play as a very
important role in explaining or bringing a genre to life. There are two types of
intertextuality. Referencing would be known as the information accumulated that is
already existent. And genremixing is regenerated descriptions that are self-thought.
Modes with no specific social function are knows as discourse modes. Before I get to
discourse modes, genres come with a communicative purpose, and that purpose gives
genres a form of guidance, functions intended to fulfill.
Discourse Modes differ from genres because they do not have a specific social
function in themselves; instead they are building blocks which we can draw on in many
different genres and then use in actual texts in flexible ways for a range of purposes
(Bax 63). There are 7 different discourse models. They are

Narrative

Description

Report

Information

Argument

Instruction

Interaction

For example if I were mad I would use an argumentative discourse mode. Understanding
a genre isnt exactly complex if one wants and has the curiosity needed. Being that we
deal with so many different genres daily, we understand genres without even thinking
about understanding them. If the world knowledge isnt used accurately, and the self
regenerated information isnt depicted properly. Then jeopardy of fully comprehending
that genre occurs. The world around us is constructed by the discourses we use (Bax
30) Ive thought on a better way to explain how the discourses we use, play as an
important role in social constructionism, but Bax gives a perfect description: We need to
be constantly aware of how language can be used in the construction of viewpoint and
ideology, set of ideas which if they are prevalent and widespread might be treated as
commonsense, but which in fact could hide aspects of power and justice (Bax 33)
An interesting piece Ive worked on was a Micro-Ethnography on RAs
(Residential Advisors) at UNCC. And what makes this community a discourse
community according to Swales six characteristics. Looking back at genres, the RA
community would be my genre, and the six characteristics followed would be the world
knowledge used to better understand my self-perspective of the genre. In this project, I
focused on how RAs fit the characteristics of a discourse community according to
Swales six characteristics. The amount of information gained in this assignment

fascinated me. I chose to do something Id never think of. At first it came off as the worst
mistake Ive ever made. The more I searched for one purpose (role of a discourse
community within), the more I got drawn in the community. It left me arguing many
points within my head that I previously opposed. Digging deeper gave me facts of the
truth and reality of certain cases. Ive thought of the main project to use in my final
portfolio and all but this one skipped my thought. Ive learned the most in doing this
project, and I feel as if Ive put the most work in this project. The combination of social
and nonsocial patterns required for the completion of this project was thrilling. In this
case I felt like I had something t write about, a purpose within a purpose. I actually truly
enjoyed writing about this project. In my final portfolio Ill be including a series of
documents created in this class, from daybook entries to my genre analysis also my
micro-ethnography and discussion forums. It will show my progress in this course from
the begging to the end. However I will only include the work that best fits, my stronger
work.