Dear Professor Johnson,

The assignments that I decided to include in my portfolio consisted of writing project number 1
and writing project number 3. Although each of our writing projects addressed an element of
transfer, they were all distinct and served different purposes. For example, writing project 1
helped us access our prior knowledge about writing, while writing project 3 addressed the
metacognitive components of genre translation. In addition, I decided to include writing project 1
because it was the paper that I received the lowest grade and felt that I had to redeem myself in
one way or another and that being able to revise and include it in my portfolio would be the
perfect opportunity. Although I did not get a bad grade in writing project 3, I decided to include
this essay in my portfolio because it was the writing assignment that I had the most fun writing
about. The genre translation that I did (which was from a political article to a childrens book)
and the topic that I chose dealt with presidential candidates view on immigration was something
that I am passionate about and felt that it actually served a meaningful purpose because I wanted
children to learn about politics in a way that they would be able to understand and point out the
main ideas. When it came to the actual revision process of my essays, I found it a bit difficult
because I knew that my papers were not the best that they could be and that they could use
revisions, but I did not know where to begin.
After reading Ten Ways To Think About Writing: Metaphoric Musings for College Writing
Students by Shelley Reid, I realized the impact the topic you choose has on your paper. The
author advices students to Write about what you know about, are curious about, are passionate
about (or what you can find a way to be curious about or interested in). For instance, when
writing assignment 1 was assigned I decided to make it my own by writing about something that
was interesting to me and that it was something that I could relate too which is why I decided to
write about the culture of edm music festivals and websites and video blogs both serve different
purposes. Writing assignment 2 was the essay that I dreaded the most because it was hard to
understand what do at first since I had never been exposed to such a large library catalogue and
was never required to include primary resources in my essays all my life. My first introduction
that helped set the base of my primary research was the reading Driscoll, Introduction to
Primary Research. In this essay, the author talks about primary researchers and claimed that
The essay begins by providing an overview of ethical considerations when conducting primary
research, and then covers the stages that you will go through in your primary research: planning,
collecting, analyzing, and writing. The whole topic itself was something very new to me which
is why I found it to be the most difficult. In order to make the writing process a bit easier, I
decided to write about a topic that I knew would be beneficial to write and research about while
still being interest. Due to this, I decided to write about statistics and at the end, I got a 15/15 on
my essay. Lastly, when it came to project number 3, it was the writing assignment that allowed
room for the most creativeness and therefore I took advantage of it. Although I knew that the
topic dealt about genre translations (which isnt exactly the most exciting topic to write about) I
wanted to make sure that the topic I decided to write about would be fun and that I would be
excited to write about. For me, finding something to write about has always been the most
difficult thing to me as a writer, so during the activities in writing 2, I learned the importance of
brainstorming and how it can make all the difference in your paper. I remember that for writing
assignment 3 I was stuck about what I wanted to write about so I gave myself 5 minutes to just
write without stopping. I continued to write about things I could translate to another genre and

didnt stop to erase or correct anything, instead I just let all of my ideas flow without any strings
attached. After my time was up, I looked down at my paper and saw one of my notes that
actually had potential. Because of the brainstorming exercise and setting aside time to thing
about potential topics that I could write about, I was able to come up with an amazing topic that
was intriguing to me while also supporting to the writing prompt that was assigned. It is because
of this, that I believe that the activity that made me grow as a a writer was not some fancy trick
or something complicated written by a famous writer; but rather it was something small that I
was constantly repeated to do throughout my school by teachers but never fully understood the
purpose. After writing 1 and writing 2 however, I was able to to grasp the full essence of
brainstorming and how coming up with a topic that you are fond of makes your paper so much
better because you are writing about something that you care about and that translates and shows
in your writing.
When I first came into this class in the beginning of fall quarter, my understanding of writing
was that it was something that I could never be good at but it was something that I was going to
have deal with my whole life since writing is included in almost every aspect of our everyday
lives. I came in with the impression that I could never be a good writer because of what past
teachers had given me in essays and because of what I thought of in my own writing. I didnt
believe that my ideas were ever good enough and I refused to seek help whenever I felt stuck
because I was afraid of what other might think of me. However, after two quarters in my writing
class, my perspective has changed and I never would have thought that I could have been able to
improve this much in such a small amount of time. The fact that you part of our grade for the
class was to go to the CLAS writing lab and have a tutor look over our paper two times really
helped. If it would have not been included as part of grade I dont think that I ever would have
taken time out of my own hands and gone on my own. However, after going to my first session
at the writing lab and have Nayelli go over my paper, I realized how important it was to get my
paper reviewed by multiple people, especially those who are good writers. After going to the
writing lab and hearing multiple comments and advice, I would go back and look at all the
comments made and revise my paper to make it the best that it could be. It is because of this that
I now go to the writing lab in my own time apart from class and have someone look over my
papers for other courses that just dont include writing class, but other subjects as well. If it one
thing that I have understood about writing it is that there is no such thing as having to many
revisions because in one way or another, a paper can always be improved and positive changes
can always be made.
Although multiple revisions have been made in my essays, some of the things that I would have
liked to continue to work on if I had more time would be on syntax/mechanics. As a writer, I find
this to be one of the most tedious and the most difficult to put into practice. Although I do know
what both words mean and what role they play in writing, it is hard to me to actually use these
terms because I do not really know how to apply them to my own writing. When I think about
my strengths and weaknesses as a writer I tend to be able to point out more weaknesses than
strengths. After being in a writing class for two weeks and getting comments on my essays from
colleagues, professors, and writing tutors, one of the most common mistakes in my papers is not
being completely clear about the organization in my essays. For example, in one of my writing
assignments I wrote, I now recognize three distinct literary practices used in statistics: the use of
mathematical equations, inclusion of explicit definitions and the use of very detailed graphs and

visuals to help illustrate the problems at hand. However, throughout the rest of my essay I did
not follow the organization that I had written in this sentence and instead of talking about
equations, definitions, and graphs in that order, my first body paragraph talked about statistical
discussion/articles followed by textbooks used in statistics, and in my last paragraph, talked
about the use of explicit definitions. By not following the order that I had written about in my
introduction, and instead writing about things in different order, it made my essay harder to
understand and ruined the overall flow of my paper. Another weakness that was constantly seen
in my essays was the use of run on sentences. For example, in my essay that dealt with edm and
music festivals I wrote, As music festivals have started to progress, people have come to learn
to express their weekend experiences about the festivals through website and videos of people
demonstrating their weekend experience through personal video vlogs (otherwise known as
vlogs) and uploading them on sites such as Youtube, where all edm lovers can witness other
peoples experiences. (Writing Assignment 1). Now looking back on this sentence, it is clear
that the sentence is for 1) too long, and 2) super confusing and does not really make sense. In
order to fix these weaknesses in my writing, I decided that I had to make sure that my sentences
were short and concise, instead of lengthy and wordy. As said in the reading, Reflective Writing
and the Revision Process: What Were You Thinking?, Giles writes that self-assessment and
reflection are essential to the learning process because they are a method for assigning both
responsibility and authority to a learner. By going over my essay multiple times and having
people review my work and receive another persons criticism, it is easier to find the run on
sentences and fix them. By reviewing the run on sentences, and eliminating words that are not
necessary enables my sentences to make more sense along with eliminating the confusion that a
reader may have when reading my work. The fact that I am now aware that I have the ability to
criticize my own work and spot out errors in grammar, organization, and transitions, has given
me so much more confidence in my writing. I now have the proper tools and self-confidence to
help my essay be better which is something that I would have never imagined happening in the
first day of writing 1.

Work Cited
Driscoll, Dana. Introduction to Primary Research: Observations, Surveys, and Interviews.
Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing. Volume 2. Eds Charles Lowe and Pavel
Zemliansky. Parlor Press, 2010. 146. Web.
Giles, Sandra. Reflective Writing and the Revision Process: What Were You Thinking?
Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing. Volume 2. Eds Charles Lowe and Pavel
Zemliansky. Parlor Press, 2010. 146. Web.
Reid, Shelley. Ten Ways To Think About Writing: Metaphoric Music For College Students.
Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing. Volume 2. Eds Charles Lowe and Pavel
Zemliansky. Parlor Press, 2010. 146. Web.