Rebecca Lagares

UWRT 1102-017
Mrs. Thomas
30 November 2015
Final Reflection
1. Choose a song or musical composition that communicates your experience with writing
and UWRT 1102. Consider including a video of the song. Explain your choice.
I honestly had more excitement in choosing this song than I did choosing my thesis topic or even
writing the whole paper. At first, I couldnt think of a song that was powerful enough to display
my love of writing, while also portraying how I felt about the class and my experience while
writing. My first instinct was to make it a humorous song, slightly inappropriate, but ultimately
amusing and representative of how tedious I found the process of writing my thesis. However, I
do have a fondness for writing, and Ive found that Mrs. Thomas and this whole class has helped
me hone my skills into a more professional, collegiate form of writing. It was a good way to get
back into the swing of things, it was helpful to get feedback from my peers, and it forced me to
slow down and take time to actually think about what I was writing, and why. As tiresome as it
was to write this paper, I did enjoy writing it after all was said and done, and once I finished it I
felt invincible because I knew I had produced a quality paper on a topic that interested me. I felt
unstoppable. So here is Don't Stop Me Now by Queen.
2. If you were to teach this class, what ideas would you emphasis?
If I were to teach this class, I would probably put more emphasis on the topic of the paper itself. I
think that to write a good paper, the person needs to be really interested in what they are writing

about. So talking students through the process of choosing a topic, deciding whether it is a good
fit for the class, seeing if it is researchable and just making it a good, solid idea is the best
jumping off point to making the whole experience better overall. Its like how if you dont get
enough sleep, your whole day tends to be in the dumps. To have a good semester of writing, you
need a good idea to get you started off right. Also, starting with a topic that is debatable can be a
big help when teaching They Say, I Say, because even though they had some great tips for
writing techniques, it was hard to apply them to a paper which didnt support their ideas very
well.
3. Explain how your understanding of rhetorical knowledge has changed over the course of
the semester using at least three examples from your writing (ex. Did you shift an
assignment to better fit a particular genre like a proposal?).
I think my understanding of rhetorical knowledge can be seen in my writing through my use of a
variety of examples to try and appeal to a larger group of people. I think I also did a good job of
turning very clinical, confusingly worded information into explanations that any person could
understand. Lastly, I chose a topic which could potentially be interesting to anyone, and I
explained in my writing why everyone should want to know about my topic. Appealing to
peoples curiosity shows that I have a different grasp of rhetorical knowledge than I had starting
out in this class because I can use my words to make my writing more effective.
4. Explain how your critical reading has improved during the semester. (Ex. In what ways
did you read across texts for connections and patterns in your inquiry?)
My critical reading improved because I learned how to more effectively read through large texts
and articles to find relevant information while not getting too bogged down in all of the excess. I

also learned not to get discouraged if it looks like a text will not help with my topic; for example,
I found plenty of articles on death anxiety and even though that wasnt the topic of my thesis, I
found a way to connect death anxiety with my theme of death imagery, and suddenly all those
sources could be used to further my argument.
5. Discuss your composing processes. Ex. Did you conduct additional research while
revising or after consulting a colleague? Provide at least three examples to support your
assertion.
In regards to my composing processes, I found it extremely helpful to have a plethora of peers
there to provide commentary, criticism, and encouragement. Like when I turned in my very first
draft of my proposal, and it was written entirely wrong. If I didnt have a chance to have others
look at it, I never would have thought to write it in a different way. Also, when one of my
groupmates made the comment of adding chronological elements to my paper, at first I didnt see
how it would make any sense. However, it proved to be a very big part of my thesis by the end,
and without it my topic would not have felt very organized. Lastly, the ability to turn in multiple
drafts and read them aloud with people helped me realize where I needed work in my writing and
create different ways to go about explaining my research that might make it easier for others to
understand.
6. Provide at least three examples of your knowledge of conventions (ex. sentence level
changes, MLA citations).
For every one of these SLOs I had to go back through my notes to remind myself of what they
meant. For my knowledge of conventions, I learned how to properly do an MLA citation with a
hanging indent. Also, I worked on how I arranged some sentences to make them more easily

understood; when you have a lot of information to fit in a sentence, it tends to get crowded. I also
paid special attention to the words I use when introducing authors quotes; because I know if I
said something revolutionary, I wouldnt want someone quoting me using boring words. Instead
of the author says I now remind myself that the author declares, demands, asserts and
pleads.
7. Critical Reflection: a) Discuss an example of choices made during a composition. b)
Explain what you think is most important in providing commentary on others work and
receiving commentary on your own. Provide at least three examples of your nuanced use
of commentary in your writing projects.
Choices made during my composition included the best way to organize my topic so that it is
easily understood by my target audience. Another key part is deciding who exactly my target
audience was, which was helped immensely by having my peers review my paper because I
realized that really, they were my target audience, so my goal was to have them understand and
enjoy it. I have always appreciated having people criticize and analyze my writing, because I
know for a fact that there are times when I get stuck or dont know how to phrase something just
the right way. Having my classmates, or really anyone, look over my work is a huge plus and
gives me perspective where I might not have thought I could do something a different way, such
as with the chronological organization of my paper. The most important part, in my opinion, is
getting that different perspective which can lend color to your writing.