Convertino 1

Nika Convertino
UWP 1
M. Mlekoday
20 March 2017

Writing Improvements

Throughout the UWP course at UC Davis this winter quarter, I have been challenged to
think critically and creatively. Each assignment pushed me to think about the processes I use in
my writing and how I could change them to improve my writing. I strived to stay away from
restricting myself by not thinking about writing revision rules that high school english teachers
give to students.

Before turning in drafts, I wrote cover memos to the peer reviewers telling them my
thought process and what I desired for my audience to gain or learn from reading a particular
paper of mine. Writing cover memos helped me to pause and think about the real reason behind
my writing pieces. I was able to notice flaws and get new ideas to make my writing more
creative. I had never written cover memos after writing a draft in previous classes so this was
something different for me. At first it was a challenge to think about what message I wanted my
essay to get across to the reader and things I could improve on. As I started writing however,
thoughts began to flow and it got me to reflect on my writing process. Through peer reviews,
cover memos, and revision process I have learned to assess the techniques I use in my writing
and overall strength of my essays. Through this it shows that I understand what metacognition is
and how to use it to improve my writing skills in general.

Through taking UWP 1, I have learned that writing is an actual process. It is not
something that can be done begrudgingly just because if you dont do the assignment you wont
get a good grade. Writing is recursive. It is not enough just to quickly type up a draft. Drafts
should be continually reflected upon and edited to fit what content you want to get across. In this
way I believe I have acquired rhetorical knowledge, the ability to analyze and act on
understanding of audiences, purposes, and context when creating a text. When looking at where
my literacy narrative first started to where it has ended up, it shows how continual reflection and
editing have taken place. As I looked at what I wanted to say about the connection between
literacy and music/singing, I realized that I needed to add more regarding similarities and
differences in the learning processes for english and music.

It was an interesting and enjoyable experience getting to write my first research paper.
The research paper I wrote was on a community that I personally really enjoying being a part of.
The writing genre pushed me to write more academically and formal. The interviewing process
went much smoother than anticipated however, I do think that next time I would ask more
follow-up questions to maximize the information gathered from interviewees. I found it
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challenging to come up with follow-up questions on the spot during some interviews. I found
the results that I gathered quite surprising as I thought I would get a variety of answers but, the
interviewees had very similar thoughts on each question asked. While writing the research
paper, I found that the difficult part was implementing interview dialogue into academic writing.
I wanted to implement quotes from the interviewees into the writing to give a more authentic
approach instead of a he said, she said type of writing. Writing the research paper introduced
me to a new writing genre.

Writing this academic quarter has put me in contact with different writing styles that were
new to me. Research, literacy narrative, letter, and reading analysis genres were covered in the
course. Writing a narrative was different as I did not realize how difficult it would be for me to
write about myself. I have analyzed assigned readings before however, this time I put more effort
into critically thinking about the texts read. Reflecting on the texts made it more interesting to
write about instead of just quickly fulfilling a homework assignment. Learning about different
writing styles also got me to think about different techniques for the writing process.

UWP 1 has shown me writing techniques and processes that I can take with me to my
other courses and in my future endeavors. In science courses I will take in the future, I will need
the skills to write a formal research paper. Now that I have written one, I can know what to aim
for when writing another one. I will try to reflect more and assess what my goal is for a particular
piece of writing in future papers. I can take the idea of continual revision and analyzing to future
assignments. After graduating from Davis, I hope to apply to medical school and become a
physician. In that field, writing is essential to communication. I will need to be able to process
what I want a patients parents or other specialists to know about their medical condition.

In previous english courses, I have been quite uninterested in writing. I am glad that this
course has changed my perspective on writing. Writing has become an interesting process of
formulating my own thoughts on certain topics instead of just producing mandatory assignments.
While I cant say writing is my favorite thing to do, it definitely is not considered a chore
anymore.