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Torie Moctezuma

Zack DePiero

English 015

6 December 2018

Metacognitive Reflection

On August 20th 2018, I began my very first semester of college and on August 21st at

12:05pm, my first year English class began. From the very beginning it was clear to me that this

course would not be like my others. From the syllabus to the first free-writing prompt, “What

makes a country music song...​a country music song​?” to our first assigned reading, “Spaces for

Writing”, it was clear that not only would we be retaining a lot of information in a short couple

of months, but we would also be approaching the topics in an unconventional way. The very first

day had already impacted my thinking and writing and continued to strengthen throughout the

next couple of months.

One of the very first things I learned is that writing doesn’t have to be controlled, you

don’t have to have everything figured out as soon as you begin writing. This is where first order

and second order thinking comes in. Whereas second order thinking requires logic, control, and

reason, first order thinking is creative and has no direction. Most people think they need to be

second order thinkers when writing an academic piece when in reality it is actually more

beneficial for the person and their work if they begin with an open and creative mind.

Not only does the way you think affect your writing, but also what you choose to add into

your piece will affect how easy it will be to form something. That is why in this course we

created a list of higher and lower order concerns to tell us what is important and what is not so
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important. Higher order concerns will include an argument, thesis, quotes, and evidence. These

are things that should be included in almost every writing piece; however, concerns such as

counter-arguments, rebuttals, and transitions, are ​not​ a crucial part of all essays and do not

always have to be included.

In one assigned reading, “So What? Who Cares? Saying Why it Matters.” Gerald Graff,

an English professor at the University of Illinois, states, “the ‘so what?’ question asks you to link

your argument to some larger matter that readers already deem important” (97). So why is

talking about country music important? Why must we worry about first and second order

thinking and higher and lower order concerns? All of this ties into our study of genre- similarities

in form, style, and subject matter. As I stated in my WP1, “Genre is everywhere and in

everything. Genre is what makes something what it is.”

Not only did we learn about genre, but we also learned some very important concepts

that tie into the formation of our first writing project. It is important to recognize the author’s

purpose for writing something as well as the intended and unintended audience. Other important

terms to understand are conventions- how something is usually done, affordances- what

something does well, and constraints- what something can not do that it should. Not only did we

have time in class to look up and define these terms, but they were also re-introduced in each

assigned reading.

In “Murder! Rhetorically Speaking.” a term such as jargon is described as, “used by those

in a particular profession or group to facilitate clear and precise communication” (89). By saying

this we begin to realize there is a certain way you speak and certain words you use in every
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situation. This also connects to our study of rhetoric which is what allows you to write

appropriately for every given situation.

Not only did the assigned readings help me to understand the vocabulary of the course, it

also helped me to better understand that although there are rules in writing, you do not always

have to follow them. When reading, “What is Academic Writing?” there are many “myths” about

writing that were busted. I learned that there does not always need to be an incessant focus on

grammar and that it is okay if you make a mistake every once in a while. I also learned that when

writing an essay, it is not necessary to have just five paragraphs. Five paragraphs is just a

suggestion when writing a basic paper; moreover, it is a lot easier to break down thoughts if there

are several paragraphs in a writing piece. Lastly, it became clear to me that although it my be

nice to rush to get an assignment or essay finished, that draft is not going to be the last. There is

always room for revisions in any piece of writing because there is always something that can be

made better.

Although it might seem as though nothing can be changed once you have finally finished

a piece of writing, once you receive feedback from your teacher and/or peers you begin to realize

things you may have missed in the beginning. Giving and getting feedback throughout this

course and my other courses, gives me the opportunity to get help from a fresh set of eyes.

Feedback included in my revision matrix was not only from my teacher, it also came from my

peers and a lot of it came from myself. Once I began seeing some mistakes, I began to see them

all.
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All of this combined information has allowed me to think of “writing” in a different way.

As my English professor says, “writing is a process.” You are not always going to be able to

knock out a four-page paper in two hours and expect it to be perfect. Not only is a solid argument

and evidence to support it important, it is also critical that each paragraph flows from the other

and supports your argument. You can’t just put information down on a piece of paper and expect

it to make sense, there has to be a form.

In highschool I made myself aware of what teachers look for in an essay and I made sure

to include that information. However, there was never any structure to my essays because

although they were well written and sounded good, the ideas jumped back and forth. This course

showed me that there are so many little things you miss when you try to rush. When I was in

highschool I made a habit of annotating everything I read; however, it wasn’t until I had this

class that I would write the page numbers next to the quotes.

I think one of the reasons why it was so easy to grasp the concepts in this course is

because there was never a time we learned something and didn’t talk about it again, everything

we learned recurred throughout the whole course. In addition, being able to discuss concepts as a

class, having an assigned reading on top of it, and working on PB’s and WP’s also had a big

impact on how I learned. From PB1A about coupons to WP3 about social exclusion, this course

was a buildup. In our writing we went from sounding like monotonous high school students to

scholarly academic writers.

This course taught me how to search scholarly journal articles, how to create an
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annotated bibliography, how to cite sources properly, and how to formally write an email. While

completing all of these assignments I never really understood what I would need this information

for; however, it soon became clear to me that not only would understanding the material benefit

me in this course, it would also benefit me in future courses and careers.

One of the biggest tips that I will definitely take with me is reverse outlining. Being able

to take my essay, break it down into paragraphs, then break it down even further into the main

point of each, taught me to re-see my work. Was I supporting my argument in each paragraph?

Did I stay on topic? Did I incorporate course material? It does not seem like it in the beginning

but once I finished the reverse outline I saw where my essay was and I got an idea of where I

wanted it to be.

In conclusion, this course has taught me many things from rhetoric to genre to creating

arguments. I had always thought before that I was a pretty good writer but as the course

progressed I realized there was so much I did not know about writing. From the end of August to

the beginning of December I went from being a not-so-good writer to a mediocre writer. If not

for this course I probably would not have encountered the tools and knowledge to write as well

as I do now. This course taught me more than I ever realized and I’m glad I had the opportunity

to learn from and with a great group of people.

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