Dear Michele,
I totally had the impression that this class was going to be a breeze, but in reality, it was a windy, uphill battle. I never imagined I’d learn so much about writing and myself through this class. The main lessons I learned is to listen to advice and keep revising. In terms of course goals, I feel like I developed knowledge of conventions and rhetorical knowledge the most. Through practicing those lessons on my Wikipedia entry and podcast I feel much more confident as a writer than I’ve ever felt before.
You write for the reader to read. It’s an obvious goal, but I had a lot of difficulty achieving that. I chose the Wikipedia article to help me achieve this goal because the article is informational. If my writing can successfully explain my knowledge to another reader, then I can see myself becoming a better writer. My initial draft had immense potential to be improved. In addition, this type of writing can help me in the future with my other classes and in my job in the future. It encompassed what I thought I learned the most in UWP 1: knowledge of conventions.
The Wikipedia entry helped me develop my ability to listen to the reader and make changes to help the reader understand my writing. Before UWP1, I almost never looked at the comments on my peer review. I was scared of the critiques and almost saw them as attacks to my character. I wasn’t reading the comments because I kept thinking “they don’t understand my reasoning,” and because they didn’t understand, their comments shouldn’t apply. But in reality, I should’ve been thinking because they don’t understand, I should revise my writing such that they can finally see my views. It was a long while before I forced myself to look at your comments. However, once I took in what you had to say, it helped me realize that peer reviews are meant to help me as a writer and to help other readers understand my message more. That lesson might be obvious to most people, but to me, it was a revelation. I carefully went through each comment and made the appropriate changes and clarifications.
To better my knowledge of conventions I studied multiple different Wikipedia articles. I saw that entries about events tend to order their chapters in terms of what the reader usually wants to know about the most. I noticed that my chapters could be ordered in a better way. For example, I chose to talk about the performances first, because I thought many readers researching Hard Summer 2018 are probably looking up my article to see who the notable performers were. Then, I moved the venue chapter up right after the performances, because the venue is also a large part of the event. It encompasses a lot of details that a reader would want when reading about Hard Summer 2018 but is not as significant as the actual performances. In all, I found myself becoming a better writer through informing myself about the Wikipedia discourse community.
I found myself developing my rhetorical knowledge the most through the podcast project. For my podcast, I was able to learn more about determining my purpose when writing, and who I’m writing for. In this case, I was writing for the fans of popular meme page, UC Berkeley Memes for Edgy Teens. My purpose was to convince my listeners that CS students are not like what the memes portray us to be: anti-social. Since I’m writing to convince and inform an audience, I realized that I have to be more obvious about my thesis and remember to allude back to it whenever I make a point in my podcast.
In my revisions, I had to remind myself that I’m writing for an audience that’s NOT me. When first writing, I tend to only think of my point of view. I saw no reason why to allude back to my thesis when I already believed in it! I had to shake that mentality of writing for myself and start thinking of the reader when writing. I added more analysis to my script after my evidence and gave my listeners more insight to why I was providing them this information.
Halfway through my podcast project, it really hit me that listeners would be hearing my voice reading a script, rather than them reading my work off of a page. I’ve never written a script for a podcast before, let alone record my voice for one. Because of this, I also had to consider my literal tone of voice. The pitches and pauses in my voice will drastically affect my podcast. Like a speech, I had to practice my delivery. It’s harder than a speech however, in a sense that the listeners cannot see me. In order to make up for the lack of bodily gestures, I had to revise my speech, and add more descriptive language to allow the listeners to visualize my thoughts more clearly. In addition, I also made a lot of effort to not be monotone. You may notice that my voice may be scratchy when listening to my podcast. Unfortunately, I’m still quite sick and my voice hasn’t come back yet. Despite this, by the end of my podcast project, I learned much more about audiences and how to deliver my purpose as a writer to them.
As you peruse through my ePortfolio you’ll be able to see the drastic changes between my initial drafts and the ones published here today. I hope you can see my change, from a self-conscious student that is fearful of others’ critiques, to a more open student willing to improve herself as a writer. That was an important turning point for me as a writer and as a student. From here, I can only learn more and continue improving myself. I have you to thank for that. Thank you for reading.
Sincerely,
Valerie
You write for the reader to read. It’s an obvious goal, but I had a lot of difficulty achieving that. I chose the Wikipedia article to help me achieve this goal because the article is informational. If my writing can successfully explain my knowledge to another reader, then I can see myself becoming a better writer. My initial draft had immense potential to be improved. In addition, this type of writing can help me in the future with my other classes and in my job in the future. It encompassed what I thought I learned the most in UWP 1: knowledge of conventions.
The Wikipedia entry helped me develop my ability to listen to the reader and make changes to help the reader understand my writing. Before UWP1, I almost never looked at the comments on my peer review. I was scared of the critiques and almost saw them as attacks to my character. I wasn’t reading the comments because I kept thinking “they don’t understand my reasoning,” and because they didn’t understand, their comments shouldn’t apply. But in reality, I should’ve been thinking because they don’t understand, I should revise my writing such that they can finally see my views. It was a long while before I forced myself to look at your comments. However, once I took in what you had to say, it helped me realize that peer reviews are meant to help me as a writer and to help other readers understand my message more. That lesson might be obvious to most people, but to me, it was a revelation. I carefully went through each comment and made the appropriate changes and clarifications.
To better my knowledge of conventions I studied multiple different Wikipedia articles. I saw that entries about events tend to order their chapters in terms of what the reader usually wants to know about the most. I noticed that my chapters could be ordered in a better way. For example, I chose to talk about the performances first, because I thought many readers researching Hard Summer 2018 are probably looking up my article to see who the notable performers were. Then, I moved the venue chapter up right after the performances, because the venue is also a large part of the event. It encompasses a lot of details that a reader would want when reading about Hard Summer 2018 but is not as significant as the actual performances. In all, I found myself becoming a better writer through informing myself about the Wikipedia discourse community.
I found myself developing my rhetorical knowledge the most through the podcast project. For my podcast, I was able to learn more about determining my purpose when writing, and who I’m writing for. In this case, I was writing for the fans of popular meme page, UC Berkeley Memes for Edgy Teens. My purpose was to convince my listeners that CS students are not like what the memes portray us to be: anti-social. Since I’m writing to convince and inform an audience, I realized that I have to be more obvious about my thesis and remember to allude back to it whenever I make a point in my podcast.
In my revisions, I had to remind myself that I’m writing for an audience that’s NOT me. When first writing, I tend to only think of my point of view. I saw no reason why to allude back to my thesis when I already believed in it! I had to shake that mentality of writing for myself and start thinking of the reader when writing. I added more analysis to my script after my evidence and gave my listeners more insight to why I was providing them this information.
Halfway through my podcast project, it really hit me that listeners would be hearing my voice reading a script, rather than them reading my work off of a page. I’ve never written a script for a podcast before, let alone record my voice for one. Because of this, I also had to consider my literal tone of voice. The pitches and pauses in my voice will drastically affect my podcast. Like a speech, I had to practice my delivery. It’s harder than a speech however, in a sense that the listeners cannot see me. In order to make up for the lack of bodily gestures, I had to revise my speech, and add more descriptive language to allow the listeners to visualize my thoughts more clearly. In addition, I also made a lot of effort to not be monotone. You may notice that my voice may be scratchy when listening to my podcast. Unfortunately, I’m still quite sick and my voice hasn’t come back yet. Despite this, by the end of my podcast project, I learned much more about audiences and how to deliver my purpose as a writer to them.
As you peruse through my ePortfolio you’ll be able to see the drastic changes between my initial drafts and the ones published here today. I hope you can see my change, from a self-conscious student that is fearful of others’ critiques, to a more open student willing to improve herself as a writer. That was an important turning point for me as a writer and as a student. From here, I can only learn more and continue improving myself. I have you to thank for that. Thank you for reading.
Sincerely,
Valerie