Reflection on Open Letter Draft

Reflection on Open Letter Draft

In this blog post, I will reflect upon my draft of my open letter using the bulleted list on Student’s Guide page 253-6 to explain what I’ve learned about my draft from the peer review process. 

I revised Joki Potkonjak's and Lia Ossanna's Draft of Open Letter.

Did you demonstrate an ability to think about your writing and yourself as a writer?

Yes, I demonstrated an ability to think about my writing and myself as a writer. I made sure to reflect on what I did in the past including all of my struggles, lessons learned, and challenges in high school that helped me in college this course. I think that this helped me to think deeper about myself as a writer because I had great English teachers in the past that taught me a lot that I was able to apply to this course.

Did you provides analysis of your experiences, writing assignments, or concepts you have learned?

Yes, I provided analysis of my experiences, writing assignments, or concepts I have learned. I mostly focused on my time management and my writing process. I think that these were the most impactful on me because I finally was able to change my writing to be more planned and less of a procrastinated mess.

Did you provide concrete examples from your own writing (either quotes from your writing or rich description of your writing process)?

I provided concrete examples from my own writing because I described it thoroughly. I also provided some direct quotes from my past posts. I think that this benefitted my letter because it gives the reader a better understanding of my experience and my learning process. 

Princess Theater. "APPLAUSE." 5/13/09 via flickr. Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License.

Did you explain why you made certain choices and whether the choices were effective?

I explained why I made certain choices and whether the choices were effective. I did this because I knew that I needed to explain myself in order for other people to better understand me. For example, I tried to explain why I decided to schedule my time better. I thought that doing that would allow the reader to get a better insight from my experience and not only just read what I have to say.

Did you use specific terms and concepts related to writing and the writing process?

I used specific terms and concepts related to writing and the writing process. For instance, I mentioned specific writing styles or genres. I also tried to mention how I would not plan as much of my writing out prior to this course. This course taught me that my writing process has improved majorly due to my change in my writing process. Therefore, I needed to use the concepts in order to explain how my writing process had changed.

In what ways did your personal or reflective writing engage these habits of mind?

My personal and reflective writing engaged these habits of mind in the ways that revolved around procrastination. Both my personal and reflective writings used to involve procrastination which is a bad habit of mind and that I used in the habits of mind mentioned in the previous questions. I think that this allowed me to definitely understand my downfalls. Not only was I able to understand what I was doing wrong, but I learned how better manage my time. This has helped me as well.

What challenges did you face in your personal or reflective writing assignment?

I found it challenging to reflect on this post the most. I think that writing while reflecting is usually not hard. Writing about the challenges and successes that I faced allowed me to keep an interest in my writing since it was focused on me. Overall, I never had any huge challenges. I think the most challenging things that I experienced would be referring back to my old blog posts and to actually sit down and connect my new experience to my old. I think that this was the most important part about my letter. Focusing on the conventions and genre was a struggle, but it was enjoyable.

What did you learn about yourself in this assignment? What did you learn about your writing process?

I learned that my writing is continuously changing. Earlier in the year, I thought that I had no hope in this course. However, I realized that I adjusted my poor writing habits to be better through managing my time. This helped the most because I think that I genuinely do not procrastinate with my writing as much now as I did before this course. This assignment allowed me to reflect back on my experience and to see it written down. This helped me actually believe that I improved because I had evidence from my Calendar Reflection and other posts that highlighted this.

How can you use the skills and strategies you learned in this chapter in other writing assignments?

I can use the skills and strategies learned in this course in other writing assignments. I know this for a fact because we focused a lot on genre and conventions. I felt like we did this in high school as well. However, we learned more writing genres than I ever learned previously. I think that this was the most effective skill that can be applied in the future because it is important to write a genre properly that appeals to your audience.

Draft of Open Letter

Draft of Open Letter

In this blog post, I will provide the link of my Draft of Open Letter at the end. In the beginning, I will tell my peer reviewers whatever I think that they should know about my draft of my letter that they'll be reading over. I will also address any specific things that I would like my peer reviewers to focus or that I need help with.


In my letter, I have connected my high school writing experiences to my writing experiences in this course. Basically, I wrote about how the struggles and lessons learned benefitted my writing in this course. I also related it to the struggles that I faced in this course, and how my past experiences helped pull me through the struggles in this course.

Francis, Felix. "Candle in the Wind." 12/16/06 via flickr. Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic.

I think that I need to to elaborate more on some experiences. Do I need more examples/experiences or do I need more elaboration? I tried to make it very personal. However, I was not sure how far to take it.

I also want to make sure that I properly related my experiences enough to the course. I think I might have talked more about my current experiences than I talked about the past. I don't know if this is good or bad. I think that it might be more important to focus on this course than my past, but that is where my peer reviewers will hopefully help me out. I would like to know whether I should add more about this course or take away/add some of the detail about my past courses/experiences... I think that I talked more about my past experiences in the first half of my paper but not so much in the second half.

Lastly, I am concerned about the length of my paper. I think that my letter needs more, but it is long for a letter.

Here is the link to my Draft of Open Letter.

Reflecting More on My Writing Experiences

Reflecting More on My Writing Experiences

In this blog post, I will provide short but detailed responses to the following 6 items on pages 251 & 252 in Student's Guide. I will number my responses and look back over all the writing I have done in the course as I respond - my blogging, comments I have left for peers, drafting, notes & planning, email correspondence, major projects, etc. Additionally, I will quote directly from my own work or the course materials where appropriate and illustrative. Lastly, the picture of the cat curled up in a ball illustrates my warm attitude toward my writing experiences.

1. What were the biggest challenges you faced this semester, overall?

Overall, the biggest challenges that I faced this semester was time management and maintaining my health. I made it a priority to do well in school but to also focus on my health. Freshman year of high school was very difficult for me because everything was different. There was more homework, more studying, more notes, and more papers. Unfortunately, I managed my time poorly, and I would not workout due to this. Since I did not workout, I gained twenty pounds. This experience made me never want to fall into this dreadful downfall of poor time management because my health suffered. I knew that freshman year of college would be different because I would have more time during the day to fit it in. After creating "Calendar Reflection", I was able to create my priorities and schedule out my time better. Therefore, this blog post was very helpful because it allowed me to see my schedule as a whole in front of me. For a few weeks, I admit I did become overwhelmed once the first set of exams rolled through. After tackling these exams, I was able to designate time to workout. Also the first few weeks were tough with making the deadlines for this course. Because I tried to workout a lot, I always pushed the blog posts last minute. Eventually, I was able to balance it all out.

2. What did you learn this semester about your own time management, writing and editorial skills?

This semester I learned that I have very good time management. I think the blog posts helped improve my time management because they forced me to work ahead of time so that I wouldn't be trapped inside my dorm working on them all of Friday and Saturday. Unfortunately, this was the case for a few dreadful weekends. However, these experiences taught me to manage my time better. Eventually, I started doing blog posts the Sunday before they were due. This felt so rewarding. The cluster maps helped encourage me to work ahead because I basically planned my paper in them In the "Cluster of my Controversy" post, I created a cluster map in order to further express my controversy. This helped me in the writing process because I did not have to think back too far since it was already there for me. In high school, I used to always wait last minute to write essays. I would stay up until four in the morning some nights. It was terrible, but I could never break that habit. I think the fact that the weekend are bustling here motivated me to get my work done so that I was not confined in my dorm on the weekends. I wish I had learned to manage my time better earlier, but I am glad that I finally am able to.

This semester I learned that I do have very good writing and editorial skills. In high school, rhetorical analysis discouraged me as a writer because it was hard for me to ever get the grade that I wanted. In this course, I also received a low grade for my rhetorical analysis. However, my other writings received better grades. This feeling was so rewarding for me. The best part was whenever the blog posts would be graded, and I would receive many 100 percents. The feeling of success is great, and I think that is what motivated me to put forth my best efforts in this course. Unfortunately, my lower grades with rhetorical analysis in high school would discourage me to the point where I would barely revise my papers. I received the same low grade every time. This course helped me see my true writing potential that I haven't seen rewarded for years.

3. What do you know about the concept of 'genre'? Explain how understanding this concept is central to being a more effective writer.

I think the concept of genre assisted me in improving my writing. In order to better understand genre, the blog posts "Analysing My Genre" and "Analysing My Audience" helped the most. These helped the most because the first post helped me analyze my genre and better understand it. By doing this, I was able to look more in depth about the conventions of my genre and how it functioned. In order to make sure that my genre was suitable for my audience, the second post that I mentioned helped analyze my audience and helped me get a better understanding about the genre that would be best to convey my message.

Petful. "Cat Curled Up in a Ball. So Cute." 6/6/14 via flickr. Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License.

4. What skills from this course might you use and/or develop further in the next few years of college coursework?

I think there are many skills from this course that will be applied in my future. The post that sticks out to me is "Narrowing My Focus" because I need to narrow my focus on my major as time goes on. This blog post could be applied to my actual life because I need to narrow down to a concentration in my nutrition major. This blog post taught me pick something and to expand on it. In my future studies, I know that this will be expected in writing as well.

Also, "Questions About Controversy" post allowed me to further explore my topic. In school, we are taught that students who ask questions learn the most. Therefore, I think the skill of questioning for a better understanding was a very useful skill to reinforce here. In the future, I will have to use this in order to decide the outcome of a possible essay, discussion, or even a master's thesis.

5. What was your most effective moment from this semester in 109H? 

The most effective moment from this semester in 109H was receiving my grade for Project 3. To know that I finally was able to receive an A on a project in this class was beyond rewarding. This is my most effective moment because it was so good to know that my hard work this semester in this class has paid off. I think that I feel more motivated to do well in the final project because of the grade I received for the past project. This is good because by this time in the year students are typically burnt out. Therefore, my newfound motivation should help me to get a good grade on the final project.

6. What was your least effective moment from this semester in 109H? 

I think the least effective moment from this semester in 109H was to practice paraphrasing and summarizing in "Practicing Paraphrase & Summary" blog post. Through all my years of schooling, teachers in elementary school and middle school loved to emphasize the importance of these two writing skills. I think that writing this blog post was ineffective for me because I had already been taught this and have practiced it meticulously.