Ilyas Abukar

UWRT 1103
Mrs. Thomas
28 April 2016
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.
The song I chose to describe my experience with writing in this class is Grown Simba by
J. Cole. I chose this song because it represents growth, and if I had to choose one word that
described my writing throughout this class it would be that very same word; growth. In this song
Cole has a line in the hook in which he says ...cant tell you where i'm going, just know I wont
stop, goodbye to the bottom, hello to the top. This line can be a description of many different
situations, however, I feel as if it describes the growth in my writing throughout this class. I
never truly had a problem with writing, however, this class taught me how little changes can
make a dramatic difference. This song was also the very first song I heard by J. Cole, so it also
represents my growth in music as well as my writing.
2.

If you were to teach this class, what ideas would you emphasis?
One of the most important things that I learned in this class is the ideas found in They

Say, I Say. These ideas really helped to make my writing more well-rounded as it made room for
more sources and views from different people. Before taking this course, I feel like I used to
incorporate they say/i say within my writing to a certain extent; unknowingly. However,

through taking this course I learned the different ways in which to incorporate those same ideas
more into my writing which really helped me grow as a writer. I think that anyone taking this
course -- or just wanting to become a better writer -- should definitely pay attention to the ideas
found in this book. Overall this course really taught me how to write a more fluid paper, while
incorporating many new ideas and writing styles within my work.
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?
Throughout this course, my understanding of rhetorical knowledge has grown, and this
growth is evident within my writing. The longest paper I wrote before this course was about four
pages, so to write eight pages on any topic seemed extremely difficult to me. However, I learned
a lot from reading others thesis papers. One of the thesis papers that stuck out to me was the in
class reading of The Dark Side by a previous student. This paper -- although heavily criticized
by my classmates as a whole -- really showed me how to bring in different voices within my
paper which makes it a lot easier to write longer papers. Another thing that this paper taught me
was that although there were a lot of different voices within the paper, the writers voice was the
loudest amongst them all. This paper really influenced my thesis, as well as my writing as a
whole.
Writing the proposal was also a little tough for me, as I have always been the type of
person who writes a single draft, revises it, and submits it. For me planning and multiple drafts
have always been a waste of time. So writing a proposal was something new to me. It was
difficult choosing a question such as can money buy happiness? and narrowing it down to a

certain extent as to not make it too broad. Also I previously never thought about my target
audience, however, thinking about what type of people you are writing for influences word
choices as well as your writing style in general; which really helped my paper out a lot.

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 has improved drastically over the course of the semester. I learned
how to read across many different texts and pick out the important information while also finding
patterns within writing. It really helped in terms of finding sources and reading through them in
order to do the annotated bibliographies. Without this improvement in my critical reading skills,
my annotated bibliographies would have taken a lot more time for me to complete them.

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.
Before this course, I rarely had papers where we had to peer edit, and if we did it was not
taken seriously. However, this course not only emphasized peer editing, but it also taught us how
to peer edit by watching many videos and practicing throughout the semester. This peer editing
really helped in terms of getting new ideas and understanding which ones needed to be
unpacked. There were some assignments in which the peer editing did not really cause me to
make any dramatic changes to the existing paper, but instead add a few thing and maybe take a
few things out. However there were also assignments where the peer editing really caused me to
really shake up the paper by doing things such as reordering paragraphs, which really changed

the outlook of the paper. The paper I made the most changes to after peer editing was my inquiry
proposal, as it was a little too broad of a topic so I changed it a lot and narrowed it down to make
it a better more well-rounded inquiry proposal.

6.

Provide at least three examples of your knowledge of

conventions Ex. sentence level changes, MLA citations.

This course taught me a lot about different writing styles. For example, I learned how to
change up the lengths of sentences from short, to long, to medium length. Doing so really helps
your writing, as it makes your work more fluid. Prior to taking this course I rarely would change
up the lengths of sentences, which really held me back as a writer. I also learned a lot about
incorporating quotes within my work, which really helps to show the reader how detailed you
were in researching, as well as adding support to your argument. Another thing I learned about
knowledge of conventions is how to argue the positions of sources. Often times I would
repeatedly use the same beginning such as the author says... and follow with he/she says...,
which really hindered me as a writer. Through the They Say, I Say book I learned how to argue in
different ways such as the source argues; this really enhanced my writing ability as a whole.

7.

Critical Reflection: A) Explain the importance of reflection in

learning processes. B) Explain what you think is important in providing

commentary on others work and receiving commentary on your own. C)
Provide at least three examples of your nuanced use of commentary in
your writing projects.
I learned a lot from reflecting as it showed me how far I came with each piece of writing I
worked on this semester. Before this course, I did not trust peoples judgement in terms of peer

editing because I could tell they did not take it serious. However, from my classmates and in
small group conferences, I learned a lot about how to take constructive criticism and use it to
better my writing. For example, for one of my papers, I had someone tell me to move the second
to last paragraph to the second paragraph because it would allow the reader to understand the rest
of the paper better. I ended up making that switch because I noticed how it really made the paper
flow better. Peer- editing can be a big plus to your writing if it is genuine and thought through.
Without the peer review sessions in class, my papers would not be as fluid as the finished
product.