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Caitlin Harrison
Professor Olivia Rines
UWRT-1101-002
8 April 2015
Final Reflection
Throughout this semester, I have had the opportunity to take the University Writing
Course with Professor Olivia Rines. I cannot begin to explain how much this course has prepared
me for my future writing endeavors and has strengthened me as a writer in more ways than I new
was possible. We have had various assignments over the past couple of months, each of which
the content it covered had been previously discussed in class. This always allowed me to
approach the assignments with a general understanding of the topic. After completing each of the
assignments I think I have grown tremendously as a writer and have gained a sense of confidence
in my writings.
One of our first assignments in this class was our Genre Analysis. After reading,
commenting on, and having class discussions about numerous articles related to the term genre,
Olivia had us each choose a genre of our own to analyze in order to further our understanding of
this topic. From what I have learned over the course of this semester, a genre comprises of a
class of communicative events, the members of which share some set of communicative
purposes. These purposes are recognized by the expert members of the parent discourse
community, and thereby constitute the rationale for the genre. This rationale shapes the
schematic structure of the discourse and influences and constrains choice of content and style.
(Swales, 53) While I do believe I have acquired much significant knowledge about the concept
of genres, this project in particular was the one I found myself struggling most with throughout

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the semester. However, when I look back on this project, I am proud of what I have
accomplished, and because of this I will be including my genre analysis in my final portfolio for
this class.
For my genre analysis, I chose to analyze the genre of music videos. To be more specific,
I chose the three current, top trending music videos on YouTube. I had to thoroughly break down
each one, analyzing the different features and styles used throughout the video. I then had to
compare and contrast my findings relating each of the videos. The process of breaking down
each of the videos was very difficult for me. It was challenging to analyze which features were
contributing to the overall genre of music videos and which were not. While I was pleased with
my first draft, I still believe that I should focus on including more detail about the features found
within each of the music videos, as well as incorporating an overall purpose that is explicitly
stated to the reader.
The next project that we were assigned in our English class was our Microethonography. We read articles upon articles about the concept of discourse communities and
the criteria that are involved in deciphering whether or not a community could be classified as
such. In the excerpt The Concept of a Discourse Community from the book Writing about
Writing by John Swales, the author addresses the idea of a discourse community and explains
characteristics as to how they are defined. Within the world of literacy there are numerous
definitions and understandings of the term discourse community. Because of this, Swales
attempts to clarify, for procedural purposes, what is to be understood by discourse community
and, perhaps in the present circumstances, it is better to offer a set of criteria sufficiently narrow
that will eliminate many of the marginal, blurred and controversial contenders (Swales, 218).
Throughout this chapter, Swales outlines six characteristics that should be used to define a

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discourse community. Before reading this article, I was never aware of the prevalence of
discourse communities that are present all around us; and to be completely honest, I wasnt really
even aware of the term.
For my micro-ethnography, I analyzed a dance group from the University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill called Carolina Vibe. In order to analyze this discourse community I
scheduled three observational experiences with the team and two interviews. For the
observations, I visited three of their dance classes in one week; each one was an hour long. The
majority of my learning about this discourse community came from this experience in particular.
I was quickly able to analyze what it was that sets them apart from many other dance groups.
Being held responsible for going out into the community in order to do observations and
interviews was a wonderful learning experience that I ended up enjoying much more than I had
originally anticipated. It is not often that you are required to look past your computer screen in
order to do research, so I was thoroughly excited for this experience. After receiving feedback on
my first draft for this project, I determined that my paper would be more effective if I included
more detailed background information when answering the questions we were given on the topic.
I will definitely be including my micro-ethnography into my final portfolio in order to show how
much I have improved upon this project.
When I consider which experience throughout the semester caused me to grow the most
as a writer, I would have to choose discussion forum posts. On about a weekly basis or so, Olivia
would post an article about a topic that we are learning about and have us comment on it in our
class discussion forum. We were required to write approximately 300-500 words in each post,
and correctly refer to the article as a source. The reason I found this experience the most
rewarding was because it required me to write often and consider the audience when doing so.

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Previously, I had never put much thought into audience as far as my writing went, however,
when it came to these discussion posts, it was important for me to remember that my audience
was my classmates. I always ended up putting much more effort into these pieces knowing that
each of my classmates would be reading it. Sometimes, I think the knowledge that people will
actually be reading your writing puts a much greater stress on you as a writer, but always
improves the end result. The discussion forums that I chose to include in my final portfolio are
ones that I felt were most effective when addressing the prompt. I think I did well at expressing
my opinions in each of these pieces.
In addition to these class experiences, we were also required to create daybook entries
each day. Olivia would have someone choose a question for us to contemplate then write about
in our journals every day. I feel as though this exercise had a great impact on my ability as a
writer because it forced me to write on-the-spot. Normally, I would spend a full day or so
preparing my information before writing a draft on almost any topic, just so my thoughts would
get organized. For this however, we only had about 5 minutes to not only think about the topic,
but to write about it as well. This encouraged me to use creativity in responding to the questions
and pushed me to improve upon my writing skills on a daily basis. In my portfolio, I will be
including five examples of my daybook entries in order to exemplify my improvement in my
everyday writing throughout the course, and also to incorporate some creativity into my
portfolio.
Lastly, my in-class experience has also played a great role in my newly found ability as a
writer. We have had many class discussions throughout the semester about various topics. Each
discussion never failed to bring about a new understanding of whatever it was we were
discussing at the time for me. While I will admit, I did not always speak out and express my

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opinion in each class discussion; this does not mean I did not grow from it. Throughout my
experience of being a student, I have never been one to raise my hand and answer a teachers
question. While many may look at this as a disadvantage, I feel as though I have actually learned
a great amount from absorbing everything around me. This being said, I am aware that my class
participation grade may be affected, but in my defense, as well as all of the other listeners out
there, never once did I feel I was not participating. I was always very interested in whatever was
being said at the time, but just felt as though I had nothing to add. Through class discussions, I
was able to see the opinions of my classmates and how they compared and contrasted to that of
my own. As I progress through my college career, I am aware that talking in class is essential.
Eventually, I am sure I will learn to enjoy doing so, but for now, I thoroughly enjoy being a
listener.
The in-class activities that I chose to include in my final portfolio included our first
assignment in class as well as the feature/function chart we were assigned. I think that the first
icebreaker assignment is a good way for me to express myself to the audience of my portfolio
just as I did my classmates. This assignment was to write down groups that we belong to, and
then compare and contrast these groups to our classmates. For the second in-class assignment,
we were to break down the various features that are included in our genres that we analyzed for
our genre analysis. Once we determined each of the features, we were to determine the function
of these features. I found this assignment extremely helpful when it came to originally analyzing
my genre and preparing to being my overall research for this project.
After completing this course, I feel as though I have learned many valuable traits that will
be extremely beneficial to me in the future. Whether I will just be using these newly acquired
skills for essays throughout my college experience, or one day choose to incorporate the art of

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writing into my career. I think that every project that we were assigned had a very specific
purpose behind it, each of which helped me to grow as a writer in various ways. I have been
thoroughly pleased with my experience in this course and will forever be thankful to Olivia for
the confidence I have gained as a writer!

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Works Cited
Swales, John. The Concept of Discourse Community. Genre Analysis: English in Academic
and Research Settings. Boston; Cambridge UP, 1990. 21-32. Print.