Christine Chau

UWP 001

Benedetti

13 March 2017

Reflective Essay

Throughout the quarter, I believe I have completed the outcomes of composing

knowledge on rhetoric, processes, conventions, research and metacognition based on the

standards of the Council of Writing Program Administrators. The compositions and class

activities I have completed in UWP 1 has given me the opportunity to think critically about

reading, writing, and research. Each assignment in the course has allowed me to expand my

views on writing and analyzing text. In my portfolio consisting of the rhetorical analysis essay of

Rosie the Riveter, discourse community research paper about student activists, and this current

reflection, I feel that I have satisfied the five learning outcomes of the course.

A prominent portion of the course was understanding rhetoric, and I have gained a

thorough understanding of its concepts through the process of creating my rhetorical analysis

essay. In my essay examining the rhetoric of Rosie the Riveter in its primary and secondary

audiences, I display a clear understanding of the other concepts of purpose, context, genre, and

the discourse communities my chosen cultural object appeals to. My understanding of genre and

mode are shown through my explanation of the context of the image as a propaganda poster. The

discourse community essay has also given me opportunity to apply rhetorical concepts by my

discussion of the audiences my selected activist groups appeal how it relates to their individual

purposes. The teaching of rhetoric in the course was significant and I think I have exhibited my

understanding of these ideas throughout my work.

 The course heavily endorses the idea of social process in reading and writing. In the class

readings, I applied the practice of approaching reading as a social process by actively annotating

my thoughts and questions as I read. The idea of reading with or against the grain influenced me

to see the interactions that take place in reading. The use of cover letters was also a critical part

of the social writing process and helpful to me since it allowed me think critically about my

writing and articulate the areas of improvement in my work. I also benefitted a lot from

collaborating with my peers during peer review and the instructors comments to apply their

suggestions to my revised draft. For example, in my rhetorical analysis, my peers and the

instructor commented to expand more on how the modern use of Rosie differs from the intended

rhetoric in the original image. The contributions and comments others provided on the essay

opened my perspective on my essay to expand more on the modern context of Rosie the Riveter

and write more about the modern adaptations of Rosie. The collaborative and social process of

writing and reading has great value and allowed me to make major improvements for analysis.

Another essential course concept was the knowledge of conventions that are shaped by

discourse communities. For my discourse essay, I did some research on how meetings of these

organizations I studied displayed the modes and genres that exists within these spaces. This

activity gave me the opportunity to think more about the forms and languages of these

communities and the context that created these conventions. The class discussions about

discourse communities also made me understand the various expectations that are shaped in

different communities as people shared their primary discourse communities. The differing

natures of students cultural discourse communities and the academic one made me see how my

own discourse communities and my peers from the academic discourse community allowed me

to view the conflicts that may occur because of it.

 The overview of process of research and citations which was very beneficial for my

learning. For my discourse community project, I had to contact campus organizations so I could

do my research and observe their interactions and conventions at their meetings. Prior to this I

did research from the university library about student activist groups and some of the notable

organization in history. This guided me for my primary research since I found that SDS was a

large group in the 1960s. I also researched what activism related groups were at UC Davis and

from there selected CALPIRG as the second subject of my primary research. The tour of the

library website opened me up to the many options to research as a college student. The activities

on how to cite different genres was helpful review for me on how to properly cite text, which is a

crucial part of the process of accumulating information.

I displayed metacognition mostly through my revision process with my cover letters. In

my cover letters, I demonstrated rhetorical awareness by reflecting on my compositions instead

of being unhappy with my writing without pinpointing the reason I was not satisfied with it. For

example, in my rhetorical analysis, my main issue was with describing the rhetorical appeals the

image of Rosie the Riveter has within its original context as well as its current political context.

The process of revision and writing cover letters allowed me to think about specific areas where

my rhetorical choices were lacking. Also in the discourse community project, I thought about the

structure of my essay since it was difficult to organize an essay discussing two different

organizations.

If I were given more time to compose my portfolio, I would have created more drafts and

would have conducted more research to expand the content of my portfolio. The quarter system

of the university gives students a very limited time span to write these essays which limits the

depth of my research, specifically for my discourse community project. For this project, I wanted
to further my primary research by interviewing the leaders of the activist groups that were the

subject of my project. The short amount of time made it difficult for me to schedule

appointments with them, so much of my research was limited to my observations from attending

meetings. An issue I had difficulty with during the writing process was incorporating more

analysis and organizing the structure of my essays. In my other essays, I examine two

perspectives within my subject. My discourse community is an analysis of two groups on

campus within the discourse community of student activists and my rhetorical analysis explores

the rhetoric of Rosie the Riveter in its original context and its current context. Since I wrote

about two categories within a subject, I had challenges making my essay flow and organize them

clearly. Although I feel mostly content with my work in the course, there could be room for

improvement if I were given more time.

The objectives of rhetorical knowledge, processes, knowledge of conventions, research,

and metacognition are all important skills that I will use throughout my college education. As a

student, I will take many courses that include writing papers. In the future, I will employ the

ideas of cover letter and revision process to improve my writing and apply metacognition to

think critically about my work. The strategies of research and conventions will be extremely

relevant to me as a Biology major as well. I will likely have to write papers on science-related

topic which require effective research strategies and knowledge of conventions and formats in

scientific writing. Also, the perspective of writing and reading as social processes will assist me

in collaborating with peers when discussing or writing about a topic as well us acquire deeper

knowledge in the many forms of text I will come across during my college career. Overall, I

believe the outcomes of the course are successful in preparing students like myself to write in an

academic setting.