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Shealyn Dwyer
Ms. Hamby
UWRT 1101- Section 19
7 December 2014
During my first semester in college, one of the courses that I was required to take
was UWRT 1101. At first, I was apprehensive about how well I would do, because in the
past I had difficulties with writing assignments. However, my nervousness began to ease
after completing the first literacy narrative assignment. Many students may think that
transitioning from high school to college would be an extremely hard one. Especially
when it came to the amount and length of writing assignments, but that is certainly not
the case. As I learned in this class, college writing is not as frightening as I first
expected. Throughout this course I learned so many new things that I now implement in
my writing. It is satisfying how much my writing has improved over this semester.
Throughout this semester our class has been assigned three lengthy writing
assignments. From the first writing paper to the last one, I feel that I have grown as a
writer. My first paper, the literacy narrative, was choppy and did not flow very well. By
my second paper, the ethnography, I began to progress into writing with better flow, but
there were still some things needed to work on. One of the things to improve on
was composition. Often when I wrote the composition and the actual text did not go
together very well. Our third paper was a genre assignment. I noticed that my work had
improved dramatically. I had an accomplished feeling when I finished that particular
writing assignment since I felt it flowed prodigiously from the opening to describing all
the different types of genres, to the closing. Throughout this semester I have learned

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basic tools to enhance my writing abilities. Mastering my writings flow, description,
and content is something I must continue to strive for but I am very thankful I have
learned such important strategies in this class.
A technique that was very beneficial to me was when we were assigned to work
in small groups was to critique each others work. At first I was reluctant to have other
classmates review my writings because I am not confident with my work and I
also include personal information throughout my writings. My nervousness subsided
after our group criticized our first paper. It was a great learning tool having my peers
advise me of better writing ideas, it was a tremendous influence to my writing
performance getting better. They helped me with the organization of content, structure,
and I got insightful and positive feedback. After our group sessions I would combine
what everyone had to say about my paper and my own personal changes to revise and
finalize my paper. During this process I was given the opportunity to read other
classmates work and critique them on what I would change in their papers. As a whole
working in small groups not only helped me to see different ways to enhance my work,
but helped my comfort and confidence level sharing my writings with others.
Prior to this class, my understanding of what a genre was tended to be confused. I
was able to get a clear meaning of what genre truly meant after reading the essay, Dirks
Navigation Genre. A light bulb went off in my head when I realized that all semester
we had been writing genres. Our assignments mostly tended to be essays except for our
final assignment. For the genre analysis paper our small group collaborated and created
three different genres to teach a focus group about an important law. My group decided
to appeal to people by using a bumper sticker, billboard, and a newspaper article. We

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analyzed all three of our genres and paired them with an audience that would best suit
it. It was unexpected as I learned the importance of genres and how often they are used
in our daily life.
Overall my experience in this class was positive and helpful. Im extremely
happy I collaborated with some insightful peers and I have gained a lot of knowledge that
has improved my writing skills. I am happy to say that I am more confident in my
writing abilities. I will truly continue to use the advice I received from my classmates
and the helpful tools I have learned throughout the semester. My academic college
journey can only be enhanced with what I have gained from this class.