Flora Chang

Writing 2
Zack DePiero
2 December 2015
Metacognitive Reflection
I never thought a Writing 2 class could be as unique as this one, or be based on one
simple idea of genre. From the use of blogs to the use of Google docs to the online class, this
class ironically is an unconventional writing class, making it more unique and memorable.
Throughout these past ten weeks, I have been kept on my toes for each class, each PB, each WP
because of how engaging every aspect of the course is.
One of the most unique and memorable components of this class is the writing process
tips. While some seemed obvious at first, I realized that spending time addressing these tips and
tricks helped drill it into my head. One of the tips that were obvious at first glance is that we
should continuously save our work. Google docs is an ideal way to do this, as it automatically
saves every few seconds. When writing my project builders, blog posts, or writing projects, I
found myself saving my work a lot more frequently than I had before. Other writing process tips
that really stuck with me were to use placeholders when youre stuck and to change the font to
get your creative juices going. I found myself wanting to stop writing every time I got stuck on a
piece of writing, but as I started to use placeholders, I realized I was being a lot more efficient
with my time. Instead of stopping, a placeholder just meant pausing and temporarily skipping
over the section that I am stuck on. Coming back to it after writing out my other ideas also helps
me figure out the ideas I want to portray in the part that I was initially stuck on. Another way to
tackle my work when I get stuck is to change the font. I am a visual person, so this method helps

especially for me. At first, I was apprehensive about how this could actually be beneficial.
However, its amazing that switching up the font can make one perceive something in a different
manner. These aspects of the classthe things that I can take away and apply to my writingare
what make this class one of my favorite writing courses I have ever taken.
Similarly, the course readings are another part of the class that I was able to not only
learn from, but also apply to any type of writing I do. One memorable piece was the reading
about first and order thinking, accompanied by the comic drawing of the professor. I think with
that visual in my head, it will be difficult to forget that first order thinking is whatever thought
comes into your head; it doesnt have a filter. And second order thinking is explicit thinking that
is developed, consciously processed, and has been marinated in your head. The classification of
these two ideas is something I always keep in the back of my head when writing, as its
important to keep in mind what type of writing I am geared towards. Another notable reading
was the one about responding to other students writing. The three main points that I took away
from the reading are:
1. Point to problems and areas for improvement but do it in a constructive way.
2. Youre not an editor. Youre not a teacher. Youre not a cruise missile.
3. Try to tie your comments to the concepts and strategies youve been studying in class.
Since peer review is such a fundamental element in our class (and in writing in general), these
tips helped emphasize this significance and helped me improve as a peer reviewer. I definitely
kept these in mind, as I read my peers works for our writing projects. I also enjoyed gaining
insight into the thought process and writing abilities of my classmates because it demonstrated
the wide range of creativity in the class. It also allowed me to get new ideas for my own writing
as I compared my work with my peers.

The most indicative way of seeing if a writing class is effective is if students are able to
apply the knowledge learned in class to the writing done outside of class. Something really
important I learned is to test the arguability of the thesis. In my WP1, from my draft to my
final, the aspect that I improved on the most was my thesis. I went back to my thesis to break it
down and consider its arguabilityrealizing it did not have much arguability. As a result, I was
able to change my thesis to Across the board, from Yelp to TripAdvisor to Amazon, poorlyrated reviews often demonstrate subjective and exaggerated content that utilizes a sarcastic tone
to portray the reviewers negative experience, allowing someone to argue against my idea. In
my WP2, I also kept this test in mind. I struggled with it more than I did for WP1 because I
initially was only describing the academic and non-academic sources. Comparing and
contrasting them is not something one can necessarily argue against. However, after heavily
considering if the thesis could be argued against or not, I was able to make my thesis While the
academic sources successfully reach their goals of being informative and the non-academic
source achieves its goal of creating a humorous response in the audience, it is ultimately the nonacademic source that proves to be the most outstanding due to its conventions and moves,
where one could contradict my belief in saying that academic sources are the ones that are more
outstanding based on its conventions.
Reverse outlining is another extremely beneficial tip we learned in class that I am able to
apply to my writing. We did a reverse outline for our WP1 in class, and the varying amount of
different color highlights pinpointed the lack of balance I had with evidence and analysis. Thus, I
was able to fix this and improve upon it for my final draft. Working on this writing portfolio also
further emphasized the important and helpfulness of reverse outlining, as I was able to break

down my big paragraphs. Putting my thoughts into an outline helped clarify the line between
certain ideas where a break in paragraph would be appropriate.
Attention to detail is something else that I learned about from the class that stuck with
me. The video of The Rock and the basketball team emphasized how important attention to detail
is when we dissected the moves from the video. We noted features such as how The Rock throws
his body down next to the person who is already down, how he throws his fist in the air, and how
the basketball player eyes the ball until it goes into the basket. When we first wrote down our
thoughts onto our journal before sharing with the class, I found it difficult to pick apart some
moves. However, after the class shared all their thoughts, it became evident how specific we
could get. Because of this class activity, I tried to be as specific as I could about my writing. I
would pick out specific moves and explain the significance, such as in my WP2 when I explained
the purpose of the informality in Buzzfeed postsLee can infer that if the audience is more
quickly satisfied with the content of the post, they are more likely to laugh and share the post
with their friendscreating more popularity. Learning to be as specific as possible also helped
a bit with my tendency to go over the word limit. Eliminating the fluff and being straightforward
is a good way to prevent excessive sentences.
Now that it is week ten, I can definitely say that this course deviated significantly from
my initial expectations in week one. Early on, we wrote about what we we wanted to gain from
this class, and I wrote that I want this course to help me become a more efficient writer. I feel
like I tend to have unnecessary sentences. I want to learn to be more efficient when writing,
meaning I want to still be able to get the point across intelligibly but in an organized and
straightforward manner without being excessive. I am pretty surprised that I was able to achieve
what I wanted to learn from a course centered around genre, moves, and conventions. From

WP1, I realized that a lot of my unnecessary sentences came from faulty structure. I started the
essay by describing the genre (reviews) and its conventions for each source separately (Yelp,
TripAdvisor, and Amazon). However, I should have compared the three sources within a
paragraph and structure my essay based on the conventions that existed across the board.
Reorganizing structure can help maintain focus, and thus eliminating unnecessary words.
I realized that everything we did in class has a purposea good purpose. From the
journals to online lesson plans, to the blogs, everything in this course is designed thoughtfully.
The journals are such an excellent way to reflect and expand on our thoughts related to the
course. The lesson plans are an excellent resource to refer back to. The blogs are a great way to
look at each others writing. The comments and feedback were also helpful. For my WP3,
especially, the comments benefitted me greatly. I completely changed my initial proposal for
WP3 as a result of the comments because it made me realize that my proposal was an ideal
scenario for WP3. Student comments also vary a bit from DePieros, so it was another way to
gain a different perspective from a fellow student.
Overall, this course was filled with pleasant educational surprises throughout all ten
weeks because it was definitely not what I had envisioned a writing class to be like. I never
thought this class could revolve around a topic as simple as genre, but it definitely made me
realize how specific you can get with this topic. The thing that changed my perspective the most
was the course readings. I initially felt like most readings related to a writing class would be
boring. However, reading after reading, I found each to be more and more engaging and relatable
to the class. I definitely have a newfound appreciation for readings such as those in our course
readings. I would not hesitate to take another course with DePiero if the opportunity arises.