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Genevieve Holguin
Dr. Dev Bose
English 101
May 6, 2016
Reflection Letter
I wish to be a life-long learner, I say this quite a bit when I explain what Ive
learned this semester. I feel I have grown tremendously as a writer during this course and
I feel proud of my work toward achieving the course goals. Although I look forward to
learning everyday, I am glad to reflect on the time and energy I put forward into my
writing this semester. I will always be a life-long learner and I will always challenge
myself to grow more everyday in my classes and in life.
Throughout this course I have been able to improve upon my research skills, my
critical thinking skills, my writing convention skills, my rhetorical awareness, and my
reflection and revision skills. I have provided a reference to each Student Learning
Outcome I feel I have worked to achieve.
Rhetorical Awareness-A specific example of how I achieved this learning
outcome during this course is in my Genre Analysis of a pamphlet and online video used
by the immigrant and refugee community. I also achieved this learning outcome in my
homework assignment, Wildcat Films. In my Project 3 essay, an example of this learning
outcome is in the Rhetorical Issues section paragraphs. Throughout this essay I needed to
analyze why a particular genre looked the way it did and why the tone of the writing or
video was developed one way. This section demonstrates my understanding of the
rhetorical issues surrounding the genre used by the community of immigrants and

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refugees. In my homework assignment working with English high school students,
Wildcat Films, I was tasked with analyzing two film reviews. Analyzing a body of
writing is more difficult than a body of art, such as a movie poster. I needed to be more
observant of language, font, content as well as structure to make a proper analysis. While
working on this homework assignment, I demonstrated my knowledge of audience,
purpose and context.
Critical Thinking and Composing-A specific example of how I achieved this
learning outcome during this course is demonstrated in the final draft of my Project 2,
Community Profile, and Interview Questions for Project 2. An example of the learning
outcome in my Project 2 essay is the extensive primary and secondary research
throughout the essay. The primary research I conducted was instrumental to my profile
because I wanted to bring awareness to the immigrant community. While most in this
community do not want to draw attention to themselves, I was still able to secure an
anonymous interview. The secondary research was a challenge because I was challenged
with researching the articles or journals that would best fit the community profile. An
example of the learning outcome in my Interview Questions for Project 2 is in my need to
make informed judgments of whom to interview, and whom would be most credible for
this essay. I was challenged with interviewing an organization who wanted to remain
anonymous, with fear of being retaliated against. I had to compose general questions that
did not identify the interviewee, but still gave me the substance for my profile essay.
Reflection and Revision-A specific example of how I achieved this learning
outcome during this course is in my Learning Reflection homework assignments, and my
first and last peer reviews assignments. An example of the learning outcome is in each

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learning reflection completed every week. After a week of assignments, writing a
learning reflection demonstrated my ability to reflect on my progress as a writer. An
example of the learning outcome in my peer reviews is the improvement and detail in my
comments to my peers. My first peer review was acceptable but failed to make more
suggestions to the writer. While my last peer review included questions, surface
comments, suggestions and a footnote.
Conventions-A specific example of how I achieved this learning outcome during
this course is in my Project 1 Community Literacy Narrative, page 3, and a citations
homework assignment. An example of the learning outcome in my Project 1, page 3 was
a grammar homework assignment. For this assignment, I chose to highlight all sentence
structures, patterns, and parts of speech. This annotated paragraph demonstrates my
knowledge of the grammar lessons in our Rules for Writers textbook. An example of the
learning outcome in my homework assignment citations page is demonstrated by the
example of my citation and directly below it is the correct citation. A correct citations
page at the end of a research essay demonstrates my knowledge of properly citing my
work to avoid plagiarism.
The course keyword audience is present in my Community Literacy Narrative I
chose to revise, as well as the Community Profile essay I chose to collect. When writing
these two essays, I needed to be very aware of who my audience was, and what my
audience may gain from my essay. For example, in my Community Literacy Narrative
essay, my audience was my peers and my instructor. What this meant was, I needed to
create an observation about my literacy experience that was appropriate for my audience.
I chose to share a personal reflection about my family, and which members impacted my

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reading and writing literacy negatively and positively. By choosing to chronicle my
experience of moving from one state to another losing my love of reading and writing, I
was able to share with the audience how important an influential person is during
adolescence.
The course keyword community is present in my Project 2 Community Profile
essay I chose to collect. Although this keyword is present in my other two essays as well,
I chose to focus on my community profile essay because it was through the analysis of
this community that I gained a deeper knowledge of what a community is. Besides a
group of people, a community is also a social connection. When I interviewed a former
member of the immigrant community, she identified as an immigrant although she has
legal U.S. status. She was socially connected to immigrant family members and friends
which still connects them today.
The course keyword conversation is present in the Project 2 Community Profile
essay I chose to collect. During my writing about the immigrant and refugee community,
it became very clear to me that many people are having a conversation about this
controversial topic. The topic alone generates passionate feelings from Americans about
whether to close the borders, or continue to support the immigrant and refugee
community. Although I did not intend to start a conversation when I chose to profile this
community, I know I have. During my interview questions for Project 2, I was told stories
about my own ancestors who were immigrants. This conversation between my father and
I would have never taken place if it were not for this project and the interview I
conducted with him.

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The course keyword genre is present in my homework assignment Wildcat Films
as well as Projects 1,2,3; Community Literacy Narrative, Community Profile, and Genre
Analysis. Each of these essays are an example of understanding a genre. While a
community literacy narrative is specific to an experience the writer has with literacy,
using descriptive language and personal perspective. It is recognizable by its use of the
first person. A community profile essay is specific to writing as the reporter of the
community, with the writing as the third person. This essay will contain primary and
secondary research used to strengthen the essays statements about the community. When
writing a genre analysis, the writer is the interpreter and is analyzing a particular genre.
This type of essay is recognizable because it will contain primary and secondary research
used to support each analysis and observation.
The course keyword purpose is present in my homework assignment Wildcat
Tutorial. Creating these tutorials for high school students needed to contain language that
in a young student would understand and learn from. Writing the tutorial with the purpose
of teaching a young English student allowed me to deconstruct the assignment. Doing
this gave me a better understanding my own writing, and the knowledge of the purpose of
the document.
The course keyword rhetorical situation is present in my Project 3 Genre
Analysis, in which I needed to analyze a genre the immigrant and refugee community
uses, as well as the far-reaching impact this use has on the community. It became a
challenge to hear from certain members of this community as many of them are forced to
live in the shadows with fears of being deported out of the U.S. Gaining knowledge of the

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purpose of the genre in this community, as well as what this genre does for the
community has been important to my writing growth.
The course keyword context is present in my Project 3 Genre Analysis essay as it
pertains to the place of the genre within the community. Also, context relates to the
ongoing conversation about the genre within the community, and the social or cultural
circumstances in which the genre is.
The course keyword roles is one that is present in the all three of my project
essays; Community Literacy Narrative, Community Profile, Genre Analysis because I
needed to understand my role as a writer in each of the essays. In my community literacy
narrative essay, I took on the role of the observer, with the goal of describing my
observations about my literacy experience. In my community profile, my role was the
reporter (participant observer), with the goal of reporting about the members of the
community, and important aspects of their lives.
The project I chose to revise is my Community Literacy Narrative, Project 1. My
Community Literacy Narrative essay focused on my Aunt Alicia, who was a mother
figure to me during my childhood, and who unexpectedly passed away last October. My
aunt was instrumental in motivating me to renew my love of reading and writing through
her own love of reading and writing hand-written letters. This project is incredibly
personal to me and I found writing about my experiences with my aunt cathartic. I wrote
this essay through tears and hoping to reflect on the impact she had on me; I was grateful
to see her alive again in my writing.
I chose to revise my narrative essay because I see a vast improvement in my
writing when I review this essay. I also chose this essay because I scored lower on

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development and support, as well as conventions. I feel that applying what I have learned
over the course of this semester will be an exciting task.
To revise my essay, first, I printed a copy of my final draft along with a copy of
the draft revised by my instructor. Next, I annotated my final draft copy with the
revisions I was planning. I re-developed and added support to the paragraphs that were
underdeveloped. I revised these paragraphs because they contained statements without
any evidence or observation, creating an incomplete paragraph. Second, I edited the
entire paper to follow MLA guidelines, because there were a few areas that did not
comply. The essay became distracting because it did not follow the guidelines. I
referenced our Rules for Writers textbook to ensure compliance with MLA guidelines.
Lastly, I created a reverse outline to ensure each paragraph transitioned well into
the next, and topic sentences were in place to support the structure. I made sure to revise
grammatical errors to show my understanding of linguistic structures. The choices I made
during the revision process were a reflection of my understanding of conventions. By
revising grammar, punctuation, and spelling I demonstrate my knowledge of writing
conventions. By using a reverse outline and supporting my paragraphs with observations,
I demonstrate my knowledge of genre conventions. By following genre conventions for a
literacy narrative, I demonstrate my knowledge of identifying genre convention
variations.
The keywords I focused on during the revision process are: Audience-when
revising this essay, I needed to demonstrate my understanding of who is the reader of a
community literacy narrative. Community-to understand this keyword, I needed to
analyze the impact on the community reading and writing literacy has on community.

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Roles-when revising this essay, I needed to demonstrate my understanding of my role as
an observer through well supported paragraphs. Genre-during the revision process, I
needed to demonstrate my understanding of genres through the revision of its structure.
Overall, I find the revision process to be beneficial to my growth as a writer. As I
worked to complete my revisions, I was not met with any significant challenges. I quickly
organized all of my previous projects and assignments and labeled them for easy
reference. Once I organized all of my assignments, I wrote notes on which item would be
used and where it would live.
I have also redesigned my project through the creation of an e-portfolio, which
was really exciting. The first step to this process was to find a free website builder, and I
found Weebly.com. When the student example was provided I carefully viewed the
example to ensure I conformed to the genre of an e-portfolio. Once I logged into
Weebly.com, I immediately got started with creating a theme for my website, then moved
onto building the pages for the site. After building my pages, which included Home,
Revision, Collections, and Reflection pages, I worked on inputting the content. I began
with searching for free photos that were writing related and writing quotes. While
keeping the audience for the website in mind, I wanted to include inspirational writing
quotes because they encouraged me during the writing of this rough draft. Once I found
the appropriate quotes and photos, I built my Collections page. I had already outlined
which assignments I would feature on this page so I began attaching them to the page
keeping the context in mind.
The greatest learning outcome I feel I achieved during the redesign process is
reflection and revision. While redesigning the essay I chose and building a website to

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collect all of my materials, I was able to reflect on my improvements and clearly see a
pattern in my writing weaknesses. The redesign process gave me confidence in my
growth and made me more aware of what to look forward to learning. Most importantly, I
was able to evaluate my peer and instructor feedback, then use the feedback to revise my
work accordingly.
An additional supporting document I am particularly proud of is my Community
Profile essay final draft. I began researching for this draft with no specific agenda or
opinion about the immigrant and refugee community. However, once I started my
research and began writing my rough draft, I was affected by the personal stories and
perspectives the community has. While researching the community, I got lost in articles
about survival and triumph over the adversity they faced in their home countries. I am
very grateful to this research for the insight I gained about this resilient community of
people.