Dear Sophia Bamert

Before UWP class, I didnt expect much except writing in class essays and
take home essays. In a few class days, I realized that the UWP format was entirely
different than what I expected to be. Instead of in class essays, we have in class
discussions about readings that we have to read and annotate before the next class
period. Also I didnt know what other things we had to do in the class such as forum
posts on readings and projects that are related to literacy. The forum posts take half
of our grade. I didnt expect a portfolio that we had to do. The portfolio is electronic
meaning that the project will be sent online and will be consisted of either project 1
which is the literacy project or the project 2 which is literacy self-study/college
literacy resource project, project 3, the discourse community project and the
reflection essay. During my time in UWP, there were learning goals that the course
provided. According to the UWP learning goals that can be found in the syllabus, the
learning goals are understanding rhetorical knowledge (art of persuasion), reading
processes, knowledge of conventions, the methods of researching and
metacognition. These learning outcomes were shown mostly in the discourse
community project. The literacy narrative to me was based on my literary history. I
believe that I might have learned most but not all the learning goals that the goals
give.
The learning goal that I know that I have a full understanding is
metacognition. The method that helped me with metacognition was the peer review.
The instructor will place students into groups and will read and comment on each
others drafts and then discuss on the pros and cons of the drafts. This method
helped me because I became more aware of my writing style. Peer edits were very
helpful for me to revise my literacy narrative for project one and my discourse

community project 3. I see how my writing can have its good points and bad points
when my peers commented on my draft. One really bad point that I had before was
unintentionally not citing my sources in my drafts. I did not know it counted for
plagiarism even though when it was just a rough draft. Then I realize on how I make
mistakes and learn from them so I dont repeat the same mistakes in the next draft
or project. Its beneficial that the peers also write positive comments because they
can increase my motivation to improve.
My research skills might be still the same but have the basic understanding
because I still use school resources given to me such as the online library and
articles/links that the instructor might provide. I now know when to use google
scholar for research papers such as my discourse project. I must cite these sources
no matter what even if it just a rough draft. I only used Google scholar to find my
sources on discourse community such as Writing and interacting in the discourse
community of engineering by Karl-Heinz Pogner. For my literary narrative project, I
had to look back on my old sketches to see how far I have improved on drawing. Im
pretty sure that google scholar will aid me when I need to write a research paper for
a future class.
My knowledge of conventions has improved because I now know that genre
can be flexible. I had to read the Canagarajah article to understand what genres can
be. I also looked on the internet of what genre means. I found that genre means
genre is a category of artistic composition, as in music or literature, characterized
by similarities in form, style, or subject matter (Wikipedia Genre). Examples of genre
of music include rock, hip hop, classical and more. But I learned that genre can be a
form of communication such as Facebook messages/comments or through google
emails. My new knowledge of genre and modes helped me on project 3, the

discourse community project. The resources such as The resources given by the
instructor and going to office hours were very helpful for me to understand what a
genre is and how do determine of how the community I chose counts as a discourse
community. For project 3, I had to argue that DATA, the high school program I was in
counted as a discourse community. I had to describe each characteristics of a
discourse community from John Swales The Concept of Discourse Community
and explain how DATA fits in.
The learning goal of process is how I write and revise my works. I learn about
of how I write through peer reviews. After peer review, I try to fix all my mistakes
from all the feedback that I received from fellow students and the instructor too.
Many of the assigned readings from class were helpful for me to revise my mistakes
such as Nancy Sommers Revision Strategies of Student Writers and Experienced
Adult Writers article and Kyle D. Stedmans article, Annoying Ways People Use
Sources. These articles have helped me on revising my Literacy Narrative and
Discourse Community project. The sources helped me be aware of how I write and
how to revise all the mistakes I have made.
Throughout the whole class, we have read and discussed articles that talk
about the rhetorical concepts mention in class which were revision, editing,
audience, purpose, mode, genre, discourse community, etc. which were stated in
the UWP Learning Outcomes in the syllabus. Most of the readings and discussions in
class talked more about that. The concepts that recently understood was revision
and genre. Through peer editing, I was able to follow my peers and instructors
comments in my drafts and later improve my writing in later drafts or the final draft.
I felt that these helped prepare us for the final portfolio which will be in multimodal
like a website.

Sincerely,
Nigel Lawrence Hernandez