Overall Reflection 2

Through this assignment I have learned a lot about myself. I learned that I actually enjoy writing; I have just never had the formal training to do so without out great struggle. I have found that the person critiquing my writing gave me the benefit of the doubt because, for the past two years, I have not learned new writing skills. I have learned that giving myself the benefit of the doubt is not always the most efficient route to take if I have been cheated of an opportunity. I was fully capable of getting help with my writing throughout the past two years from other teachers. Lastly, I have learned that a literacy memoir is a really important paper to write before taking a writing class. The old quote goes; if one does not remember the past it is hard to move forward into the future. That quote applies to my writing because I have had great struggles with writing in the past and should fully recognize it before moving forward to improve. It is important for me to recognize the difficulties and successes I have had in the area of writing. I see my literacy history a lot differently now after writing my memoir, reading a classmates paper, and critiquing theirs, re reading mine, and critiquing mine and then finally reading my critique from another person. This exercise makes me really think about my past and how it has affected my writing now and my feelings towards English class in general. My past English classes have given me almost no direction towards improving my writing but I always had Mr. Moore. I now regret not taking the opportunity to see Mr. Moore, my freshman and sophomore English teacher, on a regular basis to ask him questions about writing. Even though my junior and senior year teachers put forth zero effort in their classes, does not mean I completely stopped writing in my life. I still had to write essays for college applications,

applications for part time jobs, and thank you letters to the judges of the senior project. I suppose I think about my literacy history differently now because I understand the opportunities I had that I let slip away. I also realize how much opportunity I have at UNCC with help from my professor, fellow classmates and the writing center on campus. I am very grateful to have all of these wonderful opportunities if I run into trouble while writing in a class. My literacy memoir was a master narrative. My classmate who wrote the critique on my paper wrote that it was master narrative because it showed large portions of my literacy history instead of small detailed experiences in my writing history. I agree with his or her reasoning fully. If I could do my literacy memoir over again I would try to focus on more specific experiences that changed my writing ability and interests. Such as the time when I had to write my junior research paper with the new MLA format. I had no idea what I was doing or what the MLA format stood for or meant for my research paper. I am positive I plagiarized because I did not know how to site correctly. My teacher told me that a research paper consisted of only other peoples thoughts and ideas on the subject. I got a one hundred because my teacher was a slacker but I still missed out on the very important lesson in the junior year curriculum of how to write a research paper and site correctly. This example would have been a very good detail to put in my paper to switch it from a master narrative to a little narrative. The tone I used in my memoir was defensive and kind of playing the role of the victim. The person who critiqued my paper did not agree with that statement as they completely blamed my teachers. My critic wrote that my teachers gave up and that I didnt. I do not agree but I appreciate them giving me the benefit of the doubt. After reading the other persons response to my literacy memoir I realized they told me something I had never thought of before. They said that I seemed to only write things well that I care about. I suppose if I cared more about what the

topic of the paper was, then writing would be easier and more enjoyable for me. These things become so obvious when someone tells you and I think to myself, Why have I never realized this before?. If I could alter my literacy memoir I would include more intimate experiences so it could be called a little narrative and perhaps make it a bit more interesting. I would also try to erase all traces of being the victim of writing. Additionally I would make sure that everything I wrote translated into how to improve my writing in the future and not just how unfortunate I have been in past writing classes. Through this assignment, my response and another persons response, I have come to the conclusion that I need to continue opening up my mind to new opportunities. I ought to write about new experiences and not only use writing as an outlet for me but also create an outlet for others when they read my writing.