Dear Readers,
This ePortfolio is a collection of my favorite assignments from UWP 1. The assignments I chose to highlight on this site are representative of my time in UWP 1 and illustrate my growth as a writer. As a science student with a passion for science outreach and communication, I was very excited to enroll in UWP 1 with the hopes of becoming a more effective communicator. Although I had taken advanced placement English language and literature classes in high school, upon enrolling in the class I felt a bit intimated because I have not taken a single writing course in my 3 years at UC Davis. Consequently, for the first two weeks of UWP 1 I felt a bit out of place and self-conscious about my writing. However, the wide range of assignments in the course allowed me to develop as a writer by focusing on the writing process and my own metacognition skills. |
The first assignment, the living picture narrative, was tough for me to get started working on. In my previous writing experience, I would outline each and every paragraph including topic sentence and supporting evidence. However, for this assignment, I took inspiration from the “Shitty First Drafts” piece by Anne Lamott and wrote a truly shitty first draft. Although it was difficult to know I was writing with no sense of structure, it felt great to put all of my thoughts down on paper without limits. As a result, I had to make a number of revisions which not only allowed me to focus in and clarify my paper but also taught me the importance of peer review. By writing a “shitty first draft” I was really able to treat the living picture narrative as an evolving piece and revise and edit based on rounds of revision. Furthermore, the comments I received on this assignment were not only constructive, but also helped me reflect on my own writing style.
The Wikipedia post was probably the most formative assignment for me in terms of development as writer. As I wrote the Wikipedia post, I treated the assignment as a developing process and was constantly revising flow at the suggestion of the instructor and my peers, similar to the living picture narrative. This was especially helpful since the goal of the Wikipedia post is to appeal to individuals of varying backgrounds and prior knowledge on the subject. Upon numerous periods of reflection, I feel as though I was able to logically present information on a subject I care about and hopefully educate people on a topic in the process. These reflection periods were crucial to the development of an effective Wikipedia article regarding the language and evidence as it relates to discourse community or target audience of my article.
The Wikipedia post was probably the most formative assignment for me in terms of development as writer. As I wrote the Wikipedia post, I treated the assignment as a developing process and was constantly revising flow at the suggestion of the instructor and my peers, similar to the living picture narrative. This was especially helpful since the goal of the Wikipedia post is to appeal to individuals of varying backgrounds and prior knowledge on the subject. Upon numerous periods of reflection, I feel as though I was able to logically present information on a subject I care about and hopefully educate people on a topic in the process. These reflection periods were crucial to the development of an effective Wikipedia article regarding the language and evidence as it relates to discourse community or target audience of my article.
The writing process animated. (Source: Lauren Ellis).
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To conclude, my experience in UWP 1 has been one of growth and reflection. Two of the course learning goals, processes and metacognition, were particularly relevant to my development as a writer. I can confidently say that I have mastered these areas through the assignments this quarter. I am grateful for my time in UWP 1 and hope you enjoy my writing.
Sincerely,
Maria Zumkeller