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Joseph Najera
Writing 2 - De Piero
December 7th, 2015
The Transition: A Reflection
At the beginning of this quarter, I dreaded Writing 2. Coming into class, I felt that writing
was a bit repetitive, and I believed that it was mostly about producing the same structure, but
with a different topic each time. Lets just say Im glad I was wrong. Since then, my viewpoint on
writing as a whole has changed completely. Ive discovered a newfound appreciation for the
process and purpose of different types of writing and Ive even come to enjoy writing more
because of this class. However, before I looked at writing differently, or before I even began to
really enjoy writing, I had to undergo a long process of growth as a writer.
As we began this class, we started off by covering and focusing on genre. I really, really
liked that part of class and found the concept of genres being everywhere fascinating. Plus
learning about how a genre of any type--not just writing--can be broken down into conventions
was super cool. A lot of our class time was spent understanding how to identify the conventions
and genres and I soon began seeing genres everywhere I turned. Not too long after that, we
started our project builders and it felt as if we almost immediately jumped into and began our
first writing project.
Writing project one was a lot of fun to write because I was able to pick a topic that I
thoroughly enjoyed. I chose the MLB Playoffs and more specifically, the Dodgers (or the
greatest baseball team on earth) as the focal point of my paper. As the writing process for WP1
started, I remember just trying to focus on my analysis and answering the prompt, so I ended up
neglecting the structure and even the thesis of my paper. I had figured that because I had
focused on understanding genre so much, that my analysis would have to be very thorough and
fairly well done, so my paper would have to turn out fairly well also. I felt somewhat confident

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with my final copy, and turned in my 5 paragraph, 6-paged paper. Then I received my grade and
was definitely a little bummed with how it turned out. Plus Zs comments were a little tough to
scarf down as well. This completely changed my approach to the class, and although I still
wanted to receive a good grade, wanting to become a better writer overall became my main
focus. From then on out, I began looking deeper into our course readings for not just
understanding of what each author is trying to explain, but actually being able to put it to
practical use. Along with the tools and exercises from our course readings, I also took into
account the comments that were provided with my WP1 grade. With these in mind, I strived to
improve my writing by looking for areas to improve in every which way, and looking for concepts
that I had not seen or understood before.
After WP1, we were introduced to moves and began learning the process of
understanding what they are and what their purpose is. I became really interested in moves
when we were first introduced to the idea of being able to compare writing and what writers do
to an athlete and what they do. Seeing the moves for what they really were was the especially
cool part. I saw the why behind moves, or the impacts that moves provide for not just the writer,
but readers as well. This directly tied in with one of our course readings titled How to Read like
a Writer by Mike Bunn. How to Read Like a Writer was a piece that was heavily stressed by
Zack and was a center point to a lot of what we had covered in class in regards to moves. When
reading like a writer, the goal is to view the moves than an author does, because you can see if
[youd] want to try this technique in your own writing? (Bunn 73). This all led into our WP2,
which was focused around the moves an author makes and how those moves relate to genre.
When Writing Project Two came around, I was excited. With the ability to once again
choose our topic, I chose Hazing as the similar topic between all my articles. Once I started
writing WP2, I focused on what was said in Shitty First Drafts and Two Kinds of Thinking
more than I had originally for WP1. Taking these into account, I made sure to not stress over my
rough drafts (although there were several) and knew that editing and refining my paper is a

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process that I can do after I get my initial thoughts down on paper. Paired with the many writing
process tips that were shared with us at the beginning of class (my favorite being the Google
Comment to help break up the misogyny of writing), my new approach to writing made my life a
little easier. Rather than struggling through the various paragraphs or trying to revise while
writing, WP2 was a lot smoother for me than WP1, although it did take up a lot more time.
Once my ideas for WP2 were down and ready to be assembled, I made sure to look
back at the previous comments from WP1 given by Zack and I used those to help guide my next
paper. I honestly believe that I would not have improved (nor would my grade) had it not been
for the comments. With questions like What pieces can you lay down for me, one at a time, so
that you can guide me through the progression of your argument? or feedback such as be
crystal-clear about what, exactly, youre arguing in this paper. Lay it out in your thesis statement
so your reader will be able to follow your thought process along the way, I felt the comments
helped me best identify the areas I needed to improve in. However, even after following the
comments and advice almost religiously, I still felt uneasy about my paper. Yet, once I got my
score back I was so happy with the outcome, because it was a reflection on all the hard work I
had put in to improve from my WP1 score.
And once again, almost immediately after, we shifted our focus towards our last writing
project. I knew I would be alright if I applied the same strategies that I had used for WP2 to
WP3, and so I began to feel confident in my ability as writer. But once I actually read the prompt,
I realized that WP3 was a giant curveball that had me confused from the get-go. With the openendedness that came with WP3, I felt I was very hesitant in figuring out what I needed to do, but
I also knew what genre I wanted to transform. I really wanted create my own a podcast, so I was
fortunately able to create my own Knowledge Podcast that analyzed and compared the moves
done by both writers and musicians.
During the first sessions of recording for my podcast, I found it hard listening to myself
talk. I had written out a loose script that had my main ideas down in the order I wanted to

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present them, so I knew what I wanted to talk about, I just found it hard trying to get out what I
was trying to say. There were many conventions of podcasts that I needed to follow, and I found
it helpful to relate my struggles with one of the readings that was covered in class. After reading
Writing Identities, I saw that[the] situation helps determine the role you adopt or try to identify

with (122), so I knew had to change my whole approach to the podcast in order to be successful.
Instead of speaking like a student in class, I had to reinvent myself as Dj Joe Mama,
experienced-podcast extraordinaire who would take my listeners through a journey of literary
and musical excellence. Despite this taking up a good chunk of my life (most of which was
editing), I had so much fun with this project and even found the write-up essay to be fun as I was
able to show off my effort and guide the reader through the tough process of making a podcast.
Once writing project three was done, it was on to the next one, and just like that, we
ended up at week 10, getting our portfolios ready for the final submission. In spite of the
numerous hours of work I knew would be required for the portfolio, I was excited to improve the
areas of my previous writings that were lacking and sub-par. I wanted to showcase my growth as
a writer, and how I truly had improved not just in my writing skills, but analytically as well. I
first began with my changes on WP2, and through the comments once again, I saw the many
ways that I could take my paper to the next level. The revisions for WP2 went smoothly, and I
was able to move on to WP1 soon after. WP1 was a bit more of a challenge in terms of revising
than WP2 was. Structurally and argumentatively, WP1 was a paper with no real argument and a
confusing structure that left my reader pondering what exactly I was arguing the whole time.
After spending what felt like days on revising WP1, I finally was able to build off the original
comments and fix the areas that needed fixing. In the end, I found it really cool and interesting to
have been able to see my growth as a writer, as I generally feel that I have improved not just my
writing pieces, but my writing skills as well.

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Overall, this class has definitely changed my view on writing since first arriving in
September. Rather than seeing writing as this static formula of regurgitation, I now view writing
as this art form that changes and morphs for different situations. With the discovery of genre
awareness, I now see how conventions of a genre serve to help define that specific genre. And
with these certain conventions comes the different approaches of writing that make different
pieces unique among the many other types of genres in this world. In addition to conventions, I
see moves and the importance of them to any paper. Theyre the reasoning behind almost
everything the author does, and the importance of moves is almost incomparable. Most
importantly though, the skills Ive been able to develop will help me outside of class. From
writing process tips, to the oxford comma, to reading like a writer, the tools given to me by this
class can be applied to almost any writing endeavors I will take on in the future.