John Bradshaw ENC 2135

4/17/16Reflection-In-Progress

As a student passes each grade and enters into the next, the new

teacher will develop a new part of writing for the student to utilize in the future. For

example in first grade a paragraph consisted of three sentences, often with

misspelled words and poor grammar. Then in fourth grade, paragraphs became five

sentences, containing an opening sentence three body sentences, and a conclusion.

The point is as the year goes on the expectation of good writing has always changed,

and there is no difference with college. Good writing has always been to me about

grammar, flow, keeping the reader interested, and being able to communicate

effectively to a specified audience. After the first map created in this class I saw that

these were the important things to me in order to write a good paper and I thought I

had everything covered, but what I didn’t realize is that going into the professional

world I am not only going to be writing essays like this one. I will have to be able to

create other pieces of writing like emails, résumés, and letter of recommendations,

just to name a few. For that reason this class has helped me understand that good

writing isn’t only about the things mentioned before, it includes those but the main

thing is that the genre is used properly. If the genre being used isn’t used correctly,

for example, in my first draft of project three, the right genre for a class schedule

wasn’t used, it makes the piece unidentifiable of what was created, and look like

time wasn’t put into it. So as new maps were created, I was sure to include genre as

the key component when starting a new piece of writing. This helps me to make the

genre much more recognizable and clear of its purpose.

By looking at genre before putting any words on paper I can be sure to map

out the genre conventions needed in order to correctly communicate the

information. This has made my current definition of writing revolve around genre,

because if the first thing you do as a writer is write in the correct format in order to

help convey a certain message, the piece will be much more effective. For example

when creating a writing an “old time” writing piece, a cursive style of font is used,

the edges of the paper might be burned, the paper could be tea bagged to give it a

yellowish tint. Just like the tint is added and the edges are burned, in my project

three I needed to use genre conventions in order to create a syllabus for a class as

well as an exercise sheet for students to be able to use. Looking up other examples

of syllabuses really helped the process, because I was able to see what they looked

like and model mine off of what a standard syllabus looks like. This project

contributed to my theory of writing the most because it helped me to understand

what genre conventions really are outside of an essay, something I hadn’t put much

time into before then.

Since the purpose of a genre convention is to help the reader or the

audiences identify the piece, pieces that distinguish an essay from a journal entry or

an email are required when attempting to create a genre. Genre conventions are

anything from the sentence structure, to how everything is laid out with a heading

or with a “sincerely…” at the end. These are all identifiable pieces, or genre

conventions, that are the makings of a genre.

The theory of writing that I developed could be adapted and applied to other

writing situations inside the classroom because as a teacher says I need to do a

project about something I can utilize different genre conventions in order to create a

video, poster, or pamphlet that is easily identifiable as such just like project 3. Once

that is done I can use the grammar, flow and keeping the reader interested, my

other conventions, in order to ensure that my project is what the teacher is looking

for. This ensures that the project was made for the proper genre, there are no

grammatical errors, and the piece is entertaining to the selected audience, which is

very important.

As an engineering student I will have to create certain projects in the future

that will require me to follow specific conventions. For example when I lay out the

plans for my senior design project I will have to follow the genre conventions of

blueprints and more. In project 3 I learned how to observe other genre conventions

of certain genres and be able to create my own project following them and I will be

able to use this information to later help me with projects I will have to create.

The same principles apply for a place of work, for example when applying to

a job, which every college student will do, a résumés must be created in order for

the employer to properly evaluate the student and make a decision about this

person. In this case the main focus is the genre, it has to follow the genre

conventions of a résumés, be very well typed, with no grammar mistakes at all, and

be interesting, having the facts about you flow into each other. All of my definition of

writing is extremely important when applying for a job because if one of them is

missing it will guarantee the person not getting a job.

The definition of writing I have created since taking this class has evolved

and changed since the beginning. I now know how I need to follow the proper genre

conventions of the genre I am trying to create. This is new to me because I have

never had a writing class where other genres had to be created besides essays; this

is why my original theory left genre out of it completely. This new definition will

help me in the future, whether it is to get a grade in a class, get a job, or give a

presentation.