"Dispositions are the mental attitudes or habits that shape how we engage with learning, and they guide not only the choices we make in how we approach learning, but also the meaning we attribute to what we learn" (Wells 549).
Dear Dr. Warwick,
Decemeber 7, 2024
I am wriitng to express my gratitude for your incredible guidance during Writing 2. This course has transformed writing for me by offering insgihts, enchancing my cirtical thinking and self discovery that I will continue to utilize in my academic and profession years. I truly appreciated the way the class was structed and how it allowed to me focus on new concepts and growing as a writer without being subjected to a letter grade.
Your feedback was very helpful in my progress, it was the very first time that an instructor thoroughly review my work, pointing out specific sections that you liked and offered improvement on lacking areas. Your engagement in your students' worked was incredibily encourged and showed me that I had an instructor that cared about my growth in the course. It showed me how to approach my work through optimistic viewing sight. Your thoughts helped me refine my writing pieces and transform my drafts into shining pieces of writing.
One key takeaway from Writing 2 was my discovery of discourse communities, enlightened by Ann Johns' Discourse Communities and Communities of Practice. This reading explained how communities shape language, behavior and styles of writing which stayed with him in my reflections on employing communication throught different contexts such as my entrepreneurial workplace. Johns' idea helped me understand the importantance of belonging and participation in these spaces allowing me to better connect with people.
Jennifer Wells' Dispositions Towards Learning insanely shaped my approach to Writing 2. She emphasize on curiosity and adaptability which helped my change my mindset throughout Writing 2 by turning challenges into opportunities. This was particularly clear in my weekly reflections where I embraced review as a process to be creative rather than correcting my mistakes. I began using new techniques and imployed new techniques such using personal anecdotes to enrich the quality of my writing.
Additionally, the mindfulness activities on Mondays allow me to take a much needed moment to slow it down during busy days and weeks. These activities helped me find peace within myself and lead to more focused engagement in my work. During these times of peace, I found clarity in my writing process and my creative brain starts to churn. These pauses gave me a greater balance in juggling around acadaemics, work and my personal life.
Peer reviews... I had many peer reviews throughout high school on my writing pieces but they were not necnecessarily helpful; with most comments similar to "I like this", "This is good", or "Change this". Peer reviews that were facilited through Eli Review gave me another aspect on the course. Exchanging feedback with classmates, knowing that I will rereceive quality remarks back and your detailed crtiques changed my projects significantly. For example, the peer reviews on Project 1 helped me refine my connections between the sources to the main topic, and in Project 2 to find a way to connect my addition edits to the orginal article. Meanwhile, reviewing my peers' work opened my perspective and gave me additional ideas on effective storytelling and analysis to which I applied into my own writing.
Finally, I want to thank you for the opportunity for creative freedom in our assignments, especially in Project 1 and its connections to my own stories to find a topic that best fit myself. Taking from Karen Eber's TED Talk, How Your Brain Responds to Stories, I learned how narratives connect readers both emotionally and intellectually. This helped me craft Project 1 to make it both meaningful and impactful to my growth in Writing 2.
Thank you for your amazing support and thoughtful feedback. Your guidance has helped me to become a more confident and effective writer. I gained skills in Writing 2 such as critical thinking, adaptability and self awareness which will undoubtedly influence my academic years and futhermore.
Sincerely,
ANDREW NGUYEN
Work Citied
Eber, Karen. "How Your Brain Responds to Stories -- and Why They're Crucial for Leaders." TED: Ideas Worth Spreading, TED, 12 Sept. 2019, www.ted.com/talks/karen_eber_how_your_brain_responds_to_stories_and_why_they_re_crucial_for_leaders Accessed 3 Dec. 2024.
Johns, Ann M. "Discourse Communities and Communities of Practice: Membership, Conflict, and Diversity." Texts and Contexts: Writing About Literature with Critical Theory, edited by William W. Robinson and Stephanie McCurry, Pearson/Longman, 1997, pp. 498–514.
Wells, Jennifer. "Dispositions Toward Learning." Naming What We Know: Threshold Concepts of Writing Studies, edited by Linda Adler-Kassner and Elizabeth Wardle, Utah State University Press, 2015, pp. 56–58.
Johns, Ann M. "Discourse Communities and Communities of Practice: Membership, Conflict, and Diversity." Texts and Contexts: Writing About Literature with Critical Theory, edited by William W. Robinson and Stephanie McCurry, Pearson/Longman, 1997, pp. 498–514.
Wells, Jennifer. "Dispositions Toward Learning." Naming What We Know: Threshold Concepts of Writing Studies, edited by Linda Adler-Kassner and Elizabeth Wardle, Utah State University Press, 2015, pp. 56–58.