What reflective or metacognitive writing after reading “Reflective Writing and the Revision Process: What were you thinking?”  by Sandra L. Giles,  is a process where the writer needs to revise her/his writing with a sense of awareness and a careful manner,  analyzing and questioning her/his thinking on the writing the first draft. This process is more than pleasing the professor but criticizing own work in order to be on track and to communicate the message in a clear manner to the audience. 

My experience with reflecting on my writing was not an easy task to do. I always tend to not see my own errors when I am checking my work. Adding to that I was confused about what I had to do. I also notice that I was avoiding doing that task. Yet, after reading “Shitty First Draft” by Anne Lamott I felt more relaxed knowing that even for professionals writers the process of having the first draft done. But doing the revision helps me to stay focus on what I want to convey. I also identify and did change some words and sentences. I did correct some grammatical errors. 

When I started with the Unit 1 Assignment, I did not know what word to choose, but when I started to read my classmates’ ideas and how creative they were in their posts, I came out with the idea of choosing to write about cooperatives. Having Professor Wheeler’s feedback was really helpful. The process, however, was kind of confused for my trying to follow it. This is the first time that I follow, therefore I was back and forth. Nevertheless, the fact that the word I choose for my discourse communities is something that I am very familiar with it made me move forward in my writing. I also by the first time ever joining the written center, they help me with the citations. I feel more comfortable with my work, yet always open to learning more and receive feedback because this is my first essay for this semester. Having other people’s examples like the ones that Giles used in her paper is a good guide. 

The phrase that I will be using for discourse communities is “Cooperatives” or “Co-ops”. I will be referring to my own experience of being part of a such powerful movement here in New York City. How a group of people with the same issues (low-income) came together to organize and fight (hope this word is not misinterpreted, since last week was using so many times on the impeachment) for dignity jobs. I will also be talking about how cooperatives empower communities.

I think a single story is only half true. The metaphor behind this is that a single story labeled it a person, ethnicity, race, or country by not showing the whole picture, denying the possibility of showing the beauty, opportunity, and extraordinary of the real or full story.

When I grew up I did not have literature from my country El Salvador. I remember that I have a book called “El Silabario” where obviously I learned the ABC in Spanish. My childhood was a little different because when I was the older sister and I needed to help my mom with cooking, washing (by hand), and of course going to school. Unfortunately, many parents did not send their children to school because older children need to help their parents to work to have a decent life or at least the basics. My parents, for example, learned to read and write when they were adults. However, my father always encourages my siblings and me to study. I have access to some books, but we live in a village so there wasn’t much access to many options.

In my opinion, modern technology contributes to unique stories. I’m from El Salvador, and most of the time when you heard other people referring to Salvadorans they called “salvatruchas” labeling all Salvadorans as members of gangs. One of the largest gangs in Central America and other countries in general. However, that is not true, it is just a single story, just one side, and most of the time just bad things or the dark side of a story. Adichie mentioned in her talk that “a single story creates a stereotype,” which means the story is incomplete because we are only looking at one side of the story. The example she used about her trip to Mexico is a clear illustration of how others planted a misconception in her head about others. Mohamed’s story also when people questioned where he is coming from just because of the color of his eyes. 

Bonus: People sometimes think I’m from Russia because of my name. Most people called me “Zendaya” and I had no idea how I was until I saw a movie with my children and they told me. When I was little, I didn’t like my name. I felt it was a very strong name for a baby, but now I love my name, I feel that it is special. My name is still not popular even among Hispanics. 

After reading “Reading Games: Strategies for Reading Scholarly Sources” by Karen Rosenberg and “How to Read Like a Writer” by Mike Bunn I like the fact of how both writers lure my attention with their personal vivids. In my opinion, I always like to read something that helps me to connect with the writer, therefore I think that is a smart beginning. 

From Rosenberg, I like to incorporate the following tips or advice on my reading: Identity the audience, and the introduction. Asking myself who is the audience is will help me to understand better the context (which is like playing the writer role).  “I can’t remember how many times I’d find myself in the middle of some dense reading, perhaps understanding the content of a particular paragraph, but completely unable to connect with the overall structure of the article”  (216). I have to admit that most of the time I skip the introduction because I thought it may be better to jump to the “meat” instead of wasting my time. Yes, I was doing a mistake.

 Another tip is: Ask questions. I always avoid aks because I feel sometimes I can express myself or I don’t know how to ask. Yet, I will be pushing myself to do it, in order to perform a better job. Since I am learning English, and my vocabulary is not extensive like others’, however, I will incorporate different words. As Bunn stated, “Ask you begin reading, you can ask yourself whether the word choice and tone/language of the writing seem appropriate” (80). 

For me what Rosenberg is emphasizing is in connecting with the author ask we are having a conversation where we are able to ask questions, or seeing things from his/her perspective in other con link and enjoyed the lecture. I think asking for what is coming next or why the author put that story in the text? It will help me to plug in the text.

Bonus:  I find Bunn’s article less informal and I was able to connect with him right away. For Rosenberg, I find that he was using bog words, I have to search for the meaning. Both are really interesting and informative, however, for some reason, I enjoy RLW more!