Metacognitive Reflection

                                                METACOGNITIVE  REFLECTION
                                                Angelica Askamp
                                                Antioch University

            I remember before I attended the academic writing class, and I saw the subject on my class schedule. I just thought, academic writing? Ok, well it would probably be a class about how we should write ‘academic’ and the whole formal and serious writing style that comes with it. Then I entered the class for the first time and Zack was giving us a brief explanation of what academic writing and the whole class is about. I figured out that it is literally is about writing, like everything that has to do with writing. I had no idea that there was someone in this world who actually came up with all these statements and definitions about anything that has to do with writing, I mean who would even do that? So from that moment on it did pretty much caught my attention because I have never been a really bad writer, but I realized that with this class it is going to go to a whole different level. I was kind of scared, because as an international student I unfortunately do not have the great vocabulary as any other born and raised American, and this does really hold me back a lot of times when it comes to writing in English. But you know, let’s just see how this goes.
            The first thing that we were told to do, is to create a blog on blogger.com. On that blog, we had to post all the assignments that we were supposed to do for the class. I have never really been into blogging, so also had now idea how a blog works. The first thing we had to post on there was an about me post, just basically a simple story about who you are and let the other classmates take a brief look into your life. I already liked this assignment a lot because I did not know that much about my classmates yet so it was really interesting to read about them and their interests etc. For the second week, we also had some assigned readings that we had to read and we had to write a reading reflection about that and put that on our blog.
            There were two articles we had to read: Understanding rhetoric and everything’s an argument. Now when I opened Understanding Rhetoric, I just thought: “What on earth is this?!”. It was like viewed and written in this comic book kind of way and it was just really uncomfortable to read it. What I did think was interesting was reading about ‘Rhetoric’. I had no idea what rhetoric even was, but the reading and actually throughout the whole course it made me understand what it is.
            Later on in the course, we got to hear that we have an assignment to do, which eventually is collecting artifacts from a individual working person and after we would’ve had to interview them about the collected artifacts. Before that, we had to make up a professional e-mail request where we would ask the working individual if they would be able to help us with our assignment. I must say, I never really had a problem with writing professionally if it comes to something like that, but there are definitely things I’ve learned. The biggest thing that I’ve learned from that assignment is to include like some small information about yourself at the end of the e-mail.
For example when I end with something like best or kind regards, under that it would say something as: Angelica Askamp, BA Psychology student at AUSB, etc. I knew that people would do this, but I thought this was more functional for people who were working in a professional field and as I do not work and am just a student, I didn’t know that it would still be beneficial to include that. So that was definitely an eye opener for me.
            Eventually, when we had contacted our potential artifact and interview person, we would need to ask them to send us artifacts that we could analyze and after that we had to schedule an interview with them and ask them about the collected artifacts. This was a pretty interesting assignment to me, because I did not really know what to do when it came to analyzing the artifacts. I didn’t really have such clear eyes yet for that so I was kind of hesitating what do to.
I had contacted the writing center at Antioch University to help me with analyzing the artifacts and coming up with potential interview questions regarding those artifacts. The writing center had really helped me a lot with that and I was confident for my interview. I met up with the person (Kristine), and had interviewed her. This all went ok, not as I hoped it would go as the answers to the questions weren’t clear enough for my next assignment, but it could’ve been worse.
            After collecting those artifacts and interviewing our potential person, the biggest assignment was about to come. It was the final paper. This final paper was all about the artifacts that we had collected and the interview data. Now this paper needed a thesis statement. I was really not happy with that because I had only done it once and all I could remember is that I did not like it at all. I guess over time it will make it easier to create a thesis statement paper, but at that moment it was just a rock for me. Now I did not want to be lost and all over the place, so I had contacted the writing center again to help me with that thesis statement. It took a while, but I finally came up with one and was a lot more confident to write my final paper. Yet, I was not looking forward to it at all. Don’t get me wrong, the class has definitely been interesting and has added a lot of new information that I did not know about before and will definitely be beneficial to know in the future. But, the whole writing thing has just not been very appealing to me and maybe it is also because I am not so confident yet with writing in English, but it is just a bit intimidating writing a paper for a teacher that actually knows almost everything about writing and is very critical with the writing process for this paper. Also, I just think that if you have to write a paper for or about something that you’re not too interested in, it just doesn’t give you the motivation that you would like to get.
            Anyways, this paper still had to be written and it really took me a while to figure out how or where to start. This also again took a while, but as soon as I figured it all out it was getting easier than before to write this paper. While even though I do not have the best English vocabulary, I do feel like I am good at writing papers and have always been pretty strong at it. But, there was a problem when it came to this paper. I had mentioned before that I had to interview Kristine and I honestly felt like I had created really good interview questions. But when I actually listened back at the whole interview (I recorded it with Kristine’s permission), I realized that there actually hadn’t been that much efficient information that she has given me for me to include it in my paper. Now there could have been an option to call her back and maybe schedule another interview with her, but unfortunately Kristine is a very busy working professional and I was already lucky enough to have 30 minutes of her free time for one interview. So I just had to work with what I got.
            I am writing this now after having finished my paper, and so I think it would be a good idea to talk about what I have learned from the paper. I kind of figured that this probably wouldn’t be my best written paper,  but Zack has been very helpful. I am really glad that Zack has given us the opportunity to send him our rough draft, and for him to give feedback on that whole paper so that we could still adjust it and make it much better than it was before.
This gave me the opportunity to also have a critical view for myself and that I was able to realize what I did wrong, and what I should pay attention to in the future.
            I would like to end this paper with a general explanation of how this course has changed me/my life and things related to that. So I mentioned that before I started this class, I did not even know that a whole class about just writing would even exist. So the way that this has changed my life, is that I definitely gained a lot more respect for writing and I have realized that there is so much more about writing than we think. My major is Psychology, but I would like to eventually develop myself in the criminal justice world. I am sure that within both of these fields, writing is an essential thing. Communication is very important and writing is a form of communication. There is also a lot of research that gets involved with this so it is very important. So I do really think that I will be able to benefit from this class as soon as I will enter in those working fields. I feel that as being a writer myself, I have changed in a way where I do look more critically at the way I write and pay much more attention to it than that I did before.
As in the trips and tricks I’ve learned, I think there is one thing that stood by to me the most, and that is using—this—. I would usually use brackets but have learned that this is a much better thing to use. Unfortunately, I don’t apply it yet as much as I would like to but it is definitely something that I will keep remembering.
            Overall, this class has changed my perspective on writing and I think it is pretty cool that from now on there are many people that I could briefly teach a lesson about writing and make them realize that it is much more than they would probably think, because it is seriously underestimated and it is pretty fascinating to discover all of the things that come with writing and it is a never ending process and lesson. I also feel like I definitely need to stay patient. I was not too happy with the fact that there is a whole process when it comes to writing, where you need to have a rough draft, look back at that, write again, another draft, etc etc. I just want to write everything in once, maybe twice. But I don’t really have the patience to go through the whole process. I guess it will all just take time, but it is not as easy as I thought it was. I just hope that I will keep on learning things and techniques when it comes to writing, and that this will also give me a lot more confidence when it comes to writing English papers. Even though my vocabulary won’t be the best, it would be great to still blow people away with having great writing skills instead!

Possible Interview Questions

1. Are there certain questions on your intake form that distinguish your intake form from other psychotherapist forms? And why did you choose those questions?

2. Is it common for psychotherapists to have a statement of philosophy on their website, if yes/no, why did you include yours? And how/why did you include those sources (Dean Hepworth, Jo Ann Larsen)

3. Have you had help with your writing process/style for your webpage or other documents that you provide (Disclosure Statement, Intake Form, etc.) If so, on what part and why?

4. With all the different jobs that you've had so far, how was your writing style varied with each job?

5. Which types of writing do you like the most and least, and why?

Thesis statements draft

Here are a couple of thesis statements that I was thinking about:

1. Getting into writing is only essential for people who have majors or jobs that requires a lot of writing.

2. In the future the informal writing style is going to be much more interesting for many people than the formal writing style

3. How important is writing and how big are the effects on someone who is not good at writing

Week 6 Readings Response

So this weeks reading was a lot more than usual, but they all were different interesting topics so I really liked that! Let me tell you what I thought of each reading:

- They Say, I Say Chapter 7

The main two questions what they are focusing on here is: So what? and Who Cares?. In the beginning I seriously didn't really understand what is was exactly about but how more I read how more sense it started making to me. This was a pretty interesting article because those questions are actually really great as soon as you write something, it really makes you getting in much more detail than you normally would and I feel like if you seriously follow this then you would do a great thing by leaving the readers without any hanging, confusing questions. I also liked the part where they said that even though the readers already know why it matters, that you should still keep on asking those questions to yourself until you reach that point where you can't continue anymore. I never thought of any of this and I think those questions are great to start implementing when writing anything.

- Everything's An Argument Chapter 16

This was a nice article to read about because obviously as a full-time student, I will have to deal a lot with Academic Arguments, and honestly, it's not really my favorite thing. I definitely agree with them when they talk about that the style of writing an academic argument is very stiff and there is a loooot of formality so the style of writing is not very 'alive'. Still, it was very helpful to read all the tips they are giving on how to develop an academic argument. Also, it reminded me again about how careful research is so important when writing an academic argument and really is the essence of it. So it was nice to kind of get a refreshment on this topic.

- Shitty First Drafts

What I liked about this article is that it was a personal article with mainly personal, but interesting advice. I liked the style of writing and it was not too hard for me to read and understand it. This is also something that I haven't really thought about too much because honestly I am really not a 'draft' person and don't do it too often. After reading this it did make me realize that it is something very important that you have to do and that out of so many simple, 'stupid' drafts, the best things come out of it. I think it is also something that you don't have to think about too much, and just let it go. I really want to try to start doing this as well but it might take me some time.

- Understanding Rhetoric Page 148 - 159 

Ugh I was so happy to not having to deal with this style of writing for a little while, but there I found myself again reading it like 3 times over again, but I got there. :) This was an article also talking about arguments, and actually I love reading about arguments because I love them haha. I liked the sentence where they made up a definition that said: ''A statement is arguable if it represents a position with which a reasonable person could disagree''. It is important to remember that arguments are great, but it really depends on how you deal with the argument. So like when they are talking about that an argument needs grounds or evidence from which we develop a position. This was also a good refreshment for me because I realized that there are so many people having arguments, including myself, while many times there is not even evidence and it is just opinion based. Nothing wrong with that, but if you want to make a great argument obviously evidence is the key. So it was nice reading about all this and keeping in the essence of an argument in mind. 

Email request draft

Dear Mr/Ms,

My name is Angelica Askamp, I am a psychology student at Antioch University Santa Barbara. One of the classes that I am taking is called Academic Writing, for that class I am requiered to do a couple of assignments and I was wondering if you would be able to help me with one of them.

Basically what I am supposed to do, is to reach out to an individual working in a career or organization that I am interested in, and request 3-5 writing artifacts. The reason why I have reached out to you is because I am a pschychology major and therefore I believe it would be very interesting to receive those artifacts from an actual psychologyst. Now what I will be doing with those artifacts, is analyze them and see what the differences are in writing style with each artifact. So if you would be willing to send me those artifacts, it would be great to receive various written artifacts so I can ultimately analyze the differences.

I hope I have been able to provide you with sufficient and clear information considering my assignment and I would highly appreciate it if you would be able to help me. If there are any questions or uncertainties, please don't hestitate in contacting me.

Kind regards,

Angelica Askamp

Week 5 reading reaction

This weeks reading was pretty chill and clear, but besides that it was also really interesting and helpful and was able to find myself in many points of the readings so I was happy to read all about that.

- "They Say, I say" Chapter 9:
I liked this reading a lot and could really find myself into it. I feel like "academic writing" can be pretty struggling sometimes especially as an international student which doesn't have a great vocabulary compared to native americans. It is much easier for me to kind of write like I talk but obviously I do know that I also need to include "more difficult" words. It was nice to read that actually a combination of both is how it should be and that this is also a part of what makes a good writer. It was also very helpful for me to read the examples of other people who used the combination and this gave me a much better perspective on how to use the combination and how it should look like. After reading this I will really try to implement the best of both worlds and hopefully I'll get much better at it after each time!

- "They Say, I say" Chapter 11:
This reading was also really nice and also with this I could really find myself in it because as a full-time student, and especial at antioch, you deal with a lot of class discussions and I also happen to really like them and am a very active participater during class discussions. Now while I was reading this article I was really figuring that there is so much more that I can improve and I really was not aware of that even with just a simple class discussion there are basically rules you have to follow in order to make it a good interesting class discussion.

 I really liked it when they stated that the point of a class discussion is that our own ideas become more cogent and powerful, the more responsive we are to others, I really didn't look at it that way so that was interesting to read about. Also the part of linking to what someone has said, especially in a clear way, was helpful for me cause even though I do sometimes link to what other people had said, I feel like I could've made it a lot more clear. Then last but not least, highlighting my key point is also something that I have to work on many times. I tend to be kind of unclear sometimes and that I'm not really getting to my key point, so it was great reading the example phrases in order to improve that.

Reading Reaction week 4

I actually felt pretty relieved with this weeks readings, because I thought it was pretty easy to read and didn't feel like it was too much or felt kind of bothered by reading it. I will give you my best reaction to both readings.

- Everything's an argument ''Rhetorical Analysis''
It was pretty interesting to get more knowledge about what a rhetorical analysis is and I've actually realized that I've read many rhetorical analysis' and that I wasn't aware of the fact that what I was reading was something that what was so called a rhetorical analysis. I also think it was interesting to read that there are actually many factors that you have to think of when you are writing an rhetorical analysis and that basically you are kind of making a fool of yourself when you write a rhetorical analysis without taking all of those important factors into account. So far as I can remember, I've never written a rhetorical analysis so far. But as soon as I do I will for sure look back to the material that I've read today because it surely has very good tips included.

- Everything's an argument: ''Finding Evidence'' 
So this reading basically for me was much common sense. In our life there are many times that we will have or are wanting to proof or persuade things and in order to do that we need to get the best evidence we can. Then again, you can't always use the same sort of evidence for all kinds of things and like it said in the readings, the evidence you collect for let's say a school project, is not the same kind of evidence that you would need to collect for a psychological research. What I do think, is that it also has to do with a persons abilities to make sure that they are able to collect correct evidence. What I mean by saying this, is that a person basically has to be good with many things like the internet, a computer, a library, researching things in a book, etcetera. Because if for instance if you have no idea how to work with a computer or the internet, then that will already limit you in collecting a good amount of evidence then someone who knows exactly how all of that works.

Personally, I also believe that people have to be more aware of how important evidence is and that they should dive more into all of the available options there are to collect evidence and trust me it can save you from many situations. Just to give you a quick personal example: One time I got a fine that wasn't fair at all. So I called the company and explained them my situation and the representative on the phone said that everything was ok and that she took care of it. Later I get another letter saying that I hadn't paid my fine and they increased the amount. I called them again and said that I spoke to a representative before and that she took care of it. They asked me who I spoke to and unfortunately I did not write down her name and so had no evidence of ever talking to someone. This has been a great lesson for me and would like to give this advice to the rest as well in case you didn't know this yet. But so yeah, if I had just simply written down that name than I did have evidence that I did speak to someone and maybe the situation would've turned out much better.