Andrew+Mosquera's+Final+Portfolio+Reflective+Letter

Andrew Mosquera W. Tucker ENGL 408W 04/18/12

Reflective Letter for Final Portfolio

I saw it written somewhere... the syllabus, yes: //When you think of yourself as a write//r, what metaphor suits you? e.g. //I'm like a truck that starts very slowly (very very slow as if parked) in first gear, just sputtering a few ideas on paper (like the blasts of choking exhaust that send readers away coughing), then I start upshifting (usually the day before the due date) until I'm in fourth or fifth gear and the sentences come faster and faster (faster than human logic can follow). On the return trip I stop here and there to throw off the excess load (plenty of excess to be unloaded, for sure) or pick up new ideas that make the trip worthwhile.//

If only I could do this! I must preface my reflective letter with explicit jealousy for those writers who can abide by such a natural process. That metaphor is a habit to be envied! This is where our fallen human nature strives, works, sweats, and labors to construct a stable suspension bridge between the decomposing animal brain and the immortal angelic intellect. That process is so in line, so cooperative with the functions of a healthy cerebrum.

My writing metaphor is more like a runaway car. The driver gazes off into the sunset dreaming of adventures and vacations and big plans. He packs his bags, checks all the travel books, consults his friends on their own experiences, double checks everything and then dreams some more. The day of the trip arrives and he finds himself still dreaming, still sleeping, perhaps still planning away the limited time now being spent. If ever the traveler departs he sets out to the wide open road full of hopes and dreams and then thirty miles into his grand trans-American adventure, he is stuck in a traffic jam. Things get worse, the traffic jam overheats the car and the dreaming adventurer is detained with menial concerns in the nearest town. It's as if a whole legion of devils were at work to prevent him from accomplishing his heavenly dreams! By some miracle of desperation, the adventurer flies back on the road. But then, true disaster awaits him. By mile 60 of 600, he is suddenly rendered unconscious! Some illness has attacked the brain behind the wheel, yet the car is still barreling down the road. Hopefully it doesn't crash or run all of its readers off the road! When the driver awakes he finds himself somewhere near his destination yet what destruction lies behind him? By this parable, you may understand my writing neurosis.

Artifact 1: Writing to Learn

I wrote this piece as a wiki response. I attempted to consider a possible hypothetical situation in which to frame the response to a student's writing. My goal was to write some form of feedback comments in the form of a letter to the student. For the genre of wiki response and a teacher's feedback I did not succeed well enough since I violated the genre's "maximum" requirement. Most important for my curricular knowledge, however, this exercise helped me to explore the necessity for constructive feedback that supports a writer's process.

Artifact 2: Expository

This artifact demonstrates my most significant revision. My first draft of the paper "Why so Many Bombs" was an attempt at inquiry writing. I did not do enough exploration so I tried to fulfill that lack in the revision. The inquiry of the original piece was too diffuse so I attempted to hone in on one specific topic. In my revision I attempted to better organize my information and to be more specific in content. My intention was to write an informative piece that explored possibilities and suggested a latent argument. Again, not much more success came about. I feel like this paper lacks as much life as it gain in organization. This was a great lesson in revising drafts: it was difficult to bring myself to modify the original "sacred text" yet I was able to set aside the past and move forward (whether forward is better, I'll let you decide)

Artifact 3: Persuasive

I decided to do the most drastic of overhauls! Drop the original idea all together and start from scratch. Thus, with only the origin of interpretive writing, I set about to interpret a passage from the Bible. This was a way for me to focus on one text, against my habit of throwing too much into the stew, as you indicated before. This writing was also an added risk of trying another UGP in sermon writing. Perhaps my most sudden, daring, and unexpected piece. I think it does well for teaching me unity.

Artifact 4: UGP

It seems that I had run out of steam by the time of my revision of my screenplay. I would rather that my original screenplay were assessed in the place of any additions I made. However, the added scenes and alternate endings were intended for me to sharpen further my understanding of the genre. Despite the ever increasing unlikeliness of the plot and ever more unreal caricatures of the characters, the additions to the screenplay practice the formal preferences for real screenplay writing, where dialogue is the main focus and where parentheticals, description, and camera angles are left to the discretion of the directors. I had several different ideas for alternate endings but I just ran out of time and writing power.

Once again I find myself humbled, yet so much more wise than before. If only I could overcome my poor writing habits, I could become the next bestseller! The most important thing I have learned from all of this is how to understand and work with the mental crises of my future students. Such students, I've learned, are just like me, human with brains and souls cracked and unsettled each in their own unique way. More important than discovering my own road to writing success is being able to help others out of the abyss that holds them back from writing success.