For this class, I got to have individual meetings with Mat to discuss my progress and ideas for Project 1 and then later Project 2. These meetings really helped me to get a more clear focus on what I needed to discuss in the papers and were great for clearing up any issues that may not have been able to be discussed in the time we had in class.
    After my meeting with Mat to discuss my Project 1 paper, I realized that I didn’t provide enough context for my story to make sense. I made vague references to my life that no one could really understand unless they had lived through it, aka they were me. I needed to explain more of my living situation growing up and not “minimize my experience” as Mat said, as I had felt that the events prior to the experience were irrelevant and not meaningful, but Mat helped me understand how they were important to understanding my paper and why the community was important to me. I also realized I needed to add more background to Argentina so the issues in my paper made more sense, as the controversy around my topic of abortion only makes sense if you understand more of the history of Argentina. Overall, I just need to add more background and fix repetition to have a better paper for project 1.
    I think my paper was on the right track, and once I started writing the piece I felt better about my idea and how I would develop it, but talking to Mat really helped me understand what my paper was lacking to allow it to be relevant to more than just myself.
    For Project 2, I also met with Mat to discuss my paper. During our discussion we talked about my concerns or questions rather than going over the entire paper. Mat suggested I compare and contrast “zines”- my text for the project- and how this may help me to further explain hw these texts function within the community. He also suggested cutting my long intro a bit and inserting an intro about the spaces the zine is present within the community. I realized I needed to cut some quotes apart and cut down on so much direct quoting and find ways to paraphrase. We discussed using sources to explain and support information in the zines. Mat also suggested I get to the point faster, so I thought of integrating the texts and their explanation earlier on, but I worried about how much background I needed to explain my community. It was suggested that I also talk about my first encounter with texts and how that affected my view of them. Mat also made sure to point out that I should not make any universal statements in this piece. He also helped me to get a better understanding of what the conclusion should be, and how it should sum up what the club is trying to do and how it should not be a simple wrap up, as we want this piece to be complex and not straight forward.
    After my talk with Mat I made sure to do initial quick fixes, but going further than that was sort of difficult. I was having a hard time distinguishing between necessary and irrelevant information when it came to the background of the club. I was also having difficulties explaining myself when I was trying to show what the texts do for the community, but in the end I worked past these issues and came out with a good final piece.
    For Project 3, I did not get to meet individually with Mat, however, we had several sessions as a class discussing our community and the genres that best worked for the message we chose to promote.
    I had some initial problems figuring out what message I should spread, especially since Planned Parenthood is careful in the wording and type of message they send out. I ended up getting my inspiration from an event Generation Action chose to be involved with, that was focused on spreading the truth about Crisis Pregnancy Centers. So my message ended up being a promotion for an event- a trivia night- about Crisis Pregnancy Centers. This project was by far the easiest to complete once you had the initial idea of your message. I really enjoyed getting to create my own genres and explore what the term “genre” meant. I think this project was the best at opening our view of genre to include a much more diverse sample, out of the three projects.
    This class ended up being more enjoyable than I expected, as english classes are not my favorite thing by any means, but the projects had creative twists, though they proved challenging at times. I learned a lot about genre and what it means to write a research paper, and about how to express yourself in terms of being a part of a community. The only thing I wish I could have done differently, or rather known beforehand, was that project 2 and 3 were connected, so I likely would have chosen a different community for project 2. Otherwise, the class was great and I think it did help improve my writing.