Chieh Li

Professor Linda Haas

Writing 39B
June 1, 2014
Me as a writer
To be honest, I thought Sherlock Holmes was a real detective when I first entered 39B
with Dr. Haas. I was shocked that my knowledge was already behind everyone else on the first
day of class. Throughout many attempts on my academic essays, both success and failure
allowed me to become a much better analyzer and close-reader than my first step in to writing
39B. Through the completion of each major assignments, I have gained knowledge about myself
and how I have progressed as a writer: with each composition and revision of my essays,
responsibility and flexibility have become the focus of my attention; by bringing the Rhetorical
Analysis paper to fruitful final draft, persistence and metacognition have being my motivation to
aim for perfection in my writing; the group presentations and RIP seminars promoted my
curiosity and openness towards the world beyond my tiny knowledge.
Through the process of revision, I have learned what truly means to be a close-reader and
how to synthesize a conversation between scholarly texts; moreover, the main motivations are
responsibility and flexibility. Before Writing 39B, revision is just correcting a few minor
grammatical mistakes and take out some wordy sentences; however, after the assignment on
connect, I finally realized the importance of revision. Before I could truly revise, I had to read
the Schlorly texts several times before it starts to slowly making sense. At that point, I thought
that was close-reading, but it became extremely difficult for me to express myself in the
literature review essay. At this point, I fully understand the concept of close-reading, and that is,
being able to read a scholarly text and communicate flexibly with others while delivering concise
information and the authors original ideas. In the revision process, flexibility have allowed me
to adapt to new ways of approaching difficult texts such as the ones that we had to read in
Writing 39B. By discarding old ways of reading difficult texts, I have learned to understand the
big pictures presented in a scholarly text and then to dug deeper into the ideas they are
expressing. If I had being stubborn and refuse to change the methods that I was using, then I
would have spent more time just to produce essay that seemed effortless. Being able to adapt to
new methods that promote our learning abilities, being flexible, are the key to success in any
kind of academia. With that in mind, responsibility have played an important role while I was
revising for my paragraph in the literature review essay. It is my duty to understand how to
synthesize a conversation between two scholarly texts, and this is certainly impossible without
the close-reading that I had just mastered not long ago. I have realized that in order to construct a
perfect conversation between the authors; I must first understand all the required information,
and it is very important to know the action that I must take in order to synthesize this
conversation. Of course, hard work is just part of this responsibility. While revising for my essay,
flexibility and responsibility have impacted my learning style and how I am going to react to
different environment that put us outside of our comfort zone.
Aside from flexibility and responsibility, Persistence and metacognition were the big
factors that I have acquired about myself while perfecting my Rhetorical analysis paper.
Rhetorical analysis paper not only require deep understanding of the material learned previously,
it also correlates to the newly covered topics. While revising my rhetorical analysis, I found out
that I was in need of constantly reviewing for the old conventions we had went over; and, the
new terms that we have just encounter. This was the challenging part about the rhetorical
analysis, because the paper itself required the merge of the old concepts with the new.
Persistence immerged while I was revising for this paper. This assignment has examined how
closely have I being paying attention and keeping my knowledge up to date. It was hard for me
at first to review all the materials we had went over, but as I get to know about the genre and the
conventions itself, I began to draw interest in the detective genre. The reviewing process
rebooted my interest in the detective genre. Not to mention, we are allowed to analyze one of the
best TV series that have being produced so far. Persistence has allowed me to keep my interest
longer and gradually turned me into a dying fan of the detective genre; moreover, this leads into
my next point, the rhetorical analysis paper contains everything that I have learned so far about
the detective genre and Conan Doyle. Its strongest part will be the fact that it will contain the
close-watching combining all the conventions that we have gone through. However, the weakest
part is to analyize the effect of the mash up of the Superhero genre and the action adventure
genre on modern day Sherlock Holmes. This is where Metacognition comes in. I must have an
awareness of my own knowledge and how much I can apply. When I found myself having
trouble explaining certain concepts, it is the time I should think to myself whether I have fully
mastered the new materials before processing with my essay. Many of the time, I found myself
rushing just to finish the assignment, and as a result, the facial expressions of my peers during
peer review are very rewarding. It tells me the bad qualities of the essay and how much I need to
revise it later. Metacognition is very important in everything I will be doing in the future. Second
chances such as peer review are not often in life; I must be more careful in terms of my work
habits and determination.
Throughout the quarter, I have participated in my group activities and the biggest one
being the RIP Seminar; the art of collaboration has allowed me to gain openness and spike my
curiosity. In the first presentation, I had to introduce myself to the whole class which was the
worse experience by far in any of my classes. I was never a person that could go in front of an
audience and communicate. I never wanted to deal with my fear for public speaking; however,
everything changed when I noticed that in writing 39B, there are numerous amount of
presentations that I have to do with other group mates. After the first few presentations, I have
realized that by practicing in the mirror will help me in my performance. Openness have played a
huge role on helping me get rid of the fear for public speaking. It is very important as a skill for
anyone to being able to listen to others for advice. As for myself, I have learned to put aside my
pride and to get advice from those that are experienced. This is a powerful mind step to have,
because I will be constantly learning from others. During our rehearsal for the RIP seminar, Our
leader, Nick, have taught me many acting techniques in order for me to act my part of the play. I
was assigned to play as the victim of the whole play while having some other relationship
between Justin and Saho. I have learned that the smallest details of the background in a play
matter for the audiences. Despite the work I have to do for the play, what I have learned is
beyond the scope of the class. I have learned that communication is very important in a group
environment. For example, everyone had great ideas towards the play, but it is impossible to
incorporate everyones idea. However, we need to consider everyones opinion, so there should
never be any hard feeling when the decision are concluded. My script was never used in our play,
but this leads to the curiosity of me. I should accept everyones opinion and ask more question
about their decisions, and I will gain more knowledge on why my script was not chosen. This
RIP seminar has provided many excellent lessons for me to grow as a writer. Form now on, I will
always keep accept others decision and be curious about the any outcome that have had
occurred.
To sum up all the lesson I have learned in this quarter, I feel the most important lesson
are openness and metacognition. These two skills are essential for any kind of environment that
requires teamwork. Being able to accept others opinion is a crucial ability, and knowing my
own mistake are critical for me in any types of discipline. In the future, I will constantly remind
myself to be open-mined when working with others, and I will try to reflect on my own actions
for the possible consequence.