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Katherine Koligian
Professor Haas
Writing 37
15 March 2015

Looking Back
As world-renowned musician Drake once stated, Started from
the bottom now were here. This simple line accurately represents my
Writing 37 experience. At the beginning of Writing 37 I felt that I was a
mediocre writer. I never had confidence in anything I wrote, because I
have struggled with writing so much in the past. However, through
many written assignments and presentations I have gained much
confidence in both my writing and communication skills. Writing 37 has
genuinely been such a helpful, informative, and extremely interesting
course.
The first assignments in this class really taught me a lot. One
assignment that really boosted my confidence was the all about me
presentation. I did not realize it at the time, but now I see that I was
the rhetor trying to present my credibility as a classmate. I remember
trying to make the presentation as relatable as possible by talking
about common places my fellow classmates may have visited and
referring to social media. From the very beginning, I was attempting to
put rhetoric into practice. I now realize that whenever you are

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presenting, there is a specific audience, which means there are specific
ways to target that audience. I will carry this skill with me through
every presentation I put together in the future. The next pair of
assignments that were very impactful was the wiki and the
presentation following it. The wiki especially was very intimidating.
Finding credible sources and making annotations seemed very difficult,
and I had no idea how to attack it. With the assistance and
encouragement from my partner Hanh we got through it. Because this
was the first group work we did as a class, this assignment also
stressed responsibility. I wanted to make sure I did everything I was
assigned to the best of my abilities, because I did not want to let my
partner down. I was also responsible for the bulk of the presentation on
the wiki. I remember practicing constantly because I wanted to make
sure I was confident, and Hanh was pleased with the job I did. Some
think group work takes less effort because you have other people to
rely on, but I disagree. My philosophy when working with others is that
one should work even harder, because you are responsible for not only
your grade, but your group members as well. Overall, I think Hanh and
I worked well together and learned so much about our topic. I had no
idea what cows faced before and during the slaughter process until
these projects. In addition, this topic really sparked my curiosity. I
looked into it further and looked at multiple clips and articles on the
subject of cows being used for the beef industry and other purposes. I

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remember one day on Ring Road one of the booths was handing out a
pamphlet on animals used for factory farming. Usually I ignore
everything as I walk through that area, but I took the pamphlet and
read it in depth. I was quite excited to see what it had to say because I
was, and still am, very interested in the topic.
Following these assignments we started analyzing many sources,
which eventually led to the literature review essay. The source that
stood out to me the most was We3. I was very skeptical about We 3 at
first. I was confused as to why we were going to read a comic, which
brings me to my next habit of mindopenness. Even though I had my
doubts I forced myself to go into it with an open mind. Professor Haas
wanted the class to read We3 for a reason, and after I read it I
understood why. It was so emotional and really got me thinking about
how animals can be used in the military. Through the forums we wrote
and the articles we read on the comic I was also able to see all the
rhetorical devices used such as frames, dialogue (or lack of), and
covers of the comics. I never thought a graphic novel could act as
such an effective medium. This was a possible topic to write on for the
literature review essay, but I decided to write on the cattle industry.
The literature review was personally the most challenging assignment.
I had never written an essay like this before; therefore, it was very
overwhelming. The rubric called for a well-written essay that used
effective sources to analyze and converse about a topic in an insightful

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manner, which I failed to do in my first draft. I was used to writing
response to literature essays, which was obvious in my rough draft. My
thesis and topic sentences did not signal a literature review at all, and I
did not put my sources into effective conversation. I got a much better
grasp on what to fix for my second draft through the peer review
process. The feedback I gave to my classmates, and received from
them was very helpful. I love reading other students work because I
can see what they did successfully, which inspires me to make my
paper better. I remember reading a peers paper and thinking, Wow
he used his sources well, I need to do that too! I can also see flaws in
their papers that are similar to my own which really gets me thinking
about the most effective way to fix them. In addition, I appreciate
receiving feedback, because it always helps to have another point of
view besides your own. Between my first and second draft I improved
my thesis and topic sentences by using words such as analyze and
dispute in order to signal a literature review. For example my thesis
changed from, The raising and slaughtering of cows continues to be a
pressing and disturbing issue, to, Throughout these sources the
extremes and lack of humanity cows face in the slaughter process in
analyzed an disputed. In my second draft I also put my sources into
controversial conversation instead of just quoting the sources and
saying they agreed with each other. Between my second and third
draft I learned, through the peer review process, how to make my

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analysis of the sources more effective. This essay has gone through
three revisions and that is why I have selected it to be the full essay. I
am very proud of how far it has come. This brings me to my next habit
of mindpersistence. I kept editing and editing, and analyzing the
reviews I received from both my peers and Professor Haas to make my
paper the best it could be. Even though I was very discouraged at first,
I was determined to figure out this type of writing.
After the whole literature review process we moved into deeply
analyzing rhetoric. We watched the documentary film, Blackfish, which
effectively demonstrated the use of all three rhetorical appeals: logos,
ethos, and pathos. I was so engaged throughout this film. It is so easy
to get involved with all the assignments, not just Blackfish, because
they are so relevant. With every assignment, I felt like I was actually
learning and taking something away from it. I was very motivated to do
the assignments we had because I knew that I would learn about
something that I had no idea about previously. For example, I was
unaware that orcas in captivity were such a controversial issue. This
led into our next project, which was our public service announcement,
also knows as our rhetoric in practice. My group did our PSA on puppy
mills, and our main focus for our first round of the PSA was appealing
to the UC Irvine students in a clever fashion. This is where creativity
was crucial. Through much collaboration we decided we would wear
UCI attire to convey that we were UCI students. We also chose to have

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one of our group members act as an important UCI figure and state our
call to action while sitting by an anteater. When we presented the PSA
to the class for the first time we received much praise for our strong
appeal to pathos and the UCI audience; however, our PSA lacked both
logos and ethos. By evaluating the reviews and PSAs from our peers
we were able to make effective revisions to create a stronger PSA. I
look back and realize that the PSAs that had the strongest call to action
used all three rhetorical appeals pretty equally. Following the PSA was
the rhetorical analysis essay. The goal of this essay was to identify a
rhetorical strategy and analyze how it conveys a specific message to
the audience. I chose to write my paper on the use of
anthropomorphism in Rikki Tikki Tavi. I selected my second paragraph
to revise, because I failed to develop the analysis of the rhetorical
strategy and the points it was making. I knew this would be tough, but
I had to be flexible. This paper demanded effective analysis, and I
made that my main goal for revision; however, I still struggle with
analysis. This is something I need to continue working on.
In writing I certainly struggle with certain elements more than
others. Connect assignments, assigned throughout the quarter,
stressed the components I needed to focus on the most. Most of the
grammar objectives were simple, but I had a difficult time with the
assignments such as, Critical Reading and, Paraphrasing and
Summarizing to Understand a Text, that had to do with interpreting

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sources. I did not perform sufficiently on these, and I remember really
struggling to understand them. I had difficulty with analyzing sources
in my literature review and rhetorical analysis as well. It is necessary
that I continue to work on this in the future. The connect assignment
also showed me how confident I was on certain writing elements. I
doubted myself throughout the assignments, which led to selecting, a
majority of the time, that I was not sure of my answer. It turns out that
I was unaware I knew the answer more times than not. I lack in
confidence when it comes to writing and it is evident through my
Connect reports. I hope to improve on this in upcoming writing classes.
Going back to Drakes quote, I am no longer at the bottom where
I started, but here. Here is the new place I am at as a writer and
communicator. I know as a biology major pursuing dental school, I will
have to be able to look at sources such as scientific journals and
research and discuss them. The literature review has started preparing
me for that experience. In addition, I know I will have to present and
converse with others throughout my life. This class has given me a
solid foundation on communicating in an effective way that appeals to
whoever I may be addressing. Overall, writing 37 has taught me so
much that I can carry with me outside of the writing world.