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Vanessa Orosco
Professor Lynda Haas
Writing 37
March 4, 2015
My Writing 37 Reflection
In the beginning I wasnt really that thrilled to be in Writing 37. In fact, I wasnt looking
forward to it at all, especially when I saw the syllabus and all that I would have to do. However,
I decided to show openness toward the course and found that as the class continued I saw that it
wasnt as bad as I thought it would be and I even stared enjoying the class. Although, that
doesnt go without saying that I did face some difficulties when it came to essays like the Lit
Review essay. But I was able to complete these essays despite the odds, and I even learned new
things from doing these essays.
One major thing I learned was rhetoric. I learned what exactly rhetoric was, and how
rhetorical devices-such as logos, ethos, and, pathos- are incorporated in mostly everything we
read, see, and hear. The rhetorical appeals have been used in all of the sources weve read and
seen. Like in We3 by Grant Morrison where the ethos appealed was used to gain sympathy for
the three animals from the audience. In the Blackfish documentary directed by Gabriela
Cowperthwaite , the appeals of logos and ethos was used to show audiences Sea Worlds
disregard for the care of its orcas through the testimonies of former Sea World trainers and actual
facts of orcas. Also, we as students even had to incorporate all three of the appeals into our PSAs
we did so that we could persuade viewers to do their part in helping with the particular cause that
our PSA presented

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As a class weve seen these rhetorical appeals throughout all of the different types of
texts we have read. One of the types of text we have read was scholarly text, like Leslie Irvines
book If You Tame Me, where she helps us understand our connections with animals such as cats
and dogs and their behaviors. Scholarly texts like these are different from other texts we have
read in class because they are written by someone who is more or less an expert in the subject
that they are writing about. I had a bit of trouble trying to understand this particular text type
because what we had to read was so long, so I had trouble focusing on it. I had to read it multiple
times and even highlight and take notes on the side. In the end I was able comprehend the text a
bit better, but not as well as I understood the other texts we have read. By other texts I mean like
Blackfish, the documentary directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite we were required to watch. This
was probably one of my favorite texts that we read because I enjoyed watching it and I also
learned things about Sea World and orcas that I didnt know before. By closely reading the film I
was able to analyze its aspects and understand its message better than I would have if I had just
watched the film for entertainment. Another text I analyzed was the graphic novel We3 written
by Grant Morrison. This was my absolute favorite text that I had to read for the class, it was so
different from any of the other texts that we read because of how its dialogue was presented by
only using talk bubbles, and its overall look, like its use of colors and graphics. We3 shows the
animals perspective and makes readers rethink how they should view animals.
After reading all these different types of texts I had to then write a literature review and
rhetorical analysis essay. In both these essays I had to use what I learned from the readings and
incorporate it into my writing. I had trouble with my lit review essay because I had no idea what
a lit review was. So right from the start I wasnt really motivated to complete the essay, but I
showed persistence and didnt give up on the assignment. I felt especially better after reading

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the text Shitty First Drafts that Professor Haas showed us because it made me see that no ones
first draft is perfect and its going to have all types of errors and its okay. And errors they were.
One of the things that I was told to work on was that my ideas werent as clear as I thought they
were. So for my revision I went back and modified certain parts where the ideas werent as clear.
For my rhetorical analysis I felt way more comfortable and even eager to write this essay
because I actually knew about the rhetorical appeals. The peer review for my rhetorical analysis
had less negative comments than my lit review. One of the things I chose to work on for my
essay was the intro. I made up a scenario about a family going to Sea World and I was advised by
my group to instead put an actual event from Blackfish, like those two sisters that witnessed
Tilikum pulling in the trainer. Doing this helped strengthen my essay.
Peer reviewing has been a huge part of every assignment that weve done in class. It
helps improve our essays and make them stronger. Peer reviewing helped with my
metacognition because I would read the feedback people would give me and was then able to
reflect on what they said so that I could better understand what to do in my revision. It helped me
see where I was at in my process of becoming a better writer and how I could improve my
writing. Not only did receiving peer review help me but doing it for others also contributed to
improvement in becoming a better writer. By peer reviewing other peoples essays I was able to
detect their mistakes and offer them suggestions on how to improve their writing. By doing this
it helped me to be better able to catch my own mistakes in my essay and fix them. I was able to
compare a mistake I saw in someone elses essay to something I wrote in my essay and was able
to fix it quicker.
Peer reviewing was sort of like working in a group because we both put in work to
improve the essay. However, we did do actual group work in class. I personally liked working in

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groups because there were more minds working together and a greater chance of creating a better
project. The first group project I did was the PowerPoint on Dog Breeding. It was simple to do
and it helped me learn more about dog breeding. The second group project I did involved us
having to create a PSA. Having to do a PSA was something new to me because I have never
done one before, but I ended up enjoying how our PSA came out. However, our PSA wasnt as
greatly as we would have liked. The first time people saw our essay we got bad comments. This
helped me develop flexibility to their comments and I was able to see the truth to what they were
saying which helped my group improve our PSA. It also helped us develop our creativity so that
we could create something different from the other groups and help us stand out. Being in my
group doing the PSA helped me with my responsibility and engagement because I was
responsible for my part of the project and had to engage with my group mates in order for us to
put together all our parts to finish our PSA.
One of the things we did in class that honestly didnt interest me was the Connect
assignments. They were sort of time consuming and I didnt really learn a lot from them. The
reading part of the connect assignments were loaded with so much information and had lots of
pages to read that it was easily forgotten. However, there were times when some of the
information would stick and I would totally understand the material.
Even though connect wasnt my favorite part of writing 37, overall I thought the class
went really well. Our theme for the class was animals so the class helped me to express my
curiosity for animals. With all the sources we have read and all the work weve done with the
animal topic Ive learned so much more about animals and their involvement with humans.
Writing 37 has really opened my eyes to how humans treat animals. Ive really enjoyed this
course and hope Im able to get another writing similar to this one.

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