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Jade Alison Lim

Dr. Linda Haas
Writing 39CLoving Animals
05 June 2016
My Journey Through Writing 39C
Throughout the course of Writing 39C: Argument and Research, we focused on
examining and researching scientific literature created by experts and researchers. In order for us
to succeed in these things, we learned how to use the library database to our advantage through
by attending a workshop held at the multimedia resource center at the Ayala Science Library.
With this knowledge of where to begin with research, we were required to apply this into the
Historical Conversation Project (HCP), Social Media Campaign (SMC) and Advocacy Project
(AP). Aside from these projects, our classes were taught as workshops, where it depended on
what we took away from it and how to apply it more than making us do work in class and see
how much we get done. This class did require time outside of class in order to succeed but I
think it was crucial for us to understand that we are independent from our classes and it is up to
us to make sure that we know what we are capable of in the sense of writing.
Coming into this class, I already knew the workload that this course requires me to do.
Some of my friends who have taken this course have warned me about how much time outside of
class it takes but they also told me how much they learned within these classes. I came into this
course not feeling very comfortable or confident about my writing skills and I was looking
forward to improve and advance well enough to succeed in this course. In order for the
discussion in class to benefit us, I think it was helpful for us to get feedback through the use of
google docs when we were presenting, either by ourselves or with our groups. I also thought the

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mandatory commentary and feedback on certain things really made us think and become more
open-minded to certain presentations.
Our first major project is called the Historical Conversation Project (HCP). My project
focused on the cognition and emotional capabilities of elephants, including elephant culture for
both Asian and African elephants. I used major search-engines, such as Google, Yahoo and Bing,
to look for different topics relating to each animal science issue. With the use of Ask the
Librarian, Hal helped me where to begin in the research like which authors seemed credible for
my project. From the workshop that was held at the Ayala Library, we had time to do our own
research for the topic that we assigned to present. we were able to do our own presearch for
our topics that our group has to present. As for my group, we worked on the topic of animals in
mourning. Some of the keywords that helped in when I used the search engines were grief
AND animals AND King, B* or Marzluff, J*. With the addition of the known authors that
the article provided was a way for us to know that the articles we were searching for were in the
same subsection. Without the knowledge of who are experts on the topic of elephants, I wouldnt
have known where to begin in writing the essay. I immediately thought of writing about
elephants and their family structure and cognition behaviors which also included their emotional
capabilities. We were shown how to use Wikipedia to our advantage of understanding the topic
we've chosen. One of the helpful tips was to search in Wikipedia the topic and then go down to
the 'References' page which provided all of the sources and possible sources that I can use for my
own project. I thought that was very clever and definitely efficient. One of the problems I had
when it came down to applying the skills we learned in class was making sure the historical
conversation was actually a conversation between authors and researchers. Some of the
weaknesses I have is creating the big picture for my scholarly audience which I think is most

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important. Some of the main priorities I have to focus on is organize in a way that my review
flows from one topic to the next and the other
priority would be making creating questions that I
get to answer along for my audience to follow
with, which would make it easier to know which
direction I'm going in the review itself. One of the
biggest problems I encountered while writing this
draft was that I didnt know where to begin, I tried
to start with an outline of what my review will be
composed of but that didn't really help either since
I didn't know how to separate my main idea into
multiple topics.

Figure 1 Conversation with Librarian during my presearch for my HCP

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As I was looking for a topic to cover for my Historical Conversation Project, my
curiosity grew stronger towards the topic of elephants and their cognition and emotional
capabilities. The topic of Mourning from Jeffrey Kluger inspired me to do my research on my
favorite animal and find out what they are truly capable of. From the writing projects that this
course included, it enabled me to explore multiple topics that I never wouldve imagined of
searching up involving elephants. As I continued to do research for my topic of elephants for my
Historical Conversations Project, I found more
scientific literature but I did not really know how to
begin the essay itself. I remember when our first
draft was due, I invested most of my time making
sure that it made the slightest sense by looking
through other scientific articles that I initially
planned on including to my essay.
Our second largest project is called the
Advocacy Project (AP). The main objectives of this

Figure Instagram aacount for Milkful Cows

essay is to define a problem that provokes, or provides an urgency, to take initiative, to provide
possible solutions, and to advocate the solution through group social media campaigns. Working
in various groups helped me boost my creativity because we are bouncing off each others
ideas. For example, I wouldnt have known how to create a presentation that wasnt just full of
words but images as well if I wasnt partnered up with the people I met during week 2, where we
were all working in one PowerPoint document and incorporated our own style into the
presentation. Through the use of Scientific Web Search that we were introduced to at the
beginning of the quarter in the Ayala Science Library, I was able to find in-depth articles that had

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to do with my topic. One of the most difficult things when researching for Historical
Conversations Project and Advocacy Project, was making sure that the topic I chose was
something I was interested in because I
didnt want to lose focus on since it is a
big part of our grade for this class. Some
of my colleagues were able to help me do
this by introducing the concept of the types
of jobs elephants were hired for and their
experience of being there; this helped me
understand their perspective. I think it was
crucial for me to continue researching and
talking about the topic of elephants with
Figure 3 Part of the infographic for Milkful Cows (SMC) multiple people because there was always
a fresh idea to bounce off from and brainstorm. In order for our viewers to participate, I thought
of the idea of showing their support by taking a selfie with a clipart of a cow that we passed
around all over campus, posting it on twitter or Instagram tagging us on and using the hastag
#UCImalts would help increase the number of viewers we had throughout the week. Aside
from connecting with our audience, with the individual research that we were required to do in
order for our campaign understand what we were truly advocating for, I created the infographic
for our group. By the end of this campaign, I learned that social media, especially in todays
society, is extremely important to have in order to initiate a movement and let others know of
what is going on in the world.

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The class is structured around the 10-week schedule where we were assigned in different
groups each week. Working in different groups throughout the quarter helped me become more
adaptable to different types of people and their work habits. Some groups we didnt interact
much, such as peer review, but the bigger projects such as the Social Media Campaign forced
myself to engage with my group mates. With every group that we were introduced to, we were
given a set of expectations that we were to achieve by the end of the week together, and I thought
that helped me stay on track with
my own responsibilities in the
group.
Before writing any major
projects for this class, I looked
back to my previous writing
classes that Ive taken and see the
different topics that I lack in. I
think being able to look back to

Figure 4 Some comments during peer review sessions.

those papers and ideas helped me become more cautious of my writing style for this class. With
the help of my classmates, peer reviewing was helpful because it helped me focus on the things
that I usually overlook in my own writing. Taking this class with these peers helped me improve
on my proofreading skills not just for others but most importantly to myself; I learned that
skimming over the reading gives me a slight idea of what my audience could be doing to my own
work. I always had the idea that I dont look over my work right after I write it because I already
know what it contains down to the specific details of the essay so I would have a friend peer

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review before I take a look back at it and take note of what I can improve on for my following
drafts.
By taking the Writing 39 series, I have learned more about my own writing style and how
much I have improved in writing and analyzing others work as well as mine. Organizing and
analyzing texts was the main skill that I learned from Writing 39B and I had a chance to apply
those skills to this class, which focused on research and literature reviews. Overall, I think I can
learn a lot from these projects throughout the course and know where and how to improve on
these common skills that can be applied towards anything. As a Biological Sciences and
Mathematics double major, and future officer of the U.S. Army, I plan to apply the skills that I
have learned and advanced on in the projects for the rest of my academic career and my future
professions.