Shawn Abrahamson

Writing 39C
Professor Leah Kaminski
06 June 2014

Reflective Introduction

In the beginning of 39C, I thought this class was going to be very difficult due to
anxiety from the first rocky couple of weeks. Although times began to get hard after a
recent start-off into the new quarter, I discovered that I was able to take on the reigns of
39C and began to take interest in what I was about to learn. To be more specific, after the
unbelievable first week, an even more unbelievable thing happened. Bradley Queen, the
director of the whole 39C division, took over the class and I thought, Whelp, their goes
a good grade in the class. I believed that it was going to be extra hard but for some odd
apparent reason (totally joking, its so obvious) for the two classes that he was here I felt
like I learned so much. He gave us insight on what the rest of the quarter was going to be
like: informal, life-changing (maybe a little too overboard) in a sense, and becoming
more educated with a different outlook and perspectives on things. Such as, how I come
across a problem or close reading when I come across an article. I think I have a different
outlook to the point where I just learn so much more with whatever comes into my view.
After the following reflection, you will see how much of a better writer I have become
from Writing 39C and the overall series, as well as techniques applied to real-life
experiences.

The Composing Process

This process is prominently important and it was the most difficult for me when it
came to writing a research paper. Prior to the first draft of composition one, while reading
Global Women by Barbara Ehrenreich & Arli Russell Hochschild, choosing a topic was
complex because I was not very interested in the book and the topic itself. I was yet to be
familiar with the unfair differences men and women had until 39C. After reading a
section from the novel, Because She Looks like a Child by Kevin Bales, I became
eager to find some research on human trafficking. One primary and necessary lesson
from the start of Writing 39C was the computer lab lesson where we visited the librarian
and received knowledge on how to research information for our composition/research
papers. From this knowledge I jotted down a few notes when reading the chapter of the
book. Here is a picture below to demonstrate

(In this picture, I wrote down key words for later use of research along with organizations and locations.)

I used key words such as, Sexual exploitation, Coercive or Abusive, and Sexual
Slavery to discover articles about those words, World Bank, IMF, and United Nations
to find out about organizations that advertised the dilemmas, and Malawaian, Ghana,
Washington D.C., and the Philippines to find locations of where this problem was
occurring. Also, from reading articles more and more, I discovered new key words to use
in my research like women or prostitution. This discovery led to hours and hours of
extensive research so another trick picked up from the librarian was using command + F
to locate the key words and I was able to locate the more important stuff. Now, finding
which source to use was an incredibly difficult process due to human trafficking being a
globally wide issue that happens even in the backyards of our homes. As indicated here in
my first draft of composition 1, Human Trafficking in A Neighborhood Near You I
attempted to use various sources such as news and sources from Global Woman to
narrow a problem but it only made my dilemma broader by presentation of the problem
to happen everywhere and not just one specific location. To be honest, since this was the
first draft and introduction to the alienation of composing a research paper, I had no idea
how to go about with the paper so I researched sources and tried to put them together to
present a problem without some outline. If you click here, you will see my prewriting for
the first draft versus the brainstorming for my final draft. In my first draft there is hardly
any outline, but for my final draft, I used a higher-end format of who, what, when, where,
why, and when to better clarify my problem to my audience and myself, as well as an
outline following the rubric to create some organization and specification to the problem
that I wanted to present. With this, I was able to become a better researcher and a better
writer in my essays as youll be able to see the dramatic difference between the first draft
of my composition one and the final. As a result of forming these skills, I was able to
attain more extensive research and create a wider scope of my problem of sex trafficking
in Thailand along with more organization of the composing process throughout writing
39C.



Rhetoric, Argumentation, & Multi-modal
Communication

I think that this was my favorite part of the Writing 39C course, especially
because I became more aware of rhetoric from the Writing 39B course. With rhetoric,
argumentation & multi-modal communication, I was able to become an immensely
superior writer that was more informal and purposeful behind my work. Just as how the
process of researching and organization of sources is important in producing a clear
composition, the fact that these research-based compositions are multi-modal further
enriches and elevates the quality of them. Periodically, there are things that are difficult
to describe through words but are well expressed visually. For example within my
Rhetoric-in-Practice project from 39B, I chose to develop a blog entry about Justin
Bieber and the trending twitter campaign of #cutsforbieber to communicate and
expose the effects of social media upon audiences because words cannot express the
trauma or the pain an innocent individual went through as a result of explicit social
media. I entrusted the responsibility of demonstrating the harsh effects of social media,
which were influenced by other forms of social media, in the images below.

(These are two pictures I found on the Internet for my RIP blog project about social media and rhetoric.)

Just upon looking at the images above, multiple feelings and emotions arise within
different individuals; some people will feel angry or shocked or horrified by the
committed act. Images, therefore, have more impact because they demonstrate that the
problem is relevant and is occurring right now; it's the reality.
There are many elements within multi-modality. For both compositions, utilizing
different sources such as evidential stories, shocking statistics, important data, and
various arguments was essential; images not being the only technique to exert the
seriousness of the problem. One example I used in my composition two was the
population rates in Thailand increasing and the percentage of the female school-age
population decreasing because without citizenship they are unable to attend schools and
have a higher-risk to being a victim of trafficking.


(These statistics show the Thailand population increasing every year by the millions and the female school-
age population in school decreasing by the percentages.)

By presenting arguments and counter-arguments, it made my argument more credible and
stronger. Regarding the dilemma of human trafficking in Thailand, there are multiple
organizations that are there to support the victims that are trafficked. But instead of supporting the
victims, I went ahead with the argument of preventing the victims from becoming victims by
granting citizenship since a majority of statelessness are the most vulnerable, making my
argument the best solution.

(A screenshot taken of a section within my composition 2 final draft.)



Revision

All in all, revision is the most helpful tool in the history of writing since it began
in my opinion. Periodic rewrites, drafts, reframing of sentences, fine word choices,
and structural revisions are all ways in which I benefitted from revision. Many times,
as an undergraduate writer, there are drafts and drafts full of nonsense. My very first
draft was one of them. Without revision, the draft would continue to be bad unless, in
my case and plenty of others, you have a great professor like mine to identify the
faults in my work. Its a way of constructive criticism and I think constructive
criticism is always good because theres always room to do better than once before.
Without proper guidance, my final draft of composition one would have been all over
the place and unclear like my first draft. Heres an example of professor Leahs
helpful advice for revision that got me on my feet for 39C:



With something as simple as this, it provided a whole new piece for me to take in and
helped me flourish into sex trafficking in Thailand, which became my passion and
research for the whole course of 39C. Another revision process that I found most
useful was a structural one from a brief sentence into a more specific, blossomed
sentence that is shown below.


(A screenshot of some revising I thought would make a good artifact while constructing composition
2.)

The above picture shows a highlighted sentence that lacks a strong statement. When I
reread the sentence I asked myself, The first part gives no justice to the second. Why
is it an alarming, major issue? So then I considered revising and came up with a
stronger statement below.


(The revised sentence that is in my final draft of composition 2.)

For composition two, I was struggling to advocate for a solution until we had
conferences. Having conferences with professor Leah, again, helped dramatically. At
first, I wanted to advocate for a new government policy in Thailand, but there was no
evidence or other credible sources that advocated for a change in policy that could
help stop trafficking. I was strongly for this policy change because the other solution
that was advocated for was legalizing prostitution. I had to stand my ground for my
beliefs because I wanted to follow my statement in composition one that prostitution
and sexual slavery for women is inhumane, but it left me with no possible solutions. I
took plenty of notes during the conference located in the extra artifacts section and
meet up with a classmate that was advocating for the same solution after classes and
received advice through email that helped in my advocacy. All of these revisions and
tips contributed tremendously to my improvement as a writer in my compositions that
greatly reflect my work, which you can find in the Final sections of composition one
and composition two.


By the end of the quarter, both the composing/drafting process and the tasks of revision
have transformed me into a well-rounded writer as well as a better researcher. Through
WR39C, I was exposed to many interesting things and got to discover something about
myself along the way.