At the beginning of week 1, because of lacking practice in writing for a long time, I

barely had any clue to compose a good writing. I remember that I spent a whole afternoon to

write my first memoir in this class. That was painful, to be honest. I locked myself in the room,

after drinking two cups of coffee, probably also prayed to God to help me to end this miserable

writing homework. However, I cannot really come up with a well-organized article, because I

don't know what is the formula of making a good one. I just randomly put whatever flashed in

my mind. I tried desperately to include as much detail as possible. Well, that is not a good sign,

actually. Around one hour later, I finally wrote my first paragraph of the introduction, but it was

already 190 words, and the requirement was around 250 words. I realized this was not a good

move so I just deleted whatever I had written. And, again, restart. This time, I learned a lesson--

do not include many details or I cannot fulfill the requirement. Finally, thank god, I finished my

shitty first draft--No detail, no characterization, nothing but tedious narration.

However, right now, it is incredible that I survived 10 weeks, and I am standing at the

finish line, to look back. I truly feel that it is always fascinating to look back at the end of each

quarter since usually looking at the progress I made makes me joyous. I have to admit that even

though this journey was challenging, I still made excellent progress in this class so far. Here, I

want to do some review, to show you this journey.

Firstly, Id like to talk about the presentation assignments, which improved my effective

communication skills. Honestly, before attending Writing 39A, I presumed this class was just

like any other high school writing class, which required writing tedious essays most of the time.

However, as I was reflecting my work, it has come to my attention that my assumptions about

the class were not correct at all. Unlike high school writing, Writing 39B required to start with

some self-introduction, just like other classes where we were expected to do a presentation about
ourselves at the beginning of this class. Since I was always afraid of speaking in front of an

audience, the preparation process for the presentation was challenging. When I was thinking

what I could tell about myself, the adjectives that came to my mind werent more than the count

of my fingers. I was terrified. I was afraid I was going to fail terribly because I believed I wasnt

capable of doing such a thing. I have never made a presentation in my mother tongue before, let

alone a presentation in English. However, the odds were with me, and after doing the adequate

preparation, I managed to complete the presentation smoothly.

It wasnt perfect but at least I believe I proved myself that I can handle anything if I can

work my way through it--I can be an effective communicator as long as I am willing to put work

into this class. Furthermore, having this presentation also boosted my self-confidence in speaking

English as well. As a consequence of this self-confidence boost, I feel more willing than ever to

share my ideas with my peers at any class, even though sometimes I have a feeling that my idea

is not the best. With those practices during the class, I felt like my expression skills improved

considerably and my feelings were verified when I had the interview with my uncle, who told me

he was impressed with my progress so far.

Secondly, I have also demonstrated an excellent progress in critical reading. In my point

of view, reading is the best way for any beginners of any language to improve their writing skills

because writing is a process of imitation of the techniques in the texts we read. During the

assignment, we are asked to finish different tasks for the article. Usually, I start with searching

the author's background information, such as his/her writing history and writing style, which I

believe is very crucial for understanding why he or she wrote this article. Then we need to read

the article carefully and critically to find some important stylistic elements for storytelling

components, which are that we need to learn to apply into our own writings.
 Therefore, I wont be mistaken to claim that the critical reading annotation assignments

have really helped me to understand how to analyze a professionals work. By reading the texts

and demonstrating an accurate knowledge of constituent parts, salient features, and writing styles

of those texts, I have learned how to apply those techniques in my own writing. This is a process

of imitation, a way to improve in a short period of time. Also, those readings helped me to

possess a deeper understanding of the qualities of a good writing. A good example of writing

doesnt have to be long and be full of fancy words. For example, Amy Tan didnt use hard words

to understand in her essay and she preferred quality over quantityshe kept it brief yet the text

had everything, like settings, characterizations, and so what. So right now after repeating this

reading annotation homework, I gradually formed a habit to add as many stylistic elements as

possible, such as using parentheses to add more detail and using humor or sarcasm. For example,

in my short memoir that submitted to peer review. I applied many many stylistic elements.

Thirdly, I would like to talk about the video memoir project. I have to say that is one of

the best assignment we did as a group. For this particular assignment, we need to work as a

group. We need to communicate as a group. We need to solve a problem as a group. We need to

think as a group. During the assignment, we had we some enjoyable time. We came us with the

idea to target on incoming freshmen, and we came up with all the scripts to have the connection

with the audience. I have to say things are not smooth at first because everyone had his/her own

idea. But we just need to pick up the best. We have to convince others to make sure everyone can

agree on every decision.

This assignment has changed my point of view on various topics. The class has turned me

into an effective collaborator. Before taking this class, I mostly preferred to do everything by

myself because I believed I was being more effective. However, unfortunately for me at the
beginning, the class required a lot of collaborative assignments, like the group video memoir. I

have to confess that all the members of my group are proud of that video. What is a fantastic

experience is that by doing the group work, I learned the ways of making a group functional, like

coming up with the best ideas even though all the members have different ideas. After every

contribution we did for the video project, it has come to my realization that a good group work is

valuable because a group can do more than any individual can. Because of those excellent

collaborations, we, as a group, made an amazing video.

By the end of this quarter, I feel more confident about my skills of making use of

multimedia literacy. Right now, after these intense training and practicing, I feel like I am more

ready to face more challenges. Not just in writing, but also speaking and even making videos.

These practices are becoming an inseparable habit of my life. Every week, I am secretly making

a v-blog. I record every interesting moment of my life. I have been taking funny photos and

videos when hanging out with my friends during weekends. I record my work log to keep track

on my every process in my life. Also, I wrote movie reviews in my diary after watching Wonder

Woman(by the way, this movie is absolutely amazing!) And also, I am planning to make more

movie reviews in forms of video and I just realized this class didnt make my life miserable, it

made my life meaningful.

Of course, not just these aspects makes feel proud of my journey. There are more joyous

memories of this class. This class is probably the hardest class I have taken so far but I never felt

regret again after I gradually understand the meaning of this class provide me.