Reflection upon my rhetorical analysis essay

To be honest, the overall process of completing the reflective essay was challenging.
But I think my final draft achieved all the requirements. Fortunately, I gained plenty
of knowledge and strategies towards analyzing a particular context in rhetorical
situations, although there are certain aspects that my essay can be improved.

There are certain things I want to improve if I were to write the essay again, which are
another more logical order of the paragraphs, the elaboration of rhetorical language,
and more usage of citations. Currently, the order of the overall paragraphs follows the
logic of different characters’ characteristics and their representation. I describe the
Queen first, followed by the princess, as I want to make a stand for the women first.
After that, I write about the King and the prince, which represents the view from men.
Overall, I think it works effectively, but maybe there is a better logic for reordering
the paragraphs. With regards to rhetoric language, I analyzed through the subverted
roles of the Queen and the young princess, and I pointed out the modern meaning of
feminism behind the horror story. But I think I can emphasize more on the specific
language tone in horror genre. Last but not least, I apply a few citations in the entire
essay. Actually, I should quote more sources to support the main idea about the
women’s social status.

I felt thankful for my peer review partner, as he accurately pointed out several
essential aspects that I can enhance in my essay. For example, the transition between
paragraphs should be added. And the logic of the overall essay can be clearer.

I improved a lot during the entire writing process, especially for interpreting the
rhetorical meaning and building up the overall thesis. At first, I was completely
confused about how to analyze a specific text rhetorically. I just knew to analyze the
verb usage, and the superficial meaning. However, I went to professor’s office hour,
and I read some specific chapters of the Anteater’s Guide to Writing & Rhetoric for
searching the analysis of horror genre, and the drafting process. From these chapters, I
learned to analyze the horror genre in aspects of form, audience, medium, and
content. So, for the Snow, Glass, Apples, I put emphasis on analyzing the characters’
traits and the metaphorical meaning behind them. With regards to construct an overall
thesis, it was kind of hard for me at the beginning. But my professor told me a good
strategy, which is to build up your final thesis after you complete the essay. Because
the overall thesis should contain all the key information from each paragraph. In my
original thesis, I just include the word “feminism”, but nothing much. After rewriting
the thesis, I pointed out the main message that the author wants to give to the readers,
which is “women’s power is sometimes being discussed and regarded unequally as
men’s power” and “the phenomenon that women’s sexuality is the only value to men
is a serious problem in modern society”. I think the revised version provides more
insightful meaning behind the horror story.
For the future project, like the coming film project, I would definitely use some
strategies that I learned from the rhetorical analysis essay. For example, in our film
project, we will act different characters. And each member in our group has to write
an RIP essay for analyzing our film work. Therefore, I will use the strategy of
describing different roles’ characteristics and interpreting their real meaning in the
real society.