Kyrie Han

Greg McClure

Writing 39B

28 March 2018

Final Reflection

Introduction

Before I start to reflect my ideas about what I have learned and obtained from the course

Writing 39B, I am in the desire to give the most sincere appreciation to my instructor

Professor McClure. I have never doubted that I could not use my academic writing skills

smoothly without his detailed guidance and effective recommendations. The course Writing

39B: Critical Reading & Rhetoric provides me with opportunities to explore the academic

writing further, and its course designs with a series of discussions and assignments, in

particular Rhetorical Analysis Essay and Rhetoric-In-Practice Project & Essay. I believe that I

have received the capability to write rhetorically and critically. At the same time, I would like

to express my thanks to my classmates also. They have helped me a lot in reflecting my

writing process and offering ideas for me to revise and make my works better and better. I

also want to show my gratitude to the textbook The Anteater Guide to Writing and Rhetoric

(AGWR) by UCI. It serves as an instructive tool for me to grasp the core of the 39B and to

finish my work in the class, particularly the chapter 10 “WR 39B: Critical Reading &

Rhetoric”, which connects with this course tightly and provides the suggestion of how to

process the course smoothly and successfully.

 At the same time, I notice that though I have developed so many abilities, I am not so

good at utilizing them. For one thing, I am in the absence of the ability to organize them with

a proper manner due to my shortage of logical thinking. I am not good at discovering my

creativity and then using them in my program. For another thing, I often fail to express my

ideas in English well because of my language habits in Chinese and the unaccustomed to

English expressions.

My Enhancement from RA Project

The RA project is mainly focusing on the connections between the text and the author, in

which process the applying manner of the genre conventions are supposed to be found. I have

made advancements in following aspects mainly: organizing a commanding thesis statement,

having reduced language errors, and mastering different kinds of rhetorical skills in writing.

Writing process

The assignment of RA project is to analyze the genre convention of horror fiction based

on the text Snow, Glass, and Apple by Neil Gaiman. This is an adapted version of the fairy

tale Snow White, and the version of Gaiman is full of darkness and evil on the character of the

princess. Based on the difference between the two adverse versions and explored by the topic

that the Snow White is not a pure girl while the queen is just, I stretched my essay. I then

developed my outline according to the changed characteristic of each main character to show

the sex expectations and the society in Snow, Glass, and Apple.

Revising process

One of the most obvious changes I made is the thesis statement, from obscure to clear, in
which process I realize the importance of thesis to guide readers to have a genwral

impression on the paper. Based on the comment form Profess, I make adjustments of my

thesis.

In the light of the professor’s instruction, especially the detailed feedback, I have revised

my essay for about three times. For the first revision, I have focused on the thesis. I have

added the horror genre and the theme of my thesis to make it more clear and strong.

For the second revision, I re-organize my topic sentences connecting with the revised

thesis and add the direct citations from the text and give explanations. However, the second

revision is still lack of textual analysis since I focus only on the first part of my essay.

Therefore, in the third revision, I review my essay and add more evidence to support my
argument strictly following the Evidence & Structure pattern.

After writing and revising of my RA essay, the most important thing I have learned is

that to make a valid argument, what I should do is not to express my opinion but to explain it

with sufficient evidence from the text and some other austerities. In my future writing, I will

continue to practice this learning to improve my writing skill.

 My Enhancement from RIP Project & Essay

The RIP Project &Essay is another another assignment that indicates the quintessence of

Writing 39 B. It paying attention to the ability to use what I have learned from the RA Project

and the exercises prior to the project. I am required to develop my own practice of the horror

genre I observed from the previous exercises and analyze my own work with clear purposes

that targeted at audiences of college students and deliver some messages to the society.

Writing process
 Inspired by the dark story of Snow White, I participated in the program of making a

project of an abnormal world. Under the team work, I was set with the role of an actor and

the editor. Thus, the project I took part in and involved is a film that tells the story of a

murder caused by a person who has multiple personality disorder with the name of Mr.

JEKYLLSON. The film tells that the world of this person is in disorder and he can not

remember what has happened to him and the world surrounding him because of his multiple

personalities. Nevertheless, the mental health issue should not be the reason for him to act at

will, and Mr. JEKYLLSON is a murder while he cannot tell this identity when he is in other

identities. The essay serves as an instructive tool for me to have a clear understanding of my

paper’s purpose, specific audience, and the detailed explanation of how does this article

affects the audience and it gives detailed explanation of the purpose, the targeted audiences,

the message, as well as my role in the teamwork.

Revising process

The pre-writing exercise gave me the opportunity to introduce my teamwork briefly, and

I supplemented it in the full draft, in which process I added the illustration of my targeted

audiences, the genre I used and the way my texts adopted to fit with the convention, the

specific analysis of my texts in contents and appeal to audiences, my contributions to he

project and the team interactions in accomplishing the program. Besides, I also used some

secondary resources to act as the supportive evidence of the accordance between the genre

and my texts.

Firstly, I added the sections in the final draft, and expand some parts with more details
and specific explanations.

Comparison between the Pre-writing RIP Essay and Final RIP Essay

Outline of Pre-writing RIP Essay: Outline of Final RIP Essay

 Introduction of my project  Introduction of the essay with the project

inserted in
 The message of my project

 Introduction of my project
 Brief illustration of the text

 Targeted audiences and the attractiveness

 My contribution in the team
of the project
 The team interactions
 The message of the text

 Specific analysis of the text:

The genre analysis and the process of

adopting the genre

 My contribution and the dealing process

of the project

 The team interactions

 Conclusion
 In the process of supplementing, I found some resources to illustrate that why my

project is in the accordance with the horror genre, in which I specifically indicated that my

text is about the psychological genre film. This add would increase the credibility of my

essay and establish the connections with academic writing.

I added the section of the explanation of the targeted audiences so that who I was

creating the project to was clear and the reason why my project could appeal to them was

evident. I particularly pointed out they would be college students for they would have

interests in the thrill and horror films according to the survey did by New York Times. With

the promise that our team would spare no efforts in making the film, the film was possibly to

attract this group.

 I also gave specific messages of my project so that the audiences could understand and

support the film with passion. In comparison, the message I mentioned in the pre-writing was

obscure and not persuasive enough to show my purpose of creation and attract audiences.
 What’s more, I gave detailed analysis of the text based on the convention of horror

films. By utilizing the words of Mgr. Viktória Prohászková and Stanley Williams, I matched

the text details and the convention one by one to prove that our film was indeed in the genre

of the horror film. I also selected a passage of the film to be the example to illustrate the

creative ideas of the projects, where I mentioned the mentioned the match of lights and

music.
 Other Artifacts

Other artifacts including short assignments such as reading responses and pre-writing

exercises are of great value to my future RA and RIP project. The required reading materials
provided me with the basic theory of rhetorical analysis and rhetorical writing techniques.

With the help of the CR exercises, I have started to practice the rhetorical skills which were

critical for the following rhetorical analysis essay. From the rhetorical perspective, these short

exercises help me to delve into genre and context of the horror fictions and films that I

needed to read, and I also knew how to formula the RA essay in an academic way. For

instance, from the RA exercise of “Evidence and Structure,” I have understood the

importance of citation and use of resources, as well as the organization of an essay. In

addition, RIP exercises served as the preparation for my RIP project. It is worth mentioning

that in RIP Pre-reflection, I have experienced in thinking from different perspectives by

imitating the protagonist and consider my audience, genre, and purpose as a rhetoric, which is

instructive to my creative work of RIP.

Conclusion

The course 39B provides me a great opportunity to review my strengths and weaknesses.

In terms of my writing ability, I have developed the ability to create a logically arranged

structure which enables me to follow my thought. Another advantage is that I can use

citations appropriately, making my argument convincing. These benefits are based on my

preparation for finding effective resources collected from textbooks and reliable articles. For

disadvantaged aspects, one of the flaws in my writing essay is often reflected in the objective

perspectives I use in academic papers and the language habits.

I must admit that this course including assignments and small exercises improve my

reading and writing abilities, and pave the way for my further writing in any subject. RA
allows me to exercise my analyzing and writing techniques, RIP encourages me to apply what

I have learned into practice, and other activities enable me to understand the rhetorical

writing better.