Jingyao Shi Professor Lynda Haas Writing 37 3/10/2014 Reflection Essay I chose this class without knowing the

different themes for different Writing 37 classes and the rhetorical analysis as the core of this class, so I basically expected this writing class to be similar to the high school English class. However, it turned out to be more intensive and challenging than I expected it to be, but meanwhile it is more helpful and fun than I imagined because of the theme of detective genre with the focus on Sir Arthur Conan Doyles Sherlock Holmes stories. Entering this class in January, I started off being scared by the frequent presentations and the lists of homework to do, but eventually I strongly feel that I have significantly improved my writing and analytical skills as well as the observation skills throughout this class. There are so many different focuses in this class such as grammar, presentation, collaboration, peer review, communication, and habits of mind. I believe all of these skills of mine have improved because of this course, so I would admit that what I have learned from this class is worth putting in all the efforts. Group work plays a vital role in this class as it allows each of us to communicate with the other people in class, it allows us learn more as everyone is an expert in different things. After doing the first presentation which is a brief self-introduction, each of us was assigned into a group. I was in a group with Meghan, Tyler, and Sally. Since many presentations and peer reviews were done within the group, I got the first group of friends in this class. Later I found the collaboration to be extremely important as it can accomplish a lot when everyone does a portion

of it. For example, in order to introduce the Victorian Culture, my group separated four different topics, and each of us was in charge of a specific aspect of the culture. Collaboration made each of us more focused on one topic so that more details could be caught. While revising the essays, everyone was in a group with different people every time so everyone was able to receive comments every time. Through peer review, I found it helpful to gather the possible ideas that I could or could not think about. This is something that I could not have done myself. The collaboration in reviewing essays helps everyone to have fresh ideas of what are needed for revision. One of the most interesting focuses in this class is having detective genre analyzed in depth based on Sherlock Holmes stories. I started the process of generating the conventions of detective genre by looking up the word convention online since I was not even sure what did convention mean in genre. Because of all the homework and in-class discussion I had, I found out that convention could be another word of norm, which is an agreement shared by, in this case, the mystery genre. While gathering the conventions of detective stories, I thought about the genre as a whole instead one of the particular Sherlock Holmes story, which made me aware of how special the genres are. After doing that for a while, the observation became somehow automatic. When I was reading and watching the work from other genres, it was much easier to pick out the features the genres have in common. Besides the observation skills that I developed, by focusing on analyzing genre, I have solid knowledge of the detective genre. I believe that this knowledge could be applied to many places in my future writing assignments as well. This class puts a lot attention into writing academic essays specifically about writing textual analysis. While writing textual analysis essays, I could no longer just read through the story once and analyze based on memory; instead, I have to be aware of different adjectives and

adverbs in the text, take them out, and analyze them. I was amazed by how much information that I could get from just understanding those particular works. So far in this course, I have completed two essays. One is the Conan Doyle essay and the other one is the modern-day Holmes essay. I would choose to fully revise the modern-day Sherlock essay and revise only a paragraph of the Conan Doyle essay. This is because I found myself more dedicated and interested in the modern-day Sherlock essay, and I have much stronger feelings and confidence on modern-day essay than Conan Doyle essay. For my modern-day Sherlock essay, I think the greatest strengths are the cohesion throughout the essay and the thoughts about the connection between genre and culture that I brought out towards the end of the essay. The greatest weaknesses of this essay should be the usage of outside sources and excerpts. I had hard time finding good sources that can fit well into my essay topic, and this would be something that I will try to fix if I can have more time to work on this essay. However, more importantly, I will prioritize to revise the analysis of the scene since I still believe that the analysis can be even deeper. For my Conan Doyle essay, I chose to revise the introduction for final revision because I think I did not have myself clear in the introduction which made the further analysis and development harder. I would rather focus on having introduction perfect than confused myself in the body paragraphs and conclusion. One thing that I have learned a lot from is the Connect Grammar and Language Assignments. I used to be confused by some usage of language such as the quotation marks, semicolons, and dashes. Through Connect, I was able to catch my problems and with the tutorial it provided, I could practice and consolidate the knowledge. According to the report in each assignment, I realized that most of the time I was aware that I knew the answer, but for the topic like Critical Reading, General Ideas, and Quotation Marks, about twenty percent of time, I was

unaware that I did not know the answer which is not a good sign. I think for the topics like these, I would need to be more careful in writing them in the future. The biggest project in this class would be the Rhetorical-In-Practice(RIP) seminar that have done in week 9. For the RIP seminar, I work more behind the stage. Most importantly I worked as one of the visual group which prepared for the powerpoint for the presentation. More specifically, I was in charged of demonstrating the basic plot of the detective genre as part of the genre conventions. I gathered the pictures that could represent the basic plots and organized them into five slides in the powerpoint. The pictures were about Sherlock and Watson in front of 221B, deduction on client, investigation, and Sherlock and Watson talking about cases finally. For accuracy, I even went through a couple episodes of BBC Sherlock again so that I could find the representative picture. Also I was in charged of finding the picture for one of the Sherlock Holmes modern-text TV series Psych so that the presenter could use it as reference during the presentation. Besides being part of the visual group, I contributed to the design of scene three which is the crime scene and prepare the props with Carlos and Meg. The prop that I was responsible for was the Lucky Charms that Peter the Anteater is eating when he dies. After the seminar, I personally liked our classs presentation a lot. Each part of the presentation was very neat and clear. Overall the presentation had solid and organized information, and the presenters demonstrated each part very efficiently. Also the transition between each topics were smooth, and interaction between presenters and audience during the poll was done very well. According to what I see from the other class, one thing that I feel our presentation needed was the video clips which made the presentation more vivid. Also, I think for the crime scene, the characters should be introduced better throughout the scene instead of pointing out who plays which character during the poll. Lastly, overall the presenters need more interaction with the audience

even though they have already had some. Lastly, throughout this course, all the habits of mind were developed. First, my engagement was developed as I did not enjoy reading the story and I always tried to read the summary of the plot instead. However, going through the Sherlock Holmes stories, I actually found myself enjoy reading the actual story as it is way more attractive and catchy than the summaries. Second, my sense of responsibility was increased throughout this class. Thanks to the structure of this class, I have managed to complete the assignments by myself. There are assignments due on every Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays; therefore, I was responsible to complete everything before the deadline with or without the reminder from Professor Haas. Also because of the group work, I had to have everything complete before the deadline not only for my own, but also for the other people in my group. I would feel guilty when I did not complete my portion of task on time, and I always kept reminding myself of what I needed to do to make my part in the whole thing set. Third, I become more open to the new ways of thinking. While working in big groups, people all had different thoughts, so everyone would all consider each others ideas and put them into one. I was more willing to accept other ways of approaching the goal than I used to be. Fourth, my persistence has been increased. I found various way to keep myself interested in the detective genre as I watched the whole BBC Sherlock Series to see the similar interpretation of Conan Doyles stories, and I watched Psych to see some new ideas of Sherlock Holmes. I stayed strongly interested in this genre after watching these two series. Fifth, I become more flexible. While doing the RIP project, everyone was able to make the evening event, so was I, even with a busy schedule. I had an important rehearsal for club that night, but I still managed to get to the seminar. Sixth, I have developed metacognition. While revising my essays, I was aware of how I needed to fix the grammatical errors and needed to have more

outside sources to make my essay better. Seventh, my creativity has been developed. I was more comfortable giving out ideas about scene three while working on RIP project than before after hearing all the classmates discussed all kinds of topics of crime story in class. Lastly, I became more curious about the mystery genre after everything we have done. All in all, this Writing 37 class is very beneficial and helpful in becoming a better communicator and writer. Later in this class, I did not think of it the same as the English class I have taken in my high school, but thought of it as a class that prepare me for my future career. The experience of teamwork was significant to me because I will need it in the future as a programmer. I need all of the habits of mind in order to accomplish my career, which are all emphasized in this class. Additionally, through continuous revision of my own essay, I could actually see how I have grown throughout the course and what I have done to make this happen. Every problem in the essays becomes so clear that I would be able to recognize more easily in the future if it happens to appear again. However, what I have done in this class was not enough for me to make my career shine yet. I will still need to work on my grammar skills, presenting skills, collaborating skills, and self-reviewing skills in order to be better. This class taught me how to become better, but I still have long way to go on my own.