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Jasmin Oh
Dr. Lynda Haas
Writing 37
3 15 March 2015
First Step Into Writing 37
First day of class and I was early by an hour and thirty minutes. I did
not know what to expect of the class as I sat there sitting in front of a
Professor Pongs office. Would I hate the teacher? Would I make any friends?
Would it be similar to my high schools English class? What would I take away
from this class? There were many thoughts running through my head as I
waited for the professor to arrive, yet, despite my nervousness, I was
curious. Something urged me to turn my head towards the way in which I
came. What I saw made smile: an old friend from high school. After we
walked past the heavy brown door into the room together, a teacher, a head
shorter than I, walked in and started the journey of critical reading, literature
review, and rhetorical analysis.
The first official assignment the class was assigned was an introduction
presentation called Intro to Me. It was used to, mainly, to get to know the
class in order to pick our the groups that in which we would be working in
periodically. This presentation was interesting for me because I had only
done one other presentation about myself in the past, but was focused on
my portfolio of impressive work that I have collected over the years while
attending that school. But my flexibility was able to help me deter away

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from the norms of formal presentation that I have grown used to in high
school about facts of a topic to a simple, yet semi-formal, presentation about
myself. What had caught my eye with most presentations was the fact that
my fellow peers were more focused on selling themselves and explicitly
stating why they should be picked instead of focusing on presenting
themselves, allowing that alone to do their marketing for them. Noticing this,
I tried to approach presenting differently. My peers had all been static in the
way they had presentedpresenting about themselves; then stating why
they should be selected to be in a group with very little variation in tone; I
attempted to incorporate a more casual tone with the audience, hoping to
sound calmer than I felt. Although the anxiety level for this presentation was
lower than my previous presentation because it was on a subject that I feel
confident about, it was still unnerving to stand up in front of strangers to
market myself.
After presenting and being assigned into our groups to start our first
unit: literature review; we every group had to started working on our
presentations and wiki on a the topic we, as a group have collectively
chosen. My groups topic was elephant poaching. Because this was a group
collaborated effortbuilding and creating the wiki and presentationeach of
my group members and I had to make take responsibility by being on top
of what we needed to accomplish by the next deadline meeting our
deadlines, but it was also a responsibility to show up to each and every
class since the class was structured as a seminar than a lecture. Working

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with this group in particular helped me become more outspoken to check
with other group members if they have not done their part on an assignment
yet. It taught me to take action instead of assuming that the work will get
done before class the next day. Collaboration for the wikis were a little
challenging because of the fact that only one person at a time from the
group were was able to access the page or it would become ruined was
frustrating the system would glitch, causing us to lose our work.
Collaboration in this group was nothing new to me Collaborating with this
group did not teach me anything novel, but it put me in a new position in a
setting that I was familiar with. It allowed me to see into the perspectives of
my previous group members who have taken this position. Everything in this
group seemed in routine. The wiki was something that confused me and still
does confuse me. I do not understand the purpose of it other than to
collectively put our annotated bibliographies on. I wonder if there was more
my group and I had to do with it. We did not present the wiki in class; I
believe it was something that my group could use in our eportfolios.
In this unit not only did we focus on the presentation, but also looked
specifically at the graphic novel We3 written by Grant Morrison and
illustrated by Frank Quietly. Briefly analyzing the novel, the teacher provided
us with a step towards a wider frame for analysis. Analyzing the graphic
novel felt similar to analyzing a political poster made in the 1970s, although
the panels and frames, splash panels, use of color, and the amount of
content on each spread are different from political posters. The panel use in

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We3 inevitably held more content than the panel for a political poster, since
it is used to convey a story instead of one point. The cover page for all three
parts of the novel series are wanted covers o The colors for We3 are darker
colors, consisting mostly of dark greys, black, and red. Political posters
consist of bolder variations of red to draw attention, but are mostly
surrounded by the color white in order to draw the attention the little bright
colors used. Graphic novels are meant to convey a picture-by-picture story in
which they express the three Aristotelian appeals (ethos, pathos, and logos)
and more. It was different analyzing this type of text rather than enjoying the
entertainment it provides for us in that the my brain felt more active when
reading and scanning the images presented to me. When reading this type of
text for pleasure, my mind tends to become vacant and absorb the
information for a short time, but when analyzing this text, my mind was able
to focus and retain the information that and story. It is still difficult for me to
analyze graphic novels because I lack the practice and was not greatly
interested compared to other analyses.
After presenting, a literature review paper was assigned. The first
thought that had occurred was Great, we can finally start writing. But as I
started struggled to write the paper, my confidence level slowly decreased
plummeted. I felt as if I was not did not feel prepared to write the paper in
such a short amount of time. The prompt of writing a paper in which we had
to stimulate a conversation between articles baffled me to the point of
frustration. I did not understand what the professor had wanted was asking

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of us, especially since I felt that the prompt was too vague. As I struggled
with my persistence to stay focused, I had an epiphanyI understood, or
had a sense I understood of understanding, what the teacher was asking for
from in this essay. Having to admit, Not only was it hard to understand how
to write a literature review paper, but I also found it hard to unearth sources
for this essay. My passage was the one of George Orwell and the elephant
that had caused great distress on a small village. The paragraph that I
revised for the essay was the intro paragraph. The intro paragraph is,
personally, the most important paragraph. It is the first paragraph that a
person reads from the print and can either draw the reader to continue or
not. I enhanced the introduction paragraph by adding a more specific topic
sentence (or hook) that relates to the essay, fixed my grammar mistakes
along with the ambiguous sentences, changed tense, and introduced the
authors ethos. Paragraph that I revised. Explain exactly what you did to
revise it and what you learned form the revision process. Use the language of
the prompts and rubrics (see #1).
Starting our rhetorical analysis unit, the class began by watching the
documentary Blackfish. This film was a heart-wrenching documentary of orca
whales living in captivity and the harmful affects that that could cause on
them. The Aristotelian appeals of logos (logic), ethos (ethics), and pathos
(emotions) were then used for diagnosed in class diagnosis. This is when my
curiosity spiked. I always had a liking for the appeals, especially its the its
fallacies of each appeals. Diagnosing a media was something I had practiced

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all throughout my four years of high school. The difference between watching
this documentary for entertainment versus analytical purposes is the
thought process that takes place. When watching documentaries for
pleasure, I am affected by the appeal to pathos more than the other appeals
although I know that those appeals are present. Watching the documentary
for analysis, I detect logos most, although, it is overall equally present.
After getting into new groups, my new group members and I were
assigned to do a public service announcement (PSA); we chose the topic of
dogfighting. It was an engaging project in that we had to not only work inside
of class together, but also out of class and on our own. Never have created a
PSA before, I had a memorable time letting my creativity mingle with the
creativity of others be my guide us in how the transitions would look and how
the order we should present our appeals and pictures. We were proud of the
finished product. I had thought that my groups presentation was going to be
superior to other PSAs, but as people pointed out its its flaws after our first
presentation and we were given an assignment to do a revision of our PSA
and present that as well, I could see our second attempt at our PSA was
better in quality and presentation than what we thought of as superior. our
first. We could have timed the slides a little better with the music towards
the ending of the video and we could have used better quality and more
effective photos in our PSA to make it stronger. During this project, I learned
how a PSA could be used in order to create an impact and the key roles the
three appeals play. Starting with an audience and message, PSAs can be

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used to create an impact for any and all issues using ethos and logos for
credibility and logistics that make the arguments legitimate and real. Pathos
plays a primary role in PSAs. Although the other appeals are important, the
appeal to pathos is strongest in the PSA because it is what motivates the
general audience. It is important to adjust the appeals according to the
audience it is designed for. I learned most from the PSA was that I needed to
understand how to use the appeal to ethos in a more flexible light way. To
this day, I still do not understand how I learned and used ethos in my essays
during high school and am putting forth a great amount of effort in
strengthening this weakness. Exercising the use of ethos is a priority to keep
working on.
The collaboration in this project was more enjoyable than the last. The
last group we did not form a kinship that extended pass the classroom. This
group not only tried to get to know me academically, but also personally. For
example, one of my group members brought her dog along while we worked
on the first draft of the PSA. Our contributions were evenly distributed
though I could not come to class multiple times because I had became sick,
but they were understanding of my situation.
The rhetorical analysis paper was next on our to do list the class schedule.
Having to take a rhetorical piece I have read or watched for from class was a
challenge for me for I have not written in a paper having to do with analysis
in a while. Again, the metacognition for this is as same as I mentioned in
the previous paragraph: I had a hard time incorporating a strong ethical

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appeal because I felt that my understanding of the appeal to ethos was
nebulous. Another aspect of the essay that I had struggled on was to form an
order in the organize the paper. In the first draft for the paper the paragraph
that I aimed to improve greatly was the paragraph one in which I had
discussed how the omniscient narrator presented to the audience that the
nameless man in Jack Londons short story To Build a Fire was oblivious to
the environmental cues that demonstrated the logical appeal of
disconnection between man and nature was an example of disconnection
between man and nature. The main focus I had on correcting this essay was
the concrete detail that I had implemented in the essay to exemplify my
argument. The quotations that I had used were not exhibiting a strong
portration portrait of what I had wished to convey. Instead of arguing my
point, the quotations had simply described the weather and environment,
not giving any insight into the man and his take on his environment. I
focused more on the analysis components of the essaywhich includes
analyzing over summarizing, the development of the paper, exhibiting how
the omniscient narrator persuades disconnection and stating more
prominently what the device I am analyzing are in the introduction sentence.
I also substituted the informal words to formal words [e.g., very, get, but,
seem(ed), show(en), start, wrong, etc]. Finally, I deleted the paragraph that
discussed Dr. John Grohol's article. A peer reviewed that his role in the
passage was not effective and appeared to be used as filler. It also did not fit
the rhetoric analysis facet of the essay since it was more fitting of a literature

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review essay. Explain exactly what you did to revise it and what you learned
from the revision process. Use the language of the prompts and rubrics (see
#1). Add Notice rhetorical devices in different texts. What have you
learned? What do you need to improve on.
Combine the two papers peer review paragraphs. The last step we
took in the class for literature review was to peer review a member of my
group. The peer review that I am used to is very different than the ones that
were practiced at my former school. The peer review sessions for both the
literature review and rhetorical analysis did not feel very effective. My peers
were kind and provided proficient feedback; however, a peer review that
consisted of actual markings of edits would have been better. Therefore,
instead of stating the vague corrections needed for edits, we could pinpoint
the exact areas in which we needed to edit. In this class we seek to find focal
points in what we have to focus on instead of making edits and suggestions
on the paper itself and walking through it with them. (We did this later on
with our rhetorical analysis.) The peer review sessions for the literature
review essays helped my openness in that I had to be willing to consider
this new way of receiving feedback. I had to become very focused on the
verbal feedbacks because if I had not I would have forgotten them. The two
groups varied in their feedback. The first group, in which we focused on
literature review, did not give efficient feedback. The second group, however,
provide feedback that focused on what the problem was exactly. Instead of

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giving a vague review, my group members did an outstanding job of
providing with what to edit and why.
The connect assignments that dealt with grammar and helpful skills
needed in writing was an enjoyable activity. Grammar is something I enjoy.
But there was one objective that I had trouble on: reasoning and argument.
Most of the components that I had trouble with under reasoning and
argument had to do with evidence that would support the claim. My self
evaluation from connect are sixty-one percent for being aware that I knew
the answer, thirteen percent for being aware that I did know the answer,
three percent that I did not know the answer, and twenty-three for being
unaware that I did not know the answer. Most of the answers that I was
unaware that I did now know the answer too were questions that I,
unfortunately, had misread. Although they were due to misreading, I do need
to recharge on this objective. There was nothing that I struggled on or
found challenging other than the reasoning and argument objective, but I will
recharge on this and other objectives as well as I continue on my academic
journey. Along with connect, another supplement to the class were blogs. I
did not feel that it was useful except to help me on my eportfolio. It was
enjoyable to read some of my peers blogs to see how their style of writing
differed from mine.
In conclusion, I think the most important lesson that I have learned
from this class is to use different reading processes in order to understand
the texts, such as We3. I understood for the most part how the story is being

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developed, but I did not catch the details of what the relationship between
the people were. It was hard for me to spot the villain and the antagonist.
Instead of reading it as a Garfields comic book, in the future, I plan to take a
step back and approach this type of reading by taking small steps when
analyzing different types of readings. My priorities that I need to continuously
work on as I advance in academics is to connection my arguments better to
my evidence and make sure that my evidence provides logos in return. I also
plan make attendance my priorities as well because that had become an
issue this quarter. None academic objects that I learned in this class are to
collaborate and be amiable instead of being apprehensive. I also plan to take
what I have gathered from collaboration into my future. In collaboration I
learned about different types of people, how they work, and how to work
around and with them.
The CONNECT assignments were fun
Things to look over and watch out for:

Make sentences shorter be more clear with sentences

Reflect on what you learned form adaptive modules in connect.
o Most challenging LOs
o Missed questions
o Self-Assessment