Rachel Fazio

English1A
May 6, 2015
My experience through this STACC English journey with Professor Adler has been quite
fun. I think I have grown to be a strong critical thinker, although I know that I could use a little
bit more work. This journey has showed me how to think in ways that I never imagined of, such
as what kind of mindset I have as a learner or what it means to be a change writer. There have
been many articles, stories, books and other readings in this class that have really opened my
eyes about what it is to be a well-educated student. There are many things I want to reflect on
including comparing and contrasting my first semester experience to my second semester, also I
want to share some of my stronger writing pieces and some of the weaker ones. Before I begin, I
just want to give a huge thank you to one of the greatest professors at Pasadena City College,
Brian Adler, he was not only the funniest professor but he really showed how passionate he was
in what he does and really cares about his students and their education. If anyone reading who
has not taken STACC English 100 or 1A, I highly recommend him as a professor, you wont
regret it.
I started off fresh out of high school coming into the STACC English 100 class. Although
I had heard about most of the material we covered in that class, I still needed some practice. We
did a few essays like narratives and critical analysis essays. I am glad we ended up going over
these types of writing because I had forgotten how to write them. Theres a book that we used
both fall and spring semester called The Norton Field Guide to Writing with Readings and that
had all there was to know about how to write any kind of paper; that helped a great deal when I
needed to correctly structure and write my essays. Another book that helped me through the

essays was the Writers Reference book, which had a whole bunch of information on different
strategies and references to go over while writing.
When I started STACC English 1A, I was very sure that it was going to be like the
previous semester. I wouldnt say I was expecting it to be easy like English 100 because it was
not that easy, but I didnt realize how challenging this English 1A class was going to be. There
were a lot of new things I learned that I had never heard of before, for example what a discourse
community was which Ill explain further into this reflection. We definitely focused a lot on the
idea of what Mary Pipher calls Change Writing, where many writers have made a difference in
lives through their writing, whether it was their own lives or other lives. We analyzed a lot of
pieces of writing like Dr. Martin Luther King Jrs Letter to Birmingham Jail and Civil
Disobedience by Henry Thoreau that used change writing as a way to express their emotions
and address to others what their concerns and thoughts were.
As I learned about change writing, I realized how important it was to be able to tell your
story and use it as a way to get people to connect with you. Change writing isnt necessarily a
difficult thing to do, but if a person is motivated enough to make a difference they can write any
type of poem, essay or letter to be heard. I find it very powerful to use writing in such a way
where the writing becomes the voice of the author. I think that as a writer, I have improved my
outlook on things. I am able to view things in a deeper sense, I can take a piece of writing and
break it down as our class would say and I can connect different pieces of writing with my
own life and other writing. That is one of the best things I can say that I learned, the ability to
analyze in a higher sense and really connect the material to personal things. I take this
knowledge on analyzing and use it when Im watching movies, when Im reading books, and
when Im writing other papers for different classes. I know I might be going off on a tangent, but

I wanted to share a little experience I had a few weeks ago with my mom. We were watching the
Wizard of Oz movie and I suddenly started thinking about the movie in a way where I never
would have thought of before. I started analyzing Dorothy and all the characters in the movie,
and I came to a conclusion that all the characters she encountered on her journey to Oz were all
characteristics of her. The scarecrow, tin man, and the lion were all parts of her that she
unconsciously knew, and each of the things those characters wanted from the great and powerful
Oz were all the things she feared. It never really made as much sense to me until 2 weeks ago. i
knew that after this realization of the movie, I had become a better analyzer than I was starting
off in the first STACC English course.
This semester we did two major types of writing: rhetorical analysis and discourse
community ethnography. These two by far were the most challenging essays I have had to do.
The rhetorical analysis paper was hard for me because there are times where I think Im
analyzing the structure and strategies of the authors writing but it ends up being that Im only
explaining them. This essay we had to connect 3 texts we read and analyze their writing
strategies and compare how they used those strategies to address their message to their audience.
I chose to connect A Place to Stand by Jimmy Santiago Baca, Letter from Birmingham Jail by
Martin Luther King Jr. and of course Piphers, Writing to Change the World. Unfortunately, the
grade I got was not what I was expecting; I got a C- on this essay. I was hoping that I would at
least get a B if not then a high C but that didnt happen. I was a little nervous to begin with when
writing this essay because I have done a few rhetorical analysis papers in high school and I never
did well on them. My problem is that I start off analyzing but then I end up explaining way too
much instead of really stripping down the material. I know what I need to work on, and
hopefully the next rhetorical analysis paper I write will be a lot better than this one.

Unfortunately all the essays I have done this semester are about the same grade, which is not so
good. I have either failed to meet all requirements, or did not fully support my arguments. Im
hoping that the discourse community ethnography I wrote gets a good grade. I think I worked
extremely hard on that paper not to receive a good grade. This paper was about researching a
field of work in which I hope to be a part of in the future. I chose to research the social work
environment and I picked a mental health clinic in which includes a social worker. I interviewed
3 people for this essay and I also got the opportunity to become a volunteer at that clinic. I was
very grateful that I got the opportunity to ask questions to professionals in the field I wish to
major in. I am also lucky to have gotten the chance to become a part of that community, now Ill
have experience and know some of the language needed to know for me to be a part of this
community. I am very confident that I did well on this research assignment because I feel like I
went above and beyond with the research I did. This project was very fun yet very stressful
because the deadline came so close and there were last minute things I was trying to find for me
to finish my paper.
Overall, I had a great time these past two semesters with my STACC English classes and
it was nice being able to have the same people experience and grow together as readers and
writers. I will definitely miss this class and I hope to stay in touch with some of the students I
became close to. If there was anything I would do differently if I took the class all over again, I
would definitely try to engage more in class, meaning participate in the class discussions. I had a
fear that whatever I had to say was wrong and people would go against my thoughts, but I found
out that most people who did speak out had the same ideas as me. In the future as I continue to
volunteer at the clinic I researched for my discourse ethnography, Ill never forget the class that

got me there. I am so thankful for all the inspiring lessons my professor taught us and I hope to
carry on all my knowledge to others in the world.