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Alan Tantiwassadakran

Writing 39B

Greg McClure

3 March 2017

During my ten weeks in Professor Greg McClure s Writing 39B class, I learned

many new attributes that I can take into my future writing classes . Throughout the entire

course, we were challenged to analyze multiple texts and create our own engaging

texts and stories. I learned countless useful tools during the course , but the main take-

aways I received from the course were how to comprehend rhetoric , how to close-text

analyze, and how to improve my communication skills through different

medias/mediums. We read texts, had discussions, and created our own stories to

sharpen our new knowledge of the take-aways I mentioned . The main novel we read for

rhetorical analysis was I Am Legend, by Richard Matheson, and to learn about the

horror genre we read articles like Nol Carroll s The Nature of Horror. The Rhetorical

Analysis Essay was an instrumental assignment in our class to allow us demonstrate

our knowledge of rhetoric and how to identify an author s intentions. The Rhetoric in

Practice Project/Video gave us a chance to display our creativity, while incorporating

our knowledge of the horror genre and its expectations . In this reflection essay, I will

talk about my overall impressions/progress of the course and myself as a writer , my

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own drafting process and experience, how I revised my own work, and how I intend to

apply what I learned in my future classes and life .

When I first entered Professor McClures class I initially felt that I was not

capable of the demands and challenges that Writing 39B brought . Through patience

and willingness to learn, I believe I brought myself to be proficient in understanding and

analyzing rhetoric. In the first few weeks of the course, I felt that I could not grasp the

concept of identifying an authors/creators rhetoric. For instance, in the assignment

where we had to analyze Trent Reznors and Johnny Cashs version of the song Hurt, it

was quite evident that I was still unsure of what I was doing and I had no clue of either

of the twos rhetorical situation. It took me about two weeks to get a better

comprehension of rhetoric. We had an assignment to watch and then respond to a short

horror film named No Way Out, by Kristoffer Aaron Morgan. This assignment is where I

felt I hit my stride in terms of identifying and understanding an author s rhetoric. I made

assertions not only about what was going on in the film , but also about the underlying

metaphorical messages Morgan was trying to get across to his audience . I think a

combination of things learned in the class gave me more insight to rhetoric . Reading,

writing, and analyzing became common to me and I believe this is a huge reason why

my progress as a writer improved. Articles like The Nature of Horror, by Nol Carroll

gave me a better of the horror genre and its expectation , while the countless
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assignments where we had to analyze rhetoric gave me a better understanding of

rhetoric in general.

Every time a new assignment presented itself, Professor McClure required us to

make drafts before turning in a final product. Drafting was essential for making a

persuasive and adequate essay. I feel that rhetorical analysis, in particular, requires the

writer to draft extensively since the discussed materials are exceedingly dense . In most

new assignments, I started rhetorical analysis with the same set of rules . I would do the

following in order: Read, analyze, re-read, question, then finally write. Every time I read

for the first time, I would think about the superficial aspect of what the author wrote . I

would read with this question in my mind: What would the average person think about

the words I am reading?. In the analyzation phase I, would attempt to start to delve

deeper into the mind of the author. The analyzation phase and questioning phase

usually happen simultaneously. I read while thinking about possible metaphors ,

symbols, and hidden messages, this is the hardest part in my opinion of this whole

process. Many times, I found myself re-reading the text to re-question and think about

the authors intentions from different angles. When we read, I Am Legend, I caught

myself doing this very process without having prior thought about it , so I stuck with it. I

felt that my methods worked well and kept me engaged while reading . Previously, I

would only read texts superficially and not think twice about an author s intention.
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A key component that Professor McClure incorporated in our class was the

revision process. We had to revise ourselves and our peers works numerous times

during the course. I felt this was an underrated portion of the class . It was important to

revise our work to refresh our thinking and look at it from a different angle overall . I

cannot account for my classmates, but in my own revision process I had a step-wise

structure. It mainly involves questioning my work over and over again , but the steps I

like to start with include: writing, questioning, revising, taking a break, then repeating.

The break portion in revising is crucial, in my opinion, since it gives myself time to sleep

on the subject and refresh my thoughts when I come back to it . It allows for me to

realize mistakes and helps me interpret thoughts differently and have a different and

better understanding.

The techniques and skills I learned throughout the course can no doubt be

applied in my later college years. The most obvious one being analyzing texts, but

another notable thing that I will take me is the revision process. Before this class I

revised my works, but not nearly as extensive like the way I did in this course. I think the

main reason it was not as effective in my previous classes was because I simply did not

do it as much. In Writing 39B, basically all the assignments brought along a revision of

some sort. As I leave this class, I know one thing will stick with me in all my classes. I

know see films, texts, and novels through a different lens due to rhetorical analysis. I no
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longer see things superficially and I instead, actively engage in thinking about and

questions deeper meanings.