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Melody Hernandez

Professor McClure

Writing 39B

12th March 2018

Final Portfolio Reflection

In highschool, I was always able to slip through the cracks and construct essays for

generic prompts within a span of a couple of days. I usually got away with my “topic sentences”

and the way in which I would string together a bunch of paragraphs without worrying about

whether or not the structure made sense. Additionally, I never thought about the relevance of my

assertions in a broader spectrum. I would simply write an essay with the intention of getting it

over with which always succeeded and somehow I was still able to outperform my peers.

Without a doubt, I’ve always hated writing, critical reading, and essays which is why I always

opted for regular English classes in high school. When I was informed about the required lower

division writing classes at UC Irvine I dreaded the thought of being enrolled in the course. I have

never considered myself to be a “good” writer. Therefore, the idea of taking a writing class at a

University intimidated me. I questioned whether my old writing methods would work. I figured

it wouldn’t hurt to try. After all, it had worked in highschool and it could possibly work in

college. Therefore, my approach to this requirement was simple. I enrolled with the intention of

getting over with lower division writing as soon as possible. Despite my initial mindset towards

this course, I am grateful to have gotten the opportunity to have Professor McClure as my

instructor as he provided the stepping stones needed in order to improve my writing skills and

allow me to gain a better understanding of my role as a Rhetor.

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I vividly remember the conversation I had with Professor McClure about my initial

expectations of the course. Like many college students, I utilized Rate My Professor as a factor

when choosing my course. As I scrolled through all these professor profiles my anxiety grew in

fear of the workload Writing 39B would add to my Winter Quarter schedule. Eventually, after

reading all the reviews I decided to chose the course in regards to the theme. As a horror

enthusiast, I was quick to enroll in Professor McClure’s course because I figured it would make

the course more enjoyable. After all, it was horror based, how hard could it possibly be?

Turns out I was wrong. The first day of class was terrifying. As the Professor reviewed

the syllabus and expectations for the course I quickly grew insecure about my writing abilities.

Additionally, I was intimidated by the fact that I am one of the handful—of at most four—of the

first year students in the class. I worried that the upperclassmen had better writing abilities’ and

would raise the Professor’s expectations of writing simply because they were older. For the first

time, I felt threatened by the idea that I would be outperformed by my peers. On top of it all, at

the time it seemed as if we were thrown a pile of work. By the end of week one, we had a total of

four assignments which included creating a website which has a blog aspect incorporated into it.

Upon, hearing that we would have to run the page for the entirety of the quarter I immediately

questioned my ability to keep up with the pace of class. Considering I had been enrolled in

regular English classes my entire high school career where we wrote one “big” essay each

semester. After leaving the first class I thought to myself, “ How am I going to do this?”.

To be honest, I believed I had a clear scope of rhetoric, passage analysis, and horror

genre conventions because of the Writing Lab I enrolled in the summer prior to my first year at

UCI. Upon, beginning the discussion of rhetoric and horror genre conventions by analyzing the
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novel ​I Am Legend​ by Richard Matheson, The ​Nature of Horror​ by Noel Carroll, and ​The Other

Place​ by Mary Gaitskill I quickly discovered that my prior knowledge barely scratched the

surface.

There was this specific in class exercise that changed my approach to rhetorical analysis.

My group and I were assigned a passage to analyze from ​I Am Legend, ​Matheson stated,

“Maybe I am, maybe I am. He actually found him jerking off the crossbar from the door. Coming

girls, I’m coming. Wet your lips, now” (22). Our initial analysis of this text explored the idea

that Neville was talking to himself in attempt to figure out whether or not he wanted to turn

himself into the hands of the vampires who preyed on him (Artifact 1). My group and I struggled

to come up with a worthwhile analysis considering we believed there wasn’t much to the passage

we were analyzing. However, after speaking to the Professor about our ideas we were

dumbfounded when he pointed out the over sexualized diction in the passage. Prompting my

group and I to question the purpose of this rhetorical device and why Matheson chose to use it.

Believe it or not, this small assignment broadened my perspective and knowledge on rhetorical

analysis. Thus, I was able to provide strong assertions and extensive analysis in my first draft of

the Rhetorical Analysis (Artifact 2).This lead me to believe I was on the right track for the paper

and that I would not have much to add to the final product.

Although, I was able to somewhat master passage analysis in order to augment my

assertions, my paper was weak because I lacked the greatest component which was the overall

message in the thesis statement. At the beginning, I thought I could get away with only subtly

mentioning it in the thesis statement. After all, my Professor had provided positive feedback on

portions of my essay such as the topic sentences and analysis. However, after peer reviewing, I
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admired my partner’s writing in comparison to my own because of their ability to incorporate

their message with assertions within the thesis statement. Additionally, I was was a bit shaken up

when the Professor mentioned that it was expected for a handful of students to not produce a

passing paper. Adding that, some individuals would go through the revision process until the end

of the quarter without being able to pass. Thus, it served as a motivator because I feared being

one of those individuals simply because I was lacking great components of the essay. From that

point on, I was determined to do my best to write a paper that not only encompassed a strong

thesis statement with an overall message, but to exceed the standards of the Rhetorical Analysis

essay.

As mentioned before, I was determined to improve the quality of my paper after

receiving constructive criticism because of my own need to meet my Professors expectations.

Thus, I scheduled an appointment outside of office hours with my instructor in order to gain

clarification on comments made on my paper in regards to the overall message, paragraph

structure, and how to incorporate outside sources (Artifact 3). My meeting with my Professor

allowed me get a better understanding of what my paper’s strengths and weaknesses were.

Nonetheless, I was able to brainstorm, with the guidance of my Professor, ways in which I could

incorporate the overall message, improve the argumentative framework, organize paragraphs in a

logical manner, and introduce new ideas to aid my assertions (Artifact 4). In retrospect , I was

foolish for not taking advantage of the Office Hours provided by my Professor on a weekly basis

throughout the quarter. Professor McClure’s direction not only helped me improve my paper but

recognize my weaknesses. If I had attended office hours earlier in the quarter the entire writing

process could have gone smoother and less stressful. Upon that experience, I realized how
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helpful instructors’ office hours can be. I will take this experience with me upon my enrollment

in Writing 39C next quarter.

In regards to my approach to the revision process, the revision of my final draft consisted

of targeting the points in my essay suggested by the Professor and peers. I wanted to make sure

that all the discrepancies in my paper were addressed in the revision process. Therefore, I

gathered all the feedback I had received on my draft such as google docs suggestions, peer

review analysis, office hours notes, and professor comments. By doing this, I was able to see the

points in which the comments overlapped thus increasing their importance to the revision

process. One example of this is the comments by both the instructor and peers on my reiteration

of categorical interstitiality throughout the paper (Artifact 5). As suggested by my Professor, I

rearranged the order of the paragraphs so that the structure would consist of a broad introduction

to categorical interstitiality and transition into specific points of the novel that explored this idea .

Additionally, through the incorporation of Tony Magistrale ideas on the reversal of natural order

I was able to construct an argument that explored Matheson’s overall message of the novel.With

that being said, this new addition allowed me to stray away from my usual last minute

conclusion consisting of a regurgitation of previously stated information (Artifact 6). Thus, by

addressing these weaknesses in my RA Final Essay I was able to develop a stronger

argumentative paper that flowed logically.

Without a doubt, the countless in class activities and ultimately writing Rhetorical

Analysis Essay gave me the ability as a Rhetor to create a film in accordance to the horror genre

conventions, tropes, and rhetorical devices. As I drafted the script for our film with my group, I

used my knowledge on the horror genre to create a hauntingly realistic account of the lives of
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college students. My group and I drew inspiration from in class films and texts in order to nail

this assignment. I made sure that like my Rhetorical Analysis paper, Matheson’s ​I Am Legend

and ​Gaitskill’s ​The Other Place , ​that our film had an overall message for our intended audience

of college students. Otherwise, what purpose would the creation of the film have?

Overall, Writing 39B taught me many practical skills such as text analysis, proper

citation, MLA format, establishment of authority in paper, how to integrate my sources, and the

importance of my role as Rhetor. Without a doubt, the class has pushed me to approach texts,

films, and other forms of works in a way that focuses on analyzing not only how they are

constructed but the overall importance of these creations. I am confident not only in my ability to

become a successful Rhetor and writer . Although I still have areas of weakness, I have come far

from where I was at the beginning of the quarter. I want to not only thank my peers, but my

Professor, for providing me with constructive criticism and the motivation to improve my

writing. Without their help, I would have struggled to achieve the expectations of the class.

Much like the critically acclaimed writer, Tony Magistrale’s assertion of the reversal of the

natural order in art horror, my experience in Writing 39B was the complete opposite of what I

expected. In retrospect, this much dreaded class became my favorite of the quarter. I will take

these skills and newfound appreciation for writing with me upon my enrollment in Writing 39C.

I will no longer allow writing to intimidate me. I will only continue to grow as a writer from this

point on.
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Works Cited

Matheson, Richard, and F. Lancel. ​I Am Legend​. Zwarte Beertjes, 2007.

Magistrale, Tony, and Michael A Morrison. ​Dark Night's Dreaming ​. University of South

Carolina Press, 1999.