Chieh Li

Professor Linda Haas

Writing 39B
June 1, 2014
Me as a writer
To be honest, I thought Sherlock Holmes was a real detective when I first entered Writing
39B with Dr. Haas. I was shocked that my knowledge is already behind everyone else on the first
day of class. Throughout many attempts on my academic essays, successes and failure have
allowed me to become a much better analyzer and close-reader than my first day in to writing
39B. Through the completion of each major assignments, I have gained knowledge about myself
and how I have progressed as a writer: with each composition and revision of my essays,
responsibility and flexibility have become the focus of my attention; by bringing the Rhetorical
Analysis paper to fruitful final draft, persistence and metacognition have being my motivation to
aim for perfection in my writing; the group presentations and RIP seminars promoted my
curiosity and openness towards the world beyond my tiny knowledge.
Through the process of revision, I have learned what truly means to be a close-reader and
to synthesize a conversation between scholarly texts; moreover, the main motivations are
responsibility and flexibility. Before writing 39B, revision, to me, is just correcting a few
grammatical mistakes in my essays and taking out some wordy sentences; however, after the
assignment on Connect about editing, I finally realized the importance of revision. Before I could
truly revise, I had to read the Scholarly texts several times before it starts to make sense. At that
point, I thought that was close-reading, but it became extremely difficult for me to express
myself in the literature review essay. At that point, I have fully understood the concept of close-
reading, and that is, I have to being able to read a scholarly text and to communicate flexibly
with others while delivering concise analysis about the text and the authors original ideas. In the
revision process, flexibility have allowed me to adapt to new ways of approaching difficult texts
such as the ones that we had to read in Writing 39B. By discarding old ways of approaching
difficult texts, I have learned to understand the big pictures presented in a scholarly text and to
dig deeper into the ideas they are expressing. If I had being a stubborn person that refuses to
change the methods that I was using, then I would have spent more time just to produce essays
that have a low quality. Being able to adapt to new methods, this becomes the key to succeed in
any kind of academia. With that in mind, responsibility have played an important role while I
was revising for my second body paragraphs in the literature review essay. By picking this
paragraph, I have realized that it is my duty to understand how to synthesize a conversation
between two scholarly texts, and this is certainly impossible without the close-reading that I had
just mastered not long ago. I have realized that in order to construct a perfect conversation
between two authors; I must first understand all the required information, and it is very important
to know the steps that I must take in order to synthesize this conversation. By revising this
paragraph, it will demonstrate all the new methods that I have learned in this class. Of course,
hard work is just part of this responsibility. While revising for my essay, flexibility and
responsibility have impacted my learning style and how I am going to react to different
environments that will put me outside of my comfort zone.
Aside from flexibility and responsibility, Persistence and metacognition were the big
factors that I have acquired about myself while taking my Rhetorical analysis paper to perfection.
Rhetorical analysis paper not only requires deep understanding of the material learned previously,
and it also relates to the newly covered topics. While revising my rhetorical analysis, I found out
that I was in need of constantly reviewing for the old conventions that we had went over, and the
new terms that we have just encountered. This was the challenging part about the rhetorical
analysis assignment, because the paper itself requires the merge of the old concepts with the new.
Persistence immerged while I was revising for this paper. This assignment has tested how closely
I have being paying attention and keeping my knowledge up to date. It was hard for me at first to
review all the conventions and details about the genre we had went over, but as I know more
about the genre and the conventions itself, I began to draw interest in the detective genre. The
reviewing process rebooted my interest in the detective genre. Not to mention, we are allowed to
analyze one of the popular TV series that have being produced. Persistence has allowed me to
keep my interest longer and gradually turned me into a dying fan of the detective genre;
moreover, this leads into my next point, the rhetorical analysis paper contains everything that I
have learned so far about the detective genre and Conan Doyle. Its strongest part will be the fact
that it will contain all the conventions that we have gone through. However, the weakest part is
the analysis of the mash up between the Superhero genre and the action adventure genre on
modern day Sherlock Holmes stories. This is where Metacognition comes in. I must have an
awareness of my own knowledge and how much I can apply. When I found myself having
trouble explaining certain concepts, it is the time that I should think to myself whether I have
fully mastered the new materials before progressing with my essay. Many of the time, I found
myself rushing just to finish the assignment, and as a result, the facial expressions of my peers
during peer review are very rewarding. It tells me the bad qualities of the essay and how much I
need to revise it later. Metacognition is very important in everything I will be doing in the future.
Second chances such as peer review are not often in life; I must be more careful in terms of my
work habits and determination.
Throughout the quarter, I have participated in my group activities and the biggest one
being the RIP Seminar; the art of collaboration has allowed me to gain openness and spike my
curiosity. In the first presentation, I had to introduce myself to the whole class which was the
worse experience by far in any of my classes. I was never the person that could go in front of an
audience and communicate publicly. I never wanted to deal with my fear for public speaking;
however, everything changed when I noticed that in writing 39B, there are numerous amount of
presentations that I have to do with other group mates. After the first few presentations, I have
realized that by practicing in the mirror will help me in my performance. Openness have played a
huge role on helping me get rid of the fear for public speaking. It is very important as a skill for
anyone to be able to listen to others for advice. As for myself, I have learned to put aside my
pride and to listen to advice from those that are experienced. This is a huge step for me, because
I will be constantly learning from others. During our rehearsal for the RIP seminar, my leader,
Nick, have taught me many performance techniques in order for me to act my part of the play. I
was assigned to play as the victim of the mini-detective story while having some other
relationship between Justin and Saho. I also have learned that the smallest details of the
background in a play matter for the audiences. Despite the work I have to do for the play, what I
have learned is beyond the curriculums of the class. I have learned that communication is very
important in a group environment. For example, everyone had great ideas towards the play, but it
is impossible to incorporate everyones ideas. However, the group needs to consider everyones
opinion, so there should never be any hard feeling when the decision are concluded. My script
was never used in our play, but this leads to the curiosity of me. I should accept everyones
opinion and be interested about their decision, and at the same time, I will gain more knowledge
on why my script was not chosen. This RIP seminar has provided many excellent lessons for me
to grow as a writer. From now on, I will always keep accepting others decision and be curious
about the outcome when it is concluded.
To sum up all the lesson I have learned in this quarter, I feel the most important lesson
are openness and metacognition. These two skills are essential for any kind of environment that
requires teamwork. Being able to accept others opinion is a crucial ability, and knowing my
own mistake are critical for me in any types of discipline. In the future, I will constantly remind
myself to be open-mined when working with others, and I will reflect on my own actions for the
possible consequences.