Khurana 1

Suraj Khurana
Professor McClure
Writing 39C
30 August 2015
Reflective Essay
As a Business Administration major I have learned to appreciate the patient, yet
thoughtful repetition of editing that constructs into the research and writing process. I have
always defined myself as an intellectual thinker, and throughout this course, I have significantly
polished my critical analysis skills. Instead of solely focusing on conducting research, I have
learned to continuously ask why on various levels. In my reflective essay I will discuss my
improvement as a writer and researcher by describing what I have learned through the process of
writing the Historical Conversations Projects, utilizing multimodal elements, reviewing and
revising, conducting online media research, writing my Advocacy Project, and through
developing habits.
My First Research Paper
The Historical Conversations Project initiated my development as a writer by teaching
me how to conduct a proper scientific literature, improve my time management, and analyze
information. The procedure of generating a research-based composition based on the emotions
in cows incorporated both time and repetition, molding me into patient writer. Despite the
numerous roadblocks I encountered, I always discovered a solution to my problem.
By deeply digging into scholarly-based research, I have not only learned how to present
an argument but also the importance of managing time. Finding the similarity between credible
sources, social blogs, and non-scholarly sources helped me eliminate the unnecessary research to

Khurana 2
develop a cohesive thesis. Secondly, due to the effort, time, and knowledge required to conduct a
research-based composition, I learned to plan ahead of time to efficiently manage my time,
which with I can spend time drafting, revising, and editing. Completing Allison Jollys
assignment on Conscious Chimpanzees helped me practice on how to effectively analyze and
implement sources, details, and the organization methods, helping me present my argument with
substantial evidence. With a constant repetition of research assignments, my development of
writing drafts, reading research, and annotating have evolved throughout the course. However,
much acclaim to my improvement as a writer is accredited to the analytically researched
discussion assignments such as Mooallems and Shirkys TEDtalks, Allision Jollys
summarization of sources, and the HCP drafting process. These assignments required me to read
and analyze credible information while critically thinking about the bigger picture.
Allison Jollys scientific review on Conscious Chimpanzees proved to me a long, but
helpful assignment, which boiled down the summarization and annotation of every paragraph.
Before Writing 39C, writing my drafts was like writing my thoughts on paper, yet I decided to
approach the HCP with more intense perspective on my first draft and better sense of
organization. By treating this first draft as a final draft, I evolved as a writer by producing fewer
mistakes on my paper. The picture below, summarizing Jollys paragraphs, showed me what to
look for when properly annotating, summarizing, and organizing each paragraph. I evolved my
writing and gained knowledge by applying this source to my HCP. My HCP shared similar
organization skills (seen below in Figure 1) such as introducing my draft with a historical
framework, defining the definition of emotion, laying out the organizational review, and
explaining why the studies are significant.

Khurana 3

Fig. 1. Shows Jollys organizational techniques in Conscious

Chimpanzees

This plays hand in hand with my pre-writing skills. I like to use an organized method of
pre-writing while I am brainstorming ideas. In fact, I tend to communicate with other people
discussing their opinion on certain issues before I start my writing. This provides me with
possible insight and ideas that I might not have considered, helping me keep openness to various
possibilities. For example, Jollys mid-week discussion tasked to me on week 3, helped share my
ideas with my peer ideas while exchanging opinions with each them. Throughout assignments
and drafts, I had various moments when I reached writers block; however, eventually I did come
up with solutions. While conducting preliminary research on my HCP, I examined various
scholarly studies only to come up with two reasons why cows experience discomfort: stressful
stimuli and physical posture. These two stressors were easy to find and credited through
abundant research; however, I could not think of a third way until I actually thought about ways

Khurana 4
cows contain emotions. I learned that sometimes it is better to first think about the content rather
than immediately diving into researching. Sometimes the simplest way is the best way so I took
some time out to explore different ways as to why they can experience emotion. I used logic to
determine that emotion can be shown by someones behavior and applied that reasoning to
animals as well. This helped narrow down my keyword searches to cows emotional behavior,
which gave me several studies to base my research on.
Effectiveness of Multimodal Compositions

Khurana 5
Multimodal compositions and social media have heavily impacted my persuasion skills
through the use of both words and visual components. I learned that these compositions help
understand, support, and complement each other. For example, using an image in order to
support an argument tends to develop an effective and instructive method to communicate and
support the argument/persuasion. For example, Figure 2, taken from Helen Proctors study on
Visible Whites, serves as multimodal composition supporting my persuading text that the

Fig. 2. Study comparing visible eye white in cows with

stroking

stroking process emits

a relaxed and

calm effect on cows. If portrayed correctly, a text with another form of multimodal element
support the written text by effectively grasping the nature of the text. For example, during my
social media campaign, we posted a picture on our homepage with written text asking for support
while complementing our persuasion tactic with a video on pigs being slaughtered. Although
pathos can be portrayed in a text, videos helped us appeal to emotions in ways words cannot.
What the Media Taught Me
In my opinion, written media similarly compares to online media in that both are
informative and scholarly ethos; yet, visuals online are much easier to analyze. However, I

Khurana 6
learned that visual media does not display material as clearly as written text, and limits
credibility to a limited source. For example, written texts exhibit various sources exemplifying a
deep understanding of ethos and logos; whereas, online media limits its credibility.
By learning the importance of different genres, I was able to expand my knowledge in
different formalities of writing. The blog was less formal than the social media campaign, which
was

less formal than the literature review; however, writing in all

individual platforms, I learned something new. For example,
throughout the course, my blog improved my writing because it
required constant writing and constant creativity. Selfexpression such as the intro to week 1 blog, This Is Me
and the self-assessment on my week 3 blog, Times helped
improve my creative sentence structuring. Whereas, the
Habits of Mind blog written during week 8 defined
myself using creativity, molding my writing into an
original, resourceful, and inventive creativity. From a writing perspective, the

literature review differed vastly from the blog, and I learned that personal opinions should be
replaced with credible sources.
Lastly, writing in social media required me to write in favor of the reader. The audience
was basically treated as a customer, and only through all three styles of persuasion (logos, ethos,
and pathos), I was able to advocate my point to the audience. For example, by using Twitter and
Instagram as a social media platform, we were tasked with writing in brevity, yet also catching
the readers attention through persuasion tactics. This required more planning ahead because
each post required thinking deeply about how the audience would respond to a short

Khurana 7
Twitter/Instagram post. For example, the infographic (shown above) shows how our writing was
portrayed through pictures rather than text. I learned that writing in social media campaigns
differs in that the text needs to be short, but persuasive. In our infographic we used pictures to
represent the order of events while using only text to support our evidence.
The Advocacy Project
The greatest struggle I came across during my Advocacy Project was researching global
laws to argue for. This solution proved difficult to locate and advocate. The individual solution,
which was improving animal welfare by providing them with freedom, was not as hard to locate
because they were copious sources on that topic. I came across a brief study by the FSIS, which
included a proposal in favor of regulating practices in contaminated poultry products. With
poultry as the most consumed and abused animal on farms, I concluded that advocating a law
defending poultry cruelty would be the first best step to take in order to appeal to peoples
emotions and reasoning. As I researched for better solutions, nothing appealed to me more than
advocating FSISs proposal, allowing me to fully develop my thesis. After this solution, I
realized that my thesis was clear enough to meet both the problem and solution criteria.
Review and Revision
My improvement as a writer is greatly supported by the lessons and knowledge I learned
through the peer review and revision process. The drafting and revision process helps me
eliminate the weak ideas and replace them with supporting arguments. Through revision I was
able to pinpoint my weaknesses and turn them into strengths; yet, there was criticism that I did
not necessarily decide to focus on. After reading peer review comments, I was told to change
specific parts of my introduction such as not using Bekoffs definition of emotions. I constructed

Khurana 8
and shaped my introduction by mimicking Allison Jollys organization skills; therefore, it
appeared to be better to follow a credible source than a peer.
One criticism I used that many reviewers as well as the professor mentioned was too
focus on my organization skills. For example, my professor told me that my paragraph
structuring was way off as well as my topic sentences. In response, I reconstructed my topic
sentence on my second paragraph from, The second method to describe the characteristics of
emotions is from both calf separation from cows and social separation of cows, to The second
method describing the characteristics of emotions can be understood through research on the
separation of cows and their newborn calves directed by Rolnei Daros, affiliate of the Animal
Welfare Program in British Columbia. Here I was able to briefly introduce my paragraph and
author while eliminating an unessential study on the social separation on cows.
I used the positive comments that my professor gave me such as good job on the content
and research and Jollys organizational skills and used it to advise my peers drafts. For
example, I told one peer to use scholarly, supporting evidence to support their topic sentences,
because the lack of studies took away from the papers credibility.
Three main revisions that I have improved on, yet still need to work on are my paragraph
structures, topic sentences, and digression from my topic sentence. Staying on topic and relating
my body paragraph back to my topic sentences is key to helping me construct a better draft. I
received these criticisms both in my HCP and my AP draft; therefore, I like to conclude that my
biggest improvements are still my weaknesses.
My Habits of Mind
Curiosity has been an important habit I developed throughout the writing process. As I
researched about emotions in cows, I started to see a pattern with veganism, which made me

Khurana 9
curious to know more about it and what others think. I reached out to my professor, and kept an
open mind. One habit led to another habit all because of curiosity and my willingness to learn
more! Keeping an open mind and thinking differently has helped me realize that animals are just
like us humans. I never thought of it this way, but now I have realized their importance and
similarity to us. We are a species just like them. Curiosity has expanded my openness. I
understood from day one that this course is a lot of work, and would require a lot of time. In
order to receive a good grade, I need to be engaged in my work and research. I learned to build a
desire for what Im learning by engaging and investing in knowledge. Each assignment given to
me made me engage and learn more about them. By investing hours and hours into my HCP
draft, I finally got feedback from the professor saying that it was a very strong draft. This
boosted my confidence and made me realize that engagement in my work, despite the work and
time, will be paid off in knowledge. This plays hand in hand with curiosity because if I am
curious for my work and urge to learn about it, I will engage in it.
I do believe that throughout this course, I have improved in every habit of mind but more
in some than others. Persistence has become an important habit I have developed. Each task I
received over this course could be categorized in two ways: interest or no interest. In other
ways, I could have finished every task without caring about it, which was the case when I started
this class. As research began and I realized the workload, the best decision was to gain an
interest, and I am extremely glad I developed this habit. Being persistent in short-term projects
led me to be persistent in long-term projects. Interest in a short assignment made me realized
how I could use that experience and knowledge and apply it to my long-term project.
Conclusion

Khurana 10
At the beginning of the course, I was a below average writer due to my lack of
knowledge and limited information on writing and researching. At the beginning of this course,
my goal was to expand and improve my writing and organization skills. I knew in order to
develop as a writer I had to commit numerous hours of research and repetition of writing. This
class was extremely challenging for me in both aspects of writing and researching because I was
never a patient writer. However, in order to expand my knowledge I had to step out of my
comfort zone. I broke my habits of using simple sentences, rushing through sources, and not
editing my drafts, and took the time to improve in those aspects. This meant my patience would
be tested, but at this time of the course, my ability to sit through hours of writing and research
have been much improved since I started. In fact, I received a passing grade on my HCP because
I properly used my resource as well as time and organizational skills. Although the journey was a
struggle against patience and time, I fought through the hardships to complete my blogs,
assignments, discussion, and essays to the best of my ability. Every assignment helped me evolve
and expand my knowledge as a researcher. In fact, learning to conduct scientific research, I now
have the knowledge and ability to conduct a research for future tasks.