Lesa Tran

Dr. Lynda Haas

Writing 39C
5 June 2016
Reflection Essay
As I reflect upon this quarter, I have observed how much I have grown as not only a
writer but also a person. Writing 39c, is a writing course designed to deepen ones understanding
of rhetoric and communication, previously learned from a prior writing course in the writing 39
series, through research and analysis of evidence. Initially, I felt fairly confident, considering I
previously took one of Dr.Haass writing courses. I recalled the writing course to be practical and
resourceful so I was not hesitant and fearful coming in. Little did I actually recall the amount of
work and dedication this class requires. When Dr.Haas introduced the topic to be Loving
Animals, I immediately was unsure of how to feel with regards to this topic. I was indifferent
about animals, so this was going to be an interesting experience. I feared that this would affect
how I performed on the assignments. However, I kept an open mind and remained positive. I am
glad I did so because if I had not, then I would not have learned and grown as much as I have.
My growth can be demonstrated through the assignments done in Writing 39C: Historical
Conversations Project Essay, Social Media Campaign, Advocacy Project, Connect assignments,
and peer review.
The first main assignment was the Historical Conversation Essay. I found this assignment
to be the most challenging out of all the assignments done in this class. The last time I wrote a
literature review was well over a year ago. I recalled struggling with the conversation aspect of
the literature review. I had a difficult time having sources converse with one another; so, I was

not too excited. In preparation for the Historical Conversation Essay, Dr. Haas had the class do a
group presentation on various topics about animals. This was my first exposure to doing research
on using new databases. I was relatively familiar with databases to find, since I previously used a
database for my anthropology paper. My group presentation was on the topic of animal
mourning. I was hesitant about proceeding with this topic because I was not comfortable with
death. However, I kept an open mind and proceeded to learn about animal mourning. To my
surprised, I enjoyed the learning experience. This research experience had sparked a hidden
innate curiosity on the science behind mourning. It amazed me to see how scientists are able to
determine if an animal was mourning base off of something seemingly insignificant object, such
as fecal matter. In reflection of how my group, consisting of Dennis, Iris, and myself,
collaborated, I feel it could have been better. My group initially was not very communicative and
unorganized. I was initially very shy like my group mates. However, I knew that being shy
would only affect my grade; so, I took the responsibility to determine which part of the
assignment everyone was doing. As a group, we werent able to meet up prior to the
presentation due to conflicting schedules. Despite not being able to meet up, this taught me to be
more flexible and adaptive. Overall, this experience showed me the significance and importance
of communication when working with others.
From the research experience of the presentation, I was intrigued by animals have deeper
emotional relationship. This enabled me to consider that if animals have emotional relationships,
then animals must be cognitively aware. As a result, I ultimately decided to write my Historical
Conversation Project on cetacean cognition and communication. Initially, I struggled to find
sources on the databases using the words dolphin intelligence. I remained persistent and
changed my keywords to cetacean cognition and dolphin cognition. This enabled me to

obtain more sources. While writing the Historical Conversation Project, I struggled with the
conversation and controlling idea aspect with the paper. Through the peer review sessions, I was
able to obtain some suggestions. One suggestion was to make the controlling idea of the
literature review on cetacean cognition and communication prominent. In figure 1 below, I
clearly indicated that this was a review of the literature on cetacean cognition.

Figure 1: Evidence indicating that the paper is a literature review on cetacean cognition
and communication.
Another aspect that was edited was the MLA format of the paper. I had previously used
the publication year instead of the page number and name. In figure 2, the correct MLA format
for citation is shown.

Figure 2: Evidence indicating correct use of MLA format.

Lastly, the flow of the paper was edited to strengthen the paper by showing conversation
between sources as demonstrated in Figure 3 (below).

Figure 3: Evidence indicating connection to previous statements.

As a transition from the Historical Conversation project to the advocacy project, the
social media campaign, a group project, was assigned. Throughout the whole quarter, twitter was
used to communicate and share ideas with our classmates. I initially was very skeptical and
terrified of using twitter. By all means, I am not adept with social media and technology in
general. This is where my creativity, flexibility, and persistence shown to be the greatest. Twitter
was a learning experience for me. I found it particularly difficult to tweet with only 160
characters. It really challenged me to have concise and succinct messages. I learned how to use it
to not only communicate with the class, but also with the world. Clay Shirky, Professor in News
Media at New York University,believes that social media is an efficient method of
communicating with others globally and abundantly as demonstrated through the earthquake in
China. With the mindset of how impactful social media is, a social media campaign advocating
for chickens in factory farms was established. This social media campaign exhibited my
creativity, engagement, knowledge and understanding of rhetoric. I had the responsibility of
creating and maintaining Instagram, updating the home base site, and creating part of the
infographic. Initially, it was difficult to obtain followers, even from my friends. I received a lot
of feedback saying that the pictures were too graphic and that they did not want to follow anyone
who is doing a social media campaign in such a manner. From this, I became more aware and

shifted my focus onto viewer-friendly pictures. As a result, the instagram and twitter received
more followers as shown in figure 3 below.

Figure 3. Statistics from Instagram, WIX, and Twitter

Figure 4: Evidience of post comments.

One of my posts, demonstrated by Figure 4 (above), received the 14 comments. My post
received a lot of response because it targeted ethos and logos. It was interesting to see how
millennials responded to this with a reoccurring response of how its most likely true and that
they would not be surprised if it was. This response comments on the ideology of millennials.
When reflecting on this, it saddens me to see how millennials react almost become numb to such
horrific incidents as such. This social media campaign was an eye-opening and learning

experience. I found this experience to be insightful of millennials and chicken factory farms. It
has truly put consuming chicken and egg products in perspective for me. Prior to doing research,
I neglected and disregarded chickens and well factory farming in general, just like most
millennials would. However, after discovering some statistics on the treatment of chickens and
how chicken and egg products affect ones health, I am slowly leaning away from consuming
them. Not only did this project affect my views on chicken products, it changed how I felt about
animals in general. I am a brand ambassador for one of the top three manufacturers of leather in
the world. It really has affected me in how I sell not only the company but the products. I have
been made more conscious and self-aware of the horror I am subjecting cows and yaks to just for
the sole economic benefit of the company. I also noticed how persistent I was throughout the
assignment. The instragram page initially began with 10 followers and I was able to promote the
page to gain seven times the amount of followers we had in the first three days! As I mentioned
earlier in the reflection essay, I am not adept when it comes to social media. Considering all the
progress made on Twitter and Instragram, I am proud of the progress I have made.
As a shift from the social media campaign, the advocacy project was assigned. I
advocated for the maltreatment dolphin in captivity and in the wild. I initially wanted to stray
away from the maltreatment of dolphins in captivity because it is so overly done. However, I
decided to keep that aspect for the advocacy project. I did not find it as engaging. The research
done on dolphin endangerment in the wild was extremely fascinating. I never considered the
effects of global warming on dolphins. It was interesting to see how climate change affects the
food supply and ocean life. It was also interesting to see how renewable energy was affected
marine life by injuring marine animals and confiscating their homes. I believe the strongest
aspect of my paper was the problems for dolphin endangerment.

After the peer review session, I had realized my paper was not up to par in many aspects.
One of the problems with my essay was the structure consisted of very long paragraphs. To
improve on the structure, I added headings to indicate what each paragraph is about and
separated the big paragraphs into smaller ones. This is demonstrated in figure 5 (below). I also
rearranged the counterargument directly under the argument. This was a more suitable place to
include the argument because it was more impactful. This is shown in Figure 6 (below).

Figure 5: Evidence of structure change.

Figure 6: Evidence for rearrangement of counterargument.

One of my main priorities was to add more statistics and information in regards to the
problem and solution. My essay was very vague and consisted of brief statements. The edits that
show expansion of an example and statistics is shown below in Figure 7.

Figure 7: Addition of statistics to the paper.

Through writing this advocacy project, I learn a lot about writing a good advocacy paper.
Statistics is crucial in writing a persuasive paper because it provides evidence and stresses the
significance of the statistics. The statistics in Figure 7 demonstrates this point. As a reader, one
can note the significant increase and the potential effects of greenhouse gas. I also have learned
about myself in regards to the paper. I learned how passionate I am with climate change. I am
considering going into atmospheric chemistry, rather than analytical chemistry.
From everything that has happened in this class, I can truly say that this writing course
has enabled me to develop as a person and as a writer. I am grateful for this opportunity to learn
and grow. This writing course has taught me many life lessons such as being passionate and
confident in everything I do. I intend on using my research knowledge and applying to my other
papers I write such as lab reports. If there is one thing I learn from Dr. Haas, it would be if you
are passionate about what you do, then everything else will come easy. To say the least, this class
was a memorable experience.