Reading over the course objectives, it is crazy to think about how much I

learned in a matter of ten weeks or less. Expanding on the difference between

summarizing and analyzing changed my way of writing. It became easier to get to my
point instead of stalling the reader by summarizing the texts. The scholarly essays
provided became a part of most of my writing assignments, which helped me understand
the authors purpose/message more each time I referred back. From the beginning, Nol
Carroll helped me identify the elements of something as broad as the horror genre to
more specific such as why certain aspects make a monster a monster. Even during week
ten, I found myself going back to Carrolls work to explain why the short film my group
and I created contributed to the horror genre and included what Carroll argues is arthorror in our case, this meant the monster could be identified after some sort of jump
scare, which ours did. Reading Mary Gaitskills The Other Place personally helped me
with my writing in this course because it was not a scholarly text, instead a creative one. I
never considered myself a creative person so being inspired by such a dark text that I
cannot relate to is incredible. The assignment that asked us to create our own horror story
contributed to the development of my rhetorical ability. I was particularly intrigued by
Snow, Glass, Apples by Neil Gaiman because I liked the transformation of a fairy tale into
a horror story. It was essential in my expanding my idea of rhetoric. The speaker
effectively convinces the reader that the once villain has become the one in distress, and
the princess is the impure enemy which I related back to Nol Carroll.
In class, the presentations we would have with our group helped me not
only become less shy with public speaking but also with developing new ideas. After the
first presentation, the following ones became easier because I knew what was expected

and it wasnt as bad as I thought to stand in front of a couple people I had never met
before as I thought it would be. Watching my other classmates go up and speak so
confidently and easily encouraged me to do the same, and I became to rely less on the
slides and more on what I thought the class would want to hear and what they would take
away from my information and apply to their own work.
The portfolio served to remind me that it was essential for me to improve
my work and writing. I liked the idea of having my own website to showcase my work
and demonstrate my growth and potential. The first time I created my portfolio, I was not
so pleased by the appearance because it was not aesthetically appealing at all. I decided to
try using another website and designed it while keeping the horror theme in mind. This
was included through the use of images that scream scary. I also added pages to my
website in order to make it easier to navigate. I think in a couple years from now it will
be nice to go back to this website and see how much I changed not only in ten weeks but
in a few years. I will definitely not be forgetting this portfolio.
Peer review was definitely not what I was used to in high school. When
we were first asked to peer review, I was a bit intimidated because I felt a bit embarrassed
of my writing. I felt that it would scream HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT versus giving off
a college student vibe. At the same time, I knew that someone in the same shoes as me
was reviewing my essay, which relaxed me a bit. After the first peer review, I realized
how much I needed someone to read my work before I could submit. Reading my other
classmates work gave me ideas for my own writing and process of thinking. I am really
appreciative of this being an objective for the course.

When I was thinking about the Rhetorical Analysis Essay coming up, I felt
scared because it was the first official college paper I would turn in. Brainstorming for
this paper was all over the place for me, and the first bit of writing I came up with
completely lacked detail. For example, the following excerpt provides strong ideas, but
fails to analyze them which was what the essay asked for.

By analyzing the speakers honest and descriptive nature, he resembles the type of
monster youd find in Psychological Horror. Psychological horror (a horror
subgenre) uses psychology to create unsettling reactions with the readers or
audience.

As you can see, I mentioned analyzing, but my writing does not analyze
what I briefly mentioned. For my final draft, I knew I had to include more detailed
analyses. I took the idea of the honest nature but instead of using the character, I viewed
it in the authors perspective. I did this because I learned in this class that the characters
do not exist they are just made up. I must analyze the authors intentions instead. The
previous except transformed into the following excerpt:

Another part of my rough draft I knew I definitely had to change was my

thesis statement. After being used to writing one sentence thesis statements in high
school, I knew I would struggle to make my thesis statement an entire page. There were
clear problems with my thesis statement. Even though I had a checklist, my draft barely
had any signs of the checklist.

I mentioned some scholars and their claims but I failed to introduce them,
their writing or how I would use their work to contribute to my own. When I was editing

my rough draft, I made sure to use the thesis statement checklist more and although my
thesis statement received an evaluation of meets requirements, I felt it was a major
improvement as you can see in the following screenshot.

When writing my draft for the RIP, my analysis was the shortest section
even though I knew it was supposed to be the largest. I knew this meant that I had to view
my short film as an audience versus as a creator. I did not know whether I was asked to
analyze how my contribution affected the audience reception or analyze the content as I
had analyzed The Other Place for my RA. Because of this confusion, I decided to go to
office hours where I was told that I had to include both. When I had a peer review for my
essay, I enjoyed reading my partners writing because it gave me ideas. I was also excited
to receive my feedback, which I definitely considered and used.

The last sentence, specifically, reminded me about the texts I was given in
order to use for writings such as these. Because of this, I included Carrolls The Nature of
Horror and Carol J. Clovers Men, Women, and Chainsaws. The following screenshots
provide sneak peeks of my inclusion of horror genre expectations.

Another example:

Overall, I feel like this course has definitely pushed me to improve my

writing. I feel like I do not realize how much my writing has improved until I go back to
my previous posts to compare. I feel I have accomplished most of the course objectives
and am ready to take some of these skills into my future writing courses.

Works Cited
Carroll, Noel. "The Nature of Horror." The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 46.1 (1987):
n. pag. Web. 30 Nov. 2016.
Date Night. Dir. David Bui and Alicia A. Dubon. Perf. Tony Bui and Tammy Tran. N.p., n.d.
Web.
Francke, L. "Carol J. Clover, Men, Women and Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film;
Barbara Creed, The Monstrous-Feminine: Film, Feminism and
Psychoanalysis." Screen 36.1 (1995): 75-78. Web. 30 Nov. 2016.
Gaitskill, Mary. "The Other Place." The New Yorker. Conde Nast, 26 Mar. 2015. Web. 30 Nov.
2016.