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Victoria Tran

Writing 39 C

Professor Broadbent

2 June 2018

Reflection Introduction

Before coming to college, I liked doing things old school style. A pencil/pen was all I

needed to write. In high school, whenever I was given the choice between typing my essay or

writing my essay, I would almost always choose to write it out. However, as I went onto college,

my writing process became more influenced by my peers. After seeing many of my peers

writing out their papers on their laptop, I decided to imitate them. So, for writing 39B and the

first part of Writing 39C, I decided to write out my papers on my laptop from scratch. When I

used this method, my writing became less structured and it took me a long time to process what I

wanted to write and what I wanted to convey to my audience. Upon my writing 39C professor’s

advisement to take down notes whenever I read something for the class and his comment that

jolting down ideas and notes physically with a paper and pen/pencil helps with the configuration
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of a paper, I reverted to my old writing

style. I found that writing my ideas and

thoughts out onto a paper with a

pencil/pen made my thoughts and ideas

flow better. It also made my research

more organized, which helped refresh my

memory about the article and made it

easier to write my paper since I had all

the information that I needed in front of My notes on an article about an awareness program for
nurses in Japan
me. Being in a new environment made me want to start new and this included my writing

process. With this writing class, I realized that I had

been developing my writing style and skills since middle

school and high school, and that I should not tear down

my foundation, but build on top of it. Writing begins

with brainstorming and once an idea of how the paper is

structured and should look like is done, then the writing

begins. This simple foundation was something that I had forgotten when I started writing in

college, but this class made me see and remember its value and importance.

Composing Process -Finding a Solution for the AP


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Creating a solution for the problem that we presented in the HCP was the most

challenging part of writing the AP for me. This was because I was trying to think of a solution

that was flawless and could fix my problem, the rising rate of child abuse in Japan. Then I

remembered the first article that we read in class, “There is No Such Thing as Freedom of

Speech,” by Stanley Fish and the very impactful idea that every word is offensive to at least one

person in this very big world. I drew

a connection from this idea to that of

the solutions. I realized that there is

A quote from the article “There is No Such Thing as Freedom of Speech” no one solution to a problem that can

make everyone satisfied because every person has their own different culture and perspective on

different ideas. Therefore, I decided that if I could not fix the problem, I could at least try to find

a solution that can decrease the risk factors of the problem instead.

Narrowing down my topic, I focused on one of the main cause of the increased risk of

child abuse in Japan, poverty of

single mothers in Japan. With

this problem, I brain stormed

some ideas on how to help

single mothers financially. At

first, I was contemplating the

increase of welfare as a solution.

Notes on different solutions However, after some research on

Japan’s welfare system, I decided against using it as a solution because Japan already uses a lot

of its federal funding on social security and welfare. So, I went back to researching and found an
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article that discussed how the government/ society should start pushing for the fathers to take

responsibility for the financial needs of their child instead of punishing and shaming single

mothers for using welfare money in order to survive. Through this, I got the idea to research

about Japan’s child support system and law and that was how I determined which solution I

wanted to advocate for in my paper.

One hesitation that I did have with this solution was that America already had a similar

system for enforcing child support, so I emailed my professor about whether I could still use this

idea as my thesis for the AP. Luckily, my professor said that it was okay to use an existing

solution but advised that I should critic that existing solution as well. This advice helped me

solidify my thesis and strengthen my argument for my solution later on in the AP.

My professor's emailed response to my question

Composing Process-Research

Learning how to research productively played a big factor in finding my solution. It

helped me narrow down my sources to only those that were useful and relevant to my topic. As

a result, the time that I used to research was well spent and provided me a lot more credible

information than if I did not know the proper

way to look things up in the UCI library

database. For example, before this class, I

thought that any articles aside from Wikipedia

counted as a scholarly source. So, when I


News article on child abuse in Japan (I thought that these
were considered scholarly sources.)
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started writing my HCP, I searched my

topic up on Google and researched

through newspaper articles and other


Scholarly source found on UCI library database
websites that I thought counted as

scholarly. I was surprised to learn that a scholarly source had a lot more

requirements, such as the article needed to be reviewed and confirmed multiple times by other

professionals, when we went to learn about how to research from a librarian. Learning which

articles are scholarly and has reliable information is important because a paper/argument is

stronger when it’s source and information are credible. A quote from a professor on their

specialty has more weight to it than a quote from a journalist who gets their information through

word of mouth. The importance of a reliable source is illustrated in my AP when I quote J. Sean

Curtin, a professor at Japanese Red Cross University. The quote itself is just a statement that

supports my thesis, but because it is coming from a professor who has a study on this topic, it

carries a lot more weight than if I had stated it.

A text portion from my AP

It became clear to me while writing the AP that research can also be a great way to

examine a lot of different perspectives on a problem/topic. This allowed me to be more critical

of my own solution and make it the best solution by addressing the weaknesses inside my

arguments. One instance I used another person’s solution’s weakness to strengthen my own was

when I compared my solution to Japan’s solution of placing the abused child into a child care
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facility. By

comparing

other people’s
The portion from my AP when I compared another person’s solution to mine's.
solution and

point out their flaws, I was able to strengthen my own solution since I could challenge their

shortcomings and use the solutions to those shortcomings inside of my own solution.

Importance of Framing

From the pictures used to the structure and words, the careful planning and placement of

each element plays a role inside the framing of a written work. One activity that illustrated the

significance of framing inside a written work was the reading and analyzation of the article “The

Coddling of the

American Mind,” by

Greg Lukianoff.

Examining this article

illustrated how a

picture can be a

powerful tool when

framing the problem. The article’s first picture was placed at the very beginning, even before the

title. This image and its placement at the beginning is powerful because it conveys to the

audience what the article is about and shapes their perspective on the problem even before they

begin to read the article. This makes it easier for the author to convince the reader that the

problem that they are advocating for is worth addressing and that their solution for that problem

is valid and necessary. Using this knowledge, I tried to find pictures and other multimodal tools
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that related to my topic and placed them inside my paper where it would be the most effective.

For example, when I discussed how poverty is a factor of child abuse and the harsh reality of

single mothers in Japan, I placed a snap shot of an article that also discussed the hardships that

single mothers go though in Japan. With its bold lettering and large size, the snap shot of the

article’s title helps express the

main idea of that paragraph. It

focuses the audience’s attention

while illustrating that the

problem of single mother poverty

is real and big in Japan.

A snap shot of my AP illustrating the importance of images and framing.

Revisions
My professor’s comments have been very helpful in the creation of both my HCP and

AP. One comment in particular that he wrote for my AP draft and also emphasized a lot in class

is the usage of subheadings to make the paper more organize. When I read over my AP draft

again, I found that my transitions were choppy and that the paper did not flow well. However,

after taking my professor’s advice and adding subheadings into my paper, I found that my words

and transitions were a lot clearer. It made my paper easier to read and that helped with the

conveyance of my solution.

Professor's comment on AP draft


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Transferable Knowledge
Compared to math or science, writing was always harder for me, so being a biological

science major was perfect for me. After not taking writing for a whole quarter, I came to think

that writing was just another GE class that I had to take to and get over with in order to graduate.

However, from this class, I found that learning how to research efficiently and how to frame a

piece of work are useful skills for any major to have.

Communication through pieces of written works is an essential keystone to the

advancement of humankinds. Whether it is medicine, politics, or business, it is use as a medium

to share information, data, and findings. As more and more data become assessable online, it is

important to learn how to navigate the web in order to get full access to the information that is

the most fitting to you. For example, a researcher can better find and learn from other researches

that have/are happening around the world. This can lead to the development of their own

research and eventually a solution to the problem that they are researching. Knowing that what I

learned has a real-world application related to the medical field is important to me because it is

what I see myself doing in the future and so it became a learning experience for my future career.

“Two heads are better than one.”

Knowing how to frame a piece of work or even just an argument can be a very

advantageous ability because it has the power to persuade the people around you. I can use this

skill to win arguments and debates, as well as write very compelling papers for other classes and

my future occupation. For instance, I will be taking Philosophy in the summer, so knowing how

to do this will help me create papers that are molded and structured in a way that is the most
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effective in conveying my message to the audience. Additionally, knowing how to argue is

important, especially when it comes to debatable topics such as the right to health care.

Writing 39C has taught me a lot, from critically thinking about controversial topics to

learning how to research and frame a solution, it has provided me a great experience while being

able to take away a lot of new skills that will be of use to me throughout my time at UCI and my

future occupation/life.

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