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Leticia Cruz
Dr. Lynda Haas
Writing 37
3 March 2015
Reflection From the Start of Writing 37
My expectations coming into this course was that I was going to be having weekly essays
and going over grammar worksheets. These assumptions about the course were incorrect, instead
I was introduced to the uses of rhetoric, a concept I was not aware of. Our course, Writing 37
was centered on rhetorical analysis, being able to identify the three rhetorical appeals within a
text or film and how it is used to express their message or call to action to the readers.
Scholarly articles, writers, and even film directors need to be able to use all the rhetorical appeals
and rhetorical devices to their advantage to build credibility, an emotional response, and for the
message to be logical. When I was first introduced to rhetoric I knew I needed to be open and
flexible to the concept and to accept this new method of analyzing a text or film though the
rhetorical appeals and devices. The course topic of animals held my interest and curiosity, I was
not aware of the many different treatments animals face from human contact or how the media
and authors have mastered the use of rhetorical appeals to persuade the audience into believing
their message. I am aware of the social responsibility I have as a student, my actions can speak
louder than my words. Writing 37 introduced me to be aware of my surroundings, but to also
analyze literature, and any work that is meant to persuade its audience. The use of rhetoric is
used every day and I will be able to detect it because of this course. I have developed into a
better writer because of our Connect assignments, group collaborations, and academic essays.

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By being placed in writing 37 I knew that I needed to improve upon my writing, grammar
and language skills. The Connect assignments have helped me identify my weaknesses,
specifically in wordiness, paraphrasing, summarizing, and citing texts in an essay. I thought that I
had an understanding of the difference between paraphrasing and summarizing, but it took longer
for me to complete the assignment. Ive come to realize that this is what I need to focus on when
I am editing my essays. I need to make sure that my summarizing of events are logical and
coherent. I think I know how to integrate source material in a text but my execution isnt the best
and I do not know all the different strategies. In my self-evaluation I noticed that I have two kind
of mind sets, I know the material or I am unaware that my answer was incorrect. I definitely
must second-guess myself on material that I feel confident in. I understand that confidence
makes me feel smart but I also have too much confidence that does not help me in my writing
skills. For future classes I know that I need to consciously work on this weakness by editing my
essays and having a fresh set of eyes look over it as well. Having someone else to look over
my work is beneficial and challenges me to think of different ways to effectively get my message
across.
I had a feeling that I would be doing peer reviews in this course, I was afraid of having
someone else read my essays; since I know that my writing skills are not the best nor is my
grammar within the essay; I thought that this would confuse my peers when they were to read
my writing assignments. In some ways I was right, my grammar errors were a distraction for
some, but I also realized that my ideas were not bad. My classmates noticed my weaknesses and
were able to help improve my drafts by pointing out my errors. In the majority of my writing
assignments, I was able to express ideas but my audience was not able to understand it because
of the grammar flaws and the structure of my sentences. I noticed that I am not the only one who

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has this problem there are others like me and there are those whose weakness are in other areas. I
did a peer review for a classmate outside of my class and found that MLA format is an important
format that needs to be mastered; a student doesnt fully understand then there assignment does
not seem credible or professional. For academic work college students shouldnt need to worry
about their MLA format because it has already been mastered. Peer reviewing has helped me be
realize my flaws in writing and has inspired me to think outside the box. Most of the reviews I
received and gave were in our group collaborations for projects.
In the beginning of the quarter I read through our class syllabus and was surprised that we
were going to do group projects. I thought that I was going to be writing for the majority of my
time in this class, but the group projects were different and rewarding. For my first group project,
my classmates and I did a wiki on K9 dogs, there use in the military and in policing in our nation
and international. In the beginning of this project I was uneasy because we did not have a
definite concept or thesis. There wasnt a lot of discussion about the topic, I proposed an idea and
we followed through with it. There wasnt a lot of discussion on the topic, we did out separate
sources for the work cited. Each of us were responsible for different parts of our presentation. I
found articles that were going to be used for the use of military dogs in the USA and how they
were trained. After reviewing our sources we presented our project. The first group project taught
me that I need to be persistent, I needed to be interested in any topic even if I was still uneasy
about it. Once a decision is made I must be determined to fully finish my commitment and give it
my full effort. The second group project started off great, my two classmates and I were engaged
in our PSA project. We were all involved in deciding a topic and we invested in our PSA on
stopping puppy mills by taking time outside of the classroom to work on the project. I made the
script for our PSA, and my other two teammates were in charge of pictures and video editing.

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After our presentation of our PSA we needed to correct a few errors, we needed to create more
ethos and logos. My classmate and I were informed by Dr. Haas that our other classmate was no
longer going to be available for the course; at that moment I was worried for our PSA revision
since he did all the video editing. Nevertheless my other classmate and I had to teach ourselves
how to use a movie maker program to finish the revisions. In some ways I am glad this happened
because I was forced to be creative by learning new programs that would project our PSA
message, to pledge not to buy a puppy online. These projects were as informative as the
academic texts and writing we have done throughout the quarter.
The texts we have read in this class have been different from the usual texts I have read in
the past. These texts are written by scholarly authors and each one of them uses the rhetorical
appeals of ethos, pathos, and logos in their writing. The scholarly text of Lesley Irvine was long
and I noticed that I couldnt fully read the full text, I needed to skim and analyze. I have a
different process when reading a scholarly text, I need to research the author to make sure he/she
is credible, look at their headers/sub-headers, and read their topic and concluding sentences of
each paragraph. The We3 issues also helped me in realizing that I needed to focus on the genre of
the text and themes it used to convince the readers of his message. The documentary, Blackfish,
also taught me to look behind the amount of sad images presented to the audience and analyze
the film. By learning rhetoric I was able to analyze the film by looking for ethos, pathos, and
logos. I learned that the film did a great job in building ethos by dis-crediting Sea World and
created logos by presenting researchers in the film. These texts and films prepared me for the
academic writings Ive done such as the literature review and rhetorical analysis essay.
Literature Reviews are meant to review scholarly authors over a specific topic. The writer
needs to be able to project how the different sources would discuss the topic, the different

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opinion of each one based on their research, and the similar ideas they would agree upon. I have
learned that when writing a literature review, the scholarly authors should be well introduced and
ethos needs to be established by telling the audience the authors credentials. In my own
literature review I wrote about how the poaching of elephants supported the ivory trade. I chose
my first paragraph for revision because my thesis was not well developed, my readers werent
able to understand what the literature review was based on. My thesis statement was vague and
confusing. In class, we did a workshop on revising thesis statements in literature review; mine
was shown for everyone to revise. At the moment I was embarrassed for having it up there, but
after reading it again I realized that it did not meet the standards of a literature review. I
appreciated the revision workshop. I learned that I needed to use the scholarly authors in the
thesis statement to support the main idea that elephant poaching is an issue that needs to be
addressed. I laid out the three sub-topics I would cover in the thesis of my literature review; this
strategy was also used for my rhetorical analysis.
A rhetorical analysis is analyzing a film or text by identifying how it uses the rhetorical
appeals of ethos, pathos, and/or logos. Outside sources also need to be used to support the
analysis, they need to credible and pertinent to the topic. In my own rhetorical analysis of
Blackfish I chose to revise one of my paragraphs that was randomly put into the essay. When I
was writing this essay I remembered that there was a neurologist who was credible to the film
and would support my thesis, so I made a separate paragraph. But, I never went back and
integrated this section into the essay. When it was peer reviewed my classmates mentioned that it
was random and didnt quite fit into my essay. Since then I have revised this paragraph and
included it with the other expert on orcas; the flow of the essay is better and is cohesive.

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I have definitely learned important lessons in Writing 37; my grammar errors hold my
credibility back. Its important to be grammatically correct so my readers will be able to
understand my message and main point. I learned that the first drafts of any essay are always
going to be bad, confusing, and must be revised. In future writing classes I need to focus on
making sure I formally introduce the sources I will be using and to correctly summarize and
paraphrase their main points. This class has also helped me in metacognition, I am aware of how
much I have grown and improved upon by comparing my first blogs to my latest ones. My
writing has also improved, there are a few things that I forget to input, but my classmates notice
it and notify me. For future classes I will make sure to have another peer read my drafts for a
different perspective and identify my errors; this will ultimately prepare me for my professional
career in the future. Finally I have learned that I have confidence, but I need to take a step back
and accept that I am not always right nor do I understand everything.