Esteban Aceves Dr.

Lynda Haas Writing 37 9 March 2014 End of the Road I have learned so much in Writing 37 with Dr. Haas. Upon entering this class, I thought I knew how to analyze text or understand a theme, or even put together a decent presentation, but I was definitely wrong. This class has taught me so much, but I definitely do not think I have mastered anything, I have so much to learn still. In this class I learned how to write a textual analysis, analyze a genre, and create a decent presentation. In Writing 37, Dr. Haas had mentioned that there are eight Habits of Mind, in which we would be improving on as the class progressed. As the quarter went by, I began to notice how those habits changed from the when the quarter began to the end of the quarter. This class has proven to be more than just a simple Writing class. As far as writing essays goes, I have learned a lot on how to improve my writing. In this class I wrote two essays. One essay was about the mystery genre conventions and the other essay was about how the mystery genre conventions established in the Victorian Era are still seen in todays television shows and stories. We first started off the class learning about Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and how he set the status quo for the mystery genre with his series Sherlock Holmes. We read the intro to A Study in Scarlet to get a feel of who Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson were, then we read The Sign of the Four, and The Hound of the Baskervilles. After reading both stories, as a class we began going over the mystery genre and what makes the

mystery genre so specific. Prior to taking this class, I had no idea the mystery genre was so specific, and that each followed very specific guidelines. Upon learning that the mystery genre had specific traits that the genre almost always followed, I began to want to learn more. At this point, the habits of mind, curiosity and engagement, came into play. I wanted to continue to explore the mystery genre and see if these traits were true. After reading The Hound of the Baskervilles, I realized that the stories did follow the guidelines and I was in awe. The curiosity and interest in the genre made writing my first essay, the mystery genre essay, very easy; however I did not do very well on the essay. I struggled very much on the essay and despite having Dr. Haas and my peers edit my essay and give me many suggestions that could have improved my essay very much, I was arrogant. Up until this point, I was very close-minded on how I wrote essays. In my reflection post for the first couple weeks of class, I told myself I would become more open with other peoples ideas or suggestions. I realized that my peers and instructor are only trying to help me improve and this class has really showed me the consequences of not being open-minded and listening to the help of your peers. Because of this, I am choosing to fully revise my first essay, the genre convention essay, and use the help given to me by Dr. Haas and my peers to write a better essay. Around the time of my second essay, the habit of mind, openness, was already starting to develop and therefore, I felt more confident in what I wrote as compared to my first essay. Group work such as presentations and peer editing not only helped me improve my writing but has helped me develop a lot other skills too. In Writing 37, I did a lot of group work. Before this class, I absolutely hated group work. At the start of the class when Dr. Haas mentioned that a lot of the work was group work, I already felt uneasy at the thought of being in a group where no one wanted to help or do any work. However, this was not the case as the

quarter progressed. Looking back to my first reflection post that related to group work, I had one group member who did not communicate with the group and everyone else suffered the consequences, but with time, group work seemed great. I learned a lot about responsibility because of the collaboration in the classroom. The class started with many small presentations where each group was responsible for a certain topic to present to the class. After the first group project I felt really uninterested with group projects. I didnt like the idea of having to put trust into people I didnt know because it would put my grade on the line if they didnt pull their weight. However, I was persistent with the work and made sure everyone in the group was doing their job. I even made some great friends because of all the group work we did in class. I learned a lot about responsibility because of group projects. I realized the importance of doing your part. I will admit there were times where my group members would do some of my work for me because I was taking too long. Another habit I saw myself improving on was flexibility. I noticed my group members were always flexible with me when my work shifts would interfere with group meetings, at the end of the quarter I too became flexible, going out of my way to meet with group members. At the beginning of the quarter I despised group work, by the end of class I began volunteering myself in taking part of the biggest class collaboration, the RIP Seminar. The RIP Seminar was a seminar in which our class and another class got together to discuss two different topics. Before we could even present to the class we as a class had to brainstorm an outline. I and two other classmates were in charge of writing an outline for the fifteen minute intro where we covered the mystery genre conventions and the modern day texts. After completing the outline, we as a class went over the outline, however we had too much information and had to shorten it. Afterwards, I volunteered to not only write a scene in the murder-mystery skit we had planned, but I also volunteered to play the role of Dr. Watson. The

entire class had a responsibility in the RIP Seminar, whether it was script writer, presenter, props crew or even actors, everyone had a job to do. Writing the murder-mystery script helped me develop creativity. Not only we as a class have to remake an old Sherlock Holmes-style mystery, but we had to modernize it for todays audiences. It was really entertaining and refreshing letting out my creative side and as a class we had a great deal of fun planning and writing the script. Once it came time to present for the RIP Seminar, we were all really nervous. Presenters were memorizing lines, actors as well, props crew were putting together the props and making sure everything was there, directors were making sure everyone and everything was ready. If we did not have all the practice Dr. Haas had given us throughout the quarter, this presentation would have been a disaster, but luckily it was not. The presenters knew their lines and finished the intro in roughly fifteen minutes. The skit went really well despite the occasional improv made on the spot when actors forgot their lines. The audience seemed to enjoy it our presentation, nonetheless. This class has taught me many things. I not only learned how to become a better writer and analyst, but I also learned how to work well with others, take responsibilities more seriously, and feel a lot more comfortable talking and presenting in front of a group. I still have a lot to learn from this class, but Writing 37 has definitely began to shape me into becoming a better student, writer and presenter.