Kim 1

Eunice Kim
Professor Lynda Haas
Writing 37
December 12, 2014
Reflection Essay
Writing 37 was a course that I honestly never expected it to be. When I read the title of this class,
Critical Reading and Rhetoric, I honestly didnt know what the word rhetoric meant. Obviously, I knew
what critical reading was because of the previous experience I had in high school, but other than that the
word rhetoric was a blur to me. I searched up the word, rhetoric, and as I read this definition over and
over again, I didnt know what conclusion to make out of this class. As I came to class for the past ten
weeks, I learned a lot more and more. With all the hard work that is almost coming to an end, I couldnt
be happier enough learning a lot of different concepts that will benefit me in the future.
Analyzing the different genres, such as the detective genre, wikis, presentations, academic essay,
etc., allowed me to improve not only as a critical reader, but also as a writer. In the beginning, honestly
speaking, I wasnt so interested about the detective genre, whether it was from the past or present. But I
realized that the shows that I usually watch, such as, House, Law and Order: SVU, Psych, etc., were in the
detective genre, which allowed me to be curious about what we were going to be learning about.
Throughout the different genres we analyzed, details were always key to everything. Whether if it came
down to writing and designing a wiki, reading a scholarly text, writing an essay, etc., details were key to
developing the controlling idea and the main points of the essay. The literature review essay was a detailoriented essay that needed credible sources. It made me to be open to all the assignments and projects we
do in this class because there were times where I would just want to focus on the general idea on a certain
topic and not the details. With the help of this class, I also learned about the new genres, I probably
wouldnt have known about. I did know what the Wikipedia is, but Ive never really written any
information on that site, so I was very new to this idea of collaboration. The usage of white space and
images were very important, while we were working on our wikis. Analyzing genre and its context will

Kim 2
help me in the future, by knowing how much time it takes to absorb and learn everything. After absorbing
all the information, then I can apply it to whichever assignment Im working on. Analyzing genres and
the context isnt an easy task, and I now know how much time and effort needs to be put in to make the
assignment turn out well.
After reading the scholarly texts, Ive realized that I have to split up the text into many sections,
so that I can understand it more. In The Reader and the Detective Story, Dove wrote about the 4 qualities
of the detective genre, and looking into the genre, and theyre all pretty true. The genre has all of the 4
qualities that he stated in his book. Also Delamater and Prigozy were talking about the part of the
structure of how the narrator is always Watson. It was this type of structure that made the genre popular
as well. After reading these scholarly texts, Ive been getting more and more curious about what I was
reading. The ideas the scholars wrote about began to be interesting, as I saw that the novels and stories we
read had all the characteristics the scholars were writing about. I also learned how to be persistent when
reading these scholarly texts because I learned to focus and push through it, while reading these texts. I
have to admit in the beginning it was extremely hard and if I wasnt persistent on reading them, I
probably wouldve been very behind. While reading these texts, I had to be flexible so that I would
thoroughly be able to understand the text. I would have to set time apart so that I can only focus on trying
to analyze the context and the information that was given to us for certain assignments.
Academic writing was the one part I was worried about the most in this class. I knew that I
always struggled with writing. I didnt always know how to express myself into words very well. Also,
the style and structure that I write in is very basic, in a sense, where I dont add many details or
sometimes go off on a tangent. But as writing the literature review and rhetorical analysis essay, I began
to learn how to control my main idea and write details based off of those ideas. In both of these essays,
we needed to write for a scholarly audience, which meant that we had to write our essays in a very formal
tone. For the literature review, we needed to put the scholars, we mentioned, in a conversation, so that it
addresses that they either disagree or agree with our controlling idea. We needed to find credible sources,
in order to make sure that the sources were using are legitimate and that, as writers, were not lying about

Kim 3
what we were writing about. For the rhetorical analysis essay, we had to incorporate the usage of the
cinematic elements we saw in the scenes in the modern-day texts, so that it shows that there were either
changes or similarities between the old and new texts. As we were writing these essays, I could tell that
my writing style and technique had improved throughout the past ten weeks. But I still would say that my
writing is still weak and that I need to work on it more. Whenever Im writing, I always need to have the
mindset that details are very important and that the details will help with the subpoints of the essay, which
the subpoints will help develop the controlling idea.
In the literature review essay, I decided to change this whole paragraph because I believed that it
didnt really develop the controlling idea well as it could have done and some important characteristics
werent added in. The excerpt begins with, According to Dove, in The Reader and the Detective Story,
he explains that the genre adds interest to the play activity by choosing some rules upon it (Dove 5).
The stories in this genre are relatable to crossword puzzles because there is a type of structure and a set of
rules that they both follow along. According to Panek, in An Introduction to the Detective Story, the
formula of the detective genre also contains a requisite literary form which later writers would then
apply to the detective novel (20)... One of the main problems I had with this paragraph was that the
scholars werent communicating. I just stated what they both said about each and didnt truly compare or
put them into a conversation, so that the paragraph would flow. I would also have to say that my
paragraph had a lot of repetition and a vague usage of words as well. It didnt really have many details
that helped develop the controlling idea either. I needed to introduce the scholars too in a better way,
because I just went straight into the scholar and what he or she wrote. So all in all there were many
problems with this paragraph. I revised the whole structure of this paragraph and added context in the
beginning of this paragraph with another few more quotes from Dove and Panek. I kept the same quotes I
used later on in the paragraph, but explained it so that it would all make sense.
For the rhetorical analysis essay, I decided to revise the whole essay. One of the excerpts that I
had to revise is the analysis of the scene I used in Sherlock. The excerpt is, In The Study in Pink
episode, from 25:53 29:08, there was the usage of System Watson. While Holmes was trying to deduce

Kim 4
who she was and her whereabouts, Watson was in awe of what he was doing. Holmes was able to figure
out so much in such little time, unlike for Watson, where it took him to find out the bare minimum of
what happened to her death with a similar amount of time There were many priorities that I had for
this essay to improve drastically. One of them is to have a scene from the modern day text that can
actually give context to the controlling idea I was working on. I realized that the scene in Sherlock didnt
really work well for this revision, so I decided to change it to a new scene. The scene I originally used
was in A Study in Pink, but I changed it to a scene in The Great Game. I felt like it had a higher
potential of actually developing my thesis. I shortened the amount of cinematic elements and focused on a
few, so that it would bring out the convention of Watson. The other scene I used didnt really help
because there were certain details that didnt have that much substance to show the convention of Watson.
I also needed to fix the grammar mistakes I had in the first draft of this essay.
Peer reviews were very new to me before I took this class. We read an article called, To Give Is
Better Than To Receive: The Benefits of Peer Review to the Reviewers Own Writing, By Kristi
Lundstrom and Wendy Baker. In this article, it stated that its better to give criticism than to receive
criticism. The givers are able use the criticism they received from other reviewers, as well as the criticism
they are giving to others. The Victorian England peer review was the most detailed ones we had to do.
We had to consider everything the author did, such as, the visuals they included, the use of white space,
the context, the citations they included, etc. In all of the peer review tasks we did in this class, the most
helpful one was the rhetorical analysis peer review. I decided to revise my rhetorical analysis essay. Ive
realized that I didnt include many details and the peer reviewers (Dr. Haas, Simran, and Jacqueline) truly
helped me to improve my essay.
The Connect assignments made me learn more about grammar in the English language. I realized
that I forgot a lot of the information that I learned when I was younger. But going through the questions
and reading about the concepts, I improved and learned a lot. There were some challenging topics, such as
critical reading. Ive always had a hard time with critical reading in high school, so I always knew that it
was one of my weaknesses. I also had a problem with summarizing and paraphrasing to understand a text.

Kim 5
In general this module was very hard because I could never get the hang of understanding the overall text.
Trying to change the structure of what the author wrote about isnt easy for me, so I decided to recharge
on this module as well. I knew that I was struggling with this section, so I decided to take my time and
thoroughly go through all the key points. Throughout all these Connect assignments, I was very
persistent. I didnt give up and kept on going, so that I would fail on any of these assignments. These
assignments not only gave me the chance to improve on my grammar, but also helped me on pushing
through, even though I was struggling on some parts. But I still do believe that I need to work on these
concepts, so that I can improve even more. Understanding and grasping these ideas are relatively very
hard and I will always work on it.
Through the wikis and presentation experience, Ive learned that working in a group with people
wasnt as easy as I thought. The people in my group made it a lot better for us to work extremely well. If
it werent for them, I probably wouldnt have done the best that I could have done. I tried imputing a lot
of ideas because I was trying to be as helpful as I could. I didnt want to be dead weight for the group
because as people say, Youre as strong as your weakest link. I began to develop responsibility and
creativity, as we met to finish the project. I had to be responsible for the work that I was putting into
these presentations and projects, because I couldnt let anyone down. If I was assigned to a part or said
that I was going to finish it, I am that person whos going to finish it, with no excuses. Being creative was
one of the best parts, because I was able to put in thought for the design of the wikis. I also worked on
countless of PowerPoints for the visual aspect of our oral presentations. I added small amounts of text and
pictures that were key points of the overall message I was going to say in front of the class. With the
amount of presentations we did in this class, I would have to say that I grew as a speaker, since I dont get
as nervous to speak in front of a crowd.
Throughout this first quarter of my college career, Ive learned so many things that I know that
will help me in the future. One habit that I developed is metacognition and I truly believe that ones selfreflection is very important as something comes to an end. After one assignment is done, reflecting on
you think you either improved or worsened, from the previous state, is very important. One of the most

Kim 6
important things that I learned and developed is my communication skill. With all the help of the
presentations that we did, I learned so much that I know I became a stronger speaker in front of my peers
and other scholars. I also learned how to read and absorb all the texts while taking in all of the details that
they have. I also learned how to be engaged and collaborate with other people as well. As we all go on to
different endeavors, the concepts and tasks I learned in this class will benefit me in the future and I
couldnt express my thanks enough to share how much I improved overall.