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Maya Jimbo

Greg McClure

Writing 39B

15 December 2018

Portfolio Introduction

Writing 39B was, to be honest, not what I expected. I have learned many things in the

course of the ten weeks, and I have never written so much in such a short time. Because this

quarter was my very first quarter as a college student, it was difficult to meet the expectation.

Despite the difficulty in adapting to the new environment, there were moments where I felt was

revolutionary to my writing. One moment was when my professor advised our class to write our

first draft as if it is our final draft. Throughout the course, I often found myself rewriting a whole

assignment and that led to unnecessary stress. However, I learned to stick with my first idea after

my professor’s advice. Another thing I learned that improved my writing skill was to be

adventurous in each assignment. Our professor often told the class that there is no such thing as

too much creativity, in fact there are not enough.

Before I came to Writing 39B, I already had some experience with rhetorical analysis. I

have memorized more than a hundred rhetorical devices prior to this course, and I have written

several rhetorical analysis in previous classes. Therefore, I thought that I was ready for this

course; however, I found out that I was wrong. Despite the fact that the format I used in high

school was mostly similar to the format we learned in Writing 39B, I found out that the analysis

part required much more depth and insight than I was used to. It was especially difficult for me

to not focus on the readers reaction to the analysed passage and focus more on the reception of
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the audience. Thus, my Rhetorical Analysis Essay first draft on the novel ​The Road ​was

awkward in some areas.

In addition, we learned about genre convention, or more specifically the conventions of

modern horror. My professor gave us several articles discussing the horror conventions and how

it contributes to the overall message of the text. I learned that in art-horror, the monster has to be

both impure and threatening to the protagonist as well as the audience, according to Noel Carroll

(55). This horror convention was relevant to most of the assignments assigned in this class. It

was especially important in the RIP. Our first step in this assignment was to create an art-horror

monster. We found out that it was a difficult process in making a creature that was categorically

problematic and threatening. Because horror and humor is closely related in a way that it both

satirizes and criticises society, it is difficult to create something terrifying without it being

comedic (Magistrale and Morrison 3). I now know how to manipulate the expectation of the

horror convention to influence the audiences reception. One way to control the reaction of the

audience, I found, was to incorporate tropes. By either complying to or subverting to the trope

we create a build up to the climax, and by mixing that with the horror genre convention, we

found out that we can create an effective horror text.

My revision process for the first few assignments were non existent. It was non existent

because I always rewrite the whole assignment in my attempts to fix everything wrong. But I

soon found out that it was better to work with the first draft and build upon it to create the final

assignment. For my Rhetorical Analysis Essay, I had trouble sticking to one idea because new

visions kept popping up in my head while I was writing. I would often try to incorporate every

idea into my assignment which led to my writing to be choppy and awkward. Then I would try to
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revise it by rewriting the whole essay. This process would go on and on until it is the due date.

With that, I learned to keep my first idea and stick with it. I learned to have some self control in

my rewriting process so that I would not be writing every single idea that pops up in my head. I

also learned that having one clear intention is helpful in building an effective paper. It allows me

to have a focus and write a clear paper that would enable the audience to understand what I am

trying to convey.

Another thing I learned during the revision process was how to write an introduction,

revise message, and create an effective transitions. My professor talked about how the

introduction should be an overview of my essay and that it should summarize what I am arguing

for, as well as some evidence that I would be using to

support my argument. Thus, in my final draft I went

with my professor's advice in writing the introduction

after I have written the body paragraphs. This process

helped me focus on what I am trying to convey in my

essay. In addition, I now know how to be more

insightful and thoughtful when I determine what the

overall message of the text is. In my first draft of Rhetorical Analysis essay, my professor

pointed out that my message was too cliché. He advised me to be more thoughtful and insightful.

Therefore, I decided to rethink of what the message I would be arguing for. In my first draft, I

was having trouble making my body paragraphs flow from one to the next and the professor had

noticed that as well. Thus, I tried solving that problem by incorporating the topic sentence

exercise where we were required to write all of our topic sentences and asking class members to
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arrange them in the intended sequence. This assignment helped me visualize how I could

transition from one idea to the next. Overall the revision process helped me better my analytical

skills which allowed me to write an effective essay to get the desired reception.

Through Writing 39B, we learned not only to write an essay but we also learned about

how to write a script. In my RIP revision, I focused more on modifying how I can make the

setting, plot, and characters realistic and believable. Therefore I rethought most of the

conversation between the characters. On my first try, I found out that the protagonist's interaction

with the other characters were choppy and thus unrealistic and awkward. Therefore, me and my

group discussed on how we can make the conversation natural. In addition, we also changed the

climax of the story. Instead of having the shadowy figure revealed in the middle of the plot, we

decided to save the introduction of the character till the end. We thought that that would make

the story more interesting and more suspenseful, and get the desired reception from the audience.

Therefore, through this class, I learned how to effectively make my revision in all types

of media. Revising is an important part of the writing process. Despite the fact that you already

have the backbone of your work, the revision process is where you show your skill as a writer.

The ability to take what you have now and altering your work to better fit the reception of the

audience requires insight and intuition.

With all this in mind, there are several things that I would surely incorporate in the near

future. Such things are all the advise my professor had told our class. One of the most important

advices I got from my professor was to try writing the “perfect” first draft. By doing so, I think

that would help solve my problem of being indecisive and rewriting multiple times. Another

advise that I would be keeping in mind in the future is to always be creative. Although being
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creative is sometimes hard, it helps me keep a positive attitude about an assignment. In addition,

I think it would be useful to remember the format in making citation and creating the work cited

pages since we would surely be using that in my Writing 39C course.

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Works Cited

Carroll, Noel. “The Nature of Horror.” ​The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism,​ vol. 46, no.

1, 1987, pp.51-59.​JSTOR,​ JSTOR,​ ​www.jstor.org/stable/431308​.

Magistrale, Tony and Michael A. Morrison. Introduction. ​A Dark Night’s Dreaming​. Columbia,

S.C.: University of South Carolina press, 1996. PDF