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Peipei Nie
Dr. Lynda Haas
Writing 39B
31 May 2014
Reflection Essay
Looking back on everything that I have experienced in this class, if someone asked me
Would you choose to take this course again? I would say, Yes because this has been a
wonderful journey that has satisfied my curiosity and boosted my engagement. I labeled myself
as a fan of Sherlock Holmes when I first introduced myself, but knew nothing about the author of
the detective stories Arthur Conan Doyle, the Victorian era, nor cinematic elements in television
series. And that information is greatly important in analyzing the development of Holmes stories
or the media revision. With the curiosity to know the background information in Holmes stories
and the reasons why Sherlock is so popular, I engaged myself at every opportunity I had take to
fulfill my curiosity. I absorbed information from classmates presentations, Dr. Haass analysis,
through critical readings, research, and presentations. Finally, I was able to internalize those
information and project it into my essays. So I really appreciate the various forms of learning this
course has provided me with, which exceeded my expectations in breaking the usual tedious
methods of learning, refreshing our experiences, and enhancing our abilities not only in writing,
but also in presentation skills and collaborative skills developed in group projects.
In terms of writing academic essays and the process of revision, I have learned that first
I need to choose a main topic that I am interested in, and then find related sources to support my
main topic. According to the sources, I need to divide them into several sub-points and write
topic sentences. In the process of editing, I have developed persistence. I have learned editing
skills in the Connect. It taught me a systematic method that starts from paragraphs, and then to
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sentences and words. One thing I like our course is that we only focus on one genre, and learn it
in various ways. As long as I have developed the skills in research one area, I will know how to
learn things starting from scratch because the method of learning has similar process.
I decided to fully revise the rhetorical analysis essay because the popular television
show Sherlock really stimulated my interest and I had a great passion to discover how cinematic
elements contribute to the modern-day revision of classical convention. Before taking this
course, I could only appreciate Sherlock from an audience perspective, which only felt the great
work. But now, after learning the cinematic elements involved in it, I could analyze it in a
systematic technical way. For my final draft, I think one of the greatest strengths was the scenes I
picked to analyze are different from others. I chose His Last Vow which shows Holmes mind
palace and the The Study in Pink which demonstrates Holmes mind map. Since my main
topic is A Modern-day Interpretation of Holmes mindfulness, these two scenes are persuasive
to prove his mindfulness. The other greatest strength is that there are abundant cinematic
elements involved in it which show that how the classical conventions are revised for the
purpose of 21st century media and audience. In terms of the weakness, because the scene in His
Last Vow is very complex, I might miss some elements in it. For the literature review essay, I
decided to choose one paragraph to do final revision because this is the first time I got in touch
with literature review; the essay is relatively weak compared to my rhetorical analysis essay. I
chose the third paragraph to analyze which is about how Holmes is in part a hero that comes out
of the romantics, because I thought this is a distinguished point to develop. One of the strengths
of this revised paragraph is that the sources I chose from the scholars are very tightly connected
to each other, and they all serve to the topic sentence. The other thing is that most of the scholars
only paid attention to Holmes intelligence in the aspect of his rationality, but they rarely
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addresses his romantic perspective. If I put scholars who could discovers Holmes romantic
tradition into conversations that would be a very interesting topic to review.
Referring to group projects and peer review during this quarter, I have learned
responsibility and flexibility about collaboration. Because everyone took a role and contributed
together to the project, everyone had to finish his or her job on time in case of any group member
couldnt finish his or her task without ones job. So setting different deadline according to
everyones task was very important. Also, responsibility was not only involved in responsible for
ones own task, but also responsible for the whole group. Some group mates didnt do their job
near deadline, I had to take a role of a leader to supervise them finish on time. Peer review as a
tool helped others to find their weakness, and also was a good way to absorb others strengths
and discovered my own weaknesses. RIP Seminar was an unforgettable experience because it
really opened my eyes and made me walk out of my comfortable zone. Our group was assigned
with the topic of Sherlock Holmes For the Modern World. Basically, our task was to talk about
how the modern-day text follows or revises the classical convention for the purpose of 21
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century media and audience. We chose to use voice over with scenes edited, so we didnt need to
actually present it. My responsibility was to find scenes from Sherlock that can significantly
reveal the intentional revision by the director, and to analyze the abundant cinematic elements
applied in it. I did the research in the scenes of A Scandal in Belgravia, A Study in Pink, and
His Last Vow. I gave the context of the scenes, wrote the cinematic elements used in it and
how it is revised from Doyles text. I divided the topics into Holmess Mind Map and
Holmess Intelligence Towards Sentiment. Because there were various forms of presenting our
comprehension of Sherlock Holmes, I had to chance to develop openness. For example, the
performance group brought us a new way to appreciate Doyles text. Their dress, props and their
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tongue of conversation brought me back to Victorian era and created a very good sense of
proximity. They caught one technique in Holmes stories that the person who seemed like the
criminal was not usually the real criminal, and this deceived many audiences from the other class
which were not familiar with this convention. The other class created three mini horror movies
and I was impressed by their creativity. I think their success was that the scene they created such
as the light, shadow and angle were very matched with the sound effect, which produced a
tension and creepy atmosphere. I guess this was the first time they create horror movie and
limited by time, the scripts still had enough space to improve. I liked the first one best because
the end created an incongruity that the one audience thought innocent was not the one who
caused murder. This was the similarity with Holmes stories.
However, I believe that the most important habit in which Ive grown has been
metacognition. Through a whole quarters practice on individual tasks and collaborative tasks,
reading and watching Holmes stories was not only an amusement to me, I have learned close
and critical reading, I have learned to discover cinematic elements involved in the most popular
Sherlock. I was not only an audience to enjoy the excitement, but an expertise to appreciate it in
a more technique way. After constantly exposed to public speaking, I was not uncomfortable and
nervous about presentation, and I even enjoyed the time when I can share my work with
classmates. Through interaction with my classmates, I didnt hold my own opinion any more,
and I have learned to interpret things in different perspectives. All of experience I have gained
and all the abilities I have developed will be a good source and basis for me to do better in any
other fields. Since every field needs social interaction and deep individual work, the skills I have
developed in class will help me in dealing with group work and research on my own paper.
Maybe the next time our professor assign me science review, I wont that puzzle because I have
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the basic concept about what is put the scholars into conversation. All in all, I have become a
better communicator.