Rangel 1

Asaph Rangel
Writing 37 1PM
Dr. Lynda Haas
5 December 2015
A Final Reflection on Writing 37
The application of the learning process is evident in every aspect of life, however, people
tend to not be familiar with its complete structure. A considerably large portion of the learning
process is reflection, for reflecting on actions enables people to acknowledge exactly what they
learned, thus allowing them to retain that information. In my case, I will be reflecting on the
whole of my Writing 37 experience, showing how my writing and analytical skills have
gradually improved throughout this past quarter. There have been many factors that led me to
achieving greater levels of quality writing and analysis, including: the blog posts, the Rhetorical
Analysis essay, the Rhetoric in Practice project, and many more. Through these various activities
and assignments, I obtained the necessary abilities to satisfy the class objectives, which
ultimately increased my writing and analytical skills.
One of the many factors that helped me in satisfying the class objectives was the Cultural
Fairy Tale Video projecta project that involved both cooperation and individual effort. My
groups name was the Ugly Ducklings, consisting of me, Alex Castro, and Lauren Stafford. Our
cooperation was based on a process of discussion that contained three stages: proposal,
discussion, and finalization. Essentially, we would propose an idea, which would be discussed on
the grounds of whether it was valid and relative enough to use, wherein the proposed idea would

Rangel 2

either be accepted and implemented, or ignored. This type of cooperation was effective in
helping my group stay on the same wavelength, thus allowing us to contribute to the video
project. Additionally, because this method of cooperation was so well-structured, it made me
learn the importance of being open to conflicting opinions and ideas, for opposing views tend to
force the mind into providing a reason to defend an idea. For example, I once suggested that my
group should split all roles equally, but that idea was not welcomed by my group members, so I
was forced to defend it, to which I was persuaded that giving whole roles to each member was
best. As a result of this, we each individually worked on our assigned roleslater, we would
provide feedback for each others work. Because I was given the script writing and historical
research roles, my task was to find information and construct it into a coherent and informative
script. The merits of being assigned these two roles were that they helped me in achieving
another class objective, reading and understanding text in their rhetorical situation. Researching
the time period and location of my groups culture, Egypt, gave me an opportunity to connect the
conventions of the fairy tale and the cultural history of its origins. Nonetheless, the cultural video
project was but one activity that assisted in completing the class objectives; the Rhetorical
Analysis essay was just as effective.
From the beginning of the class to the weeks that I wrote and amended my Rhetorical
Analysis essay, various activities and assignments contributed to the improvement of my ability
to analyze rhetorical texts. Nevertheless, the process in writing the essay was one that helped me
in fulfilling the course objective concerning my ability to write a scholarly paper illustrating my
understanding of conventions found in individual genres. This excerpt from the final draft of my
essay demonstrates my ability to fulfill said course objective, The fulfillment of a heroes
desires is a classic 19th century fairy tale convention that emphasizes the heros strength, wit, and

Rangel 3

charm, or kindness used in attaining their desires. Furthermore, the heros reward is usually
granted to him after proving that they are worthy of it, often through a good deed or the
accomplishment of a great feat. The reason this excerpt shows my understanding of conventions
is because it clearly explains the specific fairy tale convention, showing that I can understand
conventions. In addition to that course objective, I learned about the significance and application
of the process of writing. The week that the class first submitted the essays, peer reviewing
commenced. As a result, a final draft was generated from the application of the suggestions made
in the first draft. From the first draft, an excerpt showing the first sentence from the introductory
paragraph, Fairy/folk tales, a genre that has existed well over 3 centuries, are quite famous in
portraying magical settings and characters; however there are too many to cover, so only three
will be discussed. In contrast to the first draft, the final draft demonstrates improvement, The
folk and fairy tale genre, one that has withstood the test if time, remains popular and well-known
in the 21st century. Because the genre has remained popular across centuries and cultures, it
provides insight into how texts reflect and are shaped by their rhetorical situation. The
improvement could be seen in the word choice and the syntaxthe final draft uses more formal
language and is separated into two sentences to avoid a run-on sentence. Aside from the RA
essay, the blog posts were definitely useful in accomplishing specific course objectives.
Though the blog posts may seem like simple tasks that dont amount to the other
assignments, they helped considerably in reflecting on a weeks activities. The blog posts caused
me to critically think about what I learned, what I improved on, and the accomplishments of
respective weeks, making me keep note on my progress. Above all other assignments, the posts
were a detrimental factor in my ability to learn, since having to reflect on my work every week
granted me a second, fresh outlook on the assignments. An excerpt from my week five blog

Rangel 4

post displays the fact that I was prompted to think about the previous weeks, Furthermore, it
was the first time that we were assigned the task of writing a discussion forum about two
completely different texts; the previous discussion forums only required us to write about a
certain fairy tale and its varying versions. Moreover, the Rhetoric in Practice project also
answered a course objective, for it still provided a form of learning.
It is fair to preface this paragraph about the RIP project by stating that the Ugly
Ducklings was among the winners of the cultural video project, so the workload was heavily
reducedthat is not to say, however, that it was not a learning experience. The RIP project gave
me the chance to practice my ability to communicate via different mediausing a video to relay
what we learned about Egyptian folk tales, which satisfies the course objective regarding my
communication skills, even though the video was a group effort. The video was formal and
informative about the topic it represented, and the only flaw the video possessed was the low
quality of some images. An excerpt from the scripts mention of historical research shows that it
was effective in communicating information in a formal manner, Because Egypt was under a
Greeks control rather than an Egyptians, slight changes in Egypts culture occurred. Egypt was
transformed into a center of trade for the Mediterranean when Ptolemy I and his descendants
began to commercialize it. The excerpt proves that the information in the video is
comprehensive, formal, and simple, which caters well to the audience composed of UCI
undergraduate students. Overall, the RIP project served as a great opportunity to present
information about fairy/folk tales to an audience with little to no knowledge about them.
In conclusion, by completing the assignments and activities from Writing 37, I was able
to meet the objectives of the course, as well as learn and improve as a result of the objectives.

Rangel 5

Largely, reflecting on my progress from the past ten weeks gave me an understanding on how
most of the things done in everyday life, including mundane tasks, is part of a learning
experience. Ultimately, Writing 37 has taught me how to effectively apply self-reflection into my
learning process.