Through the past six weeks of taking the class Writing 39B, I have learned many new and interesting things that have not only improved my understanding of different types of writing, but also my progress as a writer in the midst of his academic writing career. However, the assignment of creating an ePortfolio has made me realize that, while it is important to continue to move forward in terms of learning new things about writing, it is also just as important to reflect on the concepts that I have already learned so that I may continue to build off of these fundamental ideas. Thus, I have compiled a collection of my work that I deem worthy to be representative of the progress that I have made so far. The following sections of Known and Unknown are reflective of the Hero’s Journey that I embarked on, starting from the beginning of the class, when I was comfortable with what I already knew about writing, to where I currently stand as a writer, having learned new ideas and concepts. I believe that the artefacts that I have included serve not only as testaments that show the progress that I have made, but also of a reminder of how much I still need to learn.

At the beginning of my writing adventure, I was a writer who had not seen the act of pen to paper in over two years. Despite this, I was still able to vaguely remember bits and pieces of writing that I had learned in my previous years, but not as much as I wished for. In my Introduction of a Writer, I explained that I had experience as a writer in regards to analyzing texts on horror and fantasy, much like this class focuses on, but not very much at that. I was still confused about how I was supposed to “rhetorically analyze” as the class required me to do; I had been taught through my high school years to always analyze texts in a literary sense, to always read and reread, simply for the sake of delving deeper into the text. Furthermore, my RIP #1 accurately describes my standing as a writer at the beginning of my class. Within it, I described the account of a lonely wolf who would always long for a companion but would never discard his pride to do so. When writing that piece of work, I distinctly remember that I mirrored that response in accordance with my own personal opinion of my standing in writing. To me, at that time, writing was that long-lost companion. I had very much enjoyed the task of reading a text so that I could understand it better, much because it felt like I was meeting a new personality with every literary work that I worked on. However, after years of not touching up on my writing at all, I eventually felt that I had lost that dear companion but I was never willing to go back to my roots in writing so that I could perhaps arrive at that point again. Both of these artefacts play the role of the “known” in the Hero’s Journey, or rather, the world of writing that I was all-too familiar with. Though I had lost my touch as a writer, I was still able to remember a few of the more significant pieces that I had learned along the way.

Though I felt somewhat knowledgeable about my past literary adventures, little did I know that this class, Writing 39B, would be the one to make me face my fears of the unknown and unfamiliar in a way that I had never done before. Starting with my RIP #3, I began to encounter a new style of writing that went beyond my knowledge of writing. By this point in the class, I felt like I was starting to get familiar with the art of rhetorical analysis, complacent with my thoughts that I would be able to treat these assignments as if they were their literary equivalents and still come out unscathed. This assignment invited me to describe the account of a visitor suddenly appearing at my door, who may or may not seem more unnatural than usual. However, when I had completed this assignment, I realized that I had already begun my journey into the unknown. While writing it, instead of being fixed on the idea that each of the items in the story had to be necessarily symbolic of an idea, the only idea that came to mind was cliche idea of the man who walks on four legs in the morning, two legs in the afternoon, and three legs in the evening. In a way, my writing began to produce ideas that went beyond what the text provided; it branched out further rather than going deeper, to the message that was being implied by the writer, or in this case, myself. Personally, I felt intrigued by this new style of writing, but I was also fearful of it, like a child who… With this, I had a brief encounter with a concept of writing that exceeded my expectations of what I was all-too familiar with. Before I knew it, I found myself being swept away into the current, similar to how the assignment of the Rhetorical Analysis, or RA, would be the one to detach me from the world of writing that I always held so dear, and instead plunge me deeper into a rabbit hole that not even I knew where the end would be. Fortunately, I was able to find help as I trudged along in this writing process.

When I started the process of writing my RA, I had barely an idea of what I wanted to discuss. My mind was still used to thinking of stories in a literary sense, and I was stuck in a feeling of hopelessness and distraught as the deadline began to slowly edge closer. Thankfully, the RA Pitch/Conference served as a check-up point for my progress so far in the process. Though I found myself quite behind, I brought what I thought was relevant to the Analysis. What that included was one paragraph that seemed more like a desperate attempt to stay afloat, rather than an effort to begin the assignment. However, the conference with Ms. Price showed me that the process was not as hard as I was making it out to be, that I just needed a new perspective on the assignment. Initially, my way of thinking regarding the Analysis was black and white; her input introduced a new, gray area into the picture, which allowed me to see the ideas of the story in a new light. With her help, I felt like I was actually able to start on the RA, that I had finally a starting point in what I consider to be my personal Road of Trials of the Hero’s Journey. With her help as my mentor, not only did it actually feel a lot easier, I actually felt like completing this assignment was a possible idea. Of course, unbeknownst to me, this confidence would soon become my greatest enemy.

As I continued through the class, I applied the advice that Ms Price had given me to all of my future assignments, including my Critical Reading #4 assignment. With this assignment, I was required to identify two rhetorical elements in the text that I was studying for my RA, which was “The Griffin and the Minor Canon” in my case. With this, I was finally able to see that the assignments were not completely unrelated to the RA, that they were actually helpful tools in piecing together the final product. When I found myself able to easily do this by annotating the text, as I had been taught to do, I felt a surge of confidence in my ability to write the RA. However, it was this confidence that resulted in my downfall, as seen in my Critical Reading #5 assignment. To be brief, that particular assignment was never completed, as I thought that my newly-found skill as a writer would be enough to be able to finish it in the hour before it was due. However, I found myself buried in the classwork due in my other classes and before I knew it, it was already 30 minutes until the deadline. With this experience, I realized the folly in my way of thinking; with my confidence pushing me forward, I was foolish and put the writing assignment towards the end of my list of priorities. These artefacts served as the Threshold guardians that I had to pass through in order to reach the Ordeal. The Critical Reading #5 assignment put me face to face with my worst fear as a writer: a lack of time management or, in other words, procrastination. Having learned my lesson from this, I picked myself up as best as I could and continued forward in my journey, with a new resolve in mind.

Soon after, I reached what would be the pinnacle of my progress thus far in Writing 39B: the Rhetorical Analysis. The time had finally come to show off all of the skills that I had acquired in the past five weeks of the quarter, to prove that all of the experiences that I had gone through were not a waste of time. Needless to say, it was an experience that I would never forget. Starting with my Exploratory Draft, I reached an all-time low in my writing career when I had become struck with writer’s block and was stuck on the third page of my analysis, unable to think of what more I could include. It was at this moment, when I had reached the metaphorical “belly of the whale”, that I suddenly had a breakthrough in my writing. All at once, the ideas of good and evil that I was discussing within my RA all connected with each other into one main idea, and the appearance of a gray area was never as clear as during that moment, a hint of advice from my mentor that I had carelessly forgotten. With newly-found inspiration in mind, I was able to produce a draft of my RA that was fit for a peer review. With my peer as my ally, he offered very much needed feedback and kept me on the right track as I persevered through the arduous task of writing the RA.

My Peer Review

Finally, I came to the point where I was able to see the finish line of the ordeal. However, what stood in my way of achieving understanding of the process of rhetorical analysis, was the demon that had stood in my way previously: procrastination. Though I had the ideas in mind to finish the essay, I found myself unable to focus on completing the assignment, whether it be a result of other classwork or giving into the urge to check Facebook. Just like before, I found myself in the last 20 minutes before the deadline, scrambling to piece together the final essay. Submitting it one minute before the deadline, I was unable to meet all of the requirements of the RA, more specifically the one regarding the amount of secondary sources. Despite this, I completed my ordeal and was proud of my feat nonetheless. I had attained a better understanding of what it meant to rhetorically analyze a text, and I had combatted the urge to procrastinate, allowing me to submit a better product than my last encounter with it.

Rhetorical Analysis [Final Draft]

In my journey of moving forward in my academic writing career, these artefacts serve as invaluable milestones that mark the points in my journey where not only I was successful, but also where I may have failed. I believe both of these are important to acknowledge so that I may improve as a writer overall. From tiny acorns, my writing has grown tremendously and the experiences that I encountered during the process will continue to affect my future endeavors in the writing process. However, this account of my progress is simply a hero’s journey embedded into a larger, grander one. Though I still have much to learn, I believe that this moment of self-reflection is a step in the right direction.