Octavio Martin

Dr. Jackie Way

Writing 39B

5 December 2015

Reflective Essay: An Infinitesimal Progress

                  Writing 39B is a perfect example of what progress should be; a constructive mechanism that relies on previous steps to arrive to a better one. This mechanism can be compared to one simple idea: moving from the number zero to the number one. Sure, it’s simple to do but when you think about it deeply you become aware of all the infinitesimal complexities that encase this range; you realize that it’s a compilation of not only two numbers, but also all of those in between—numbers like 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.0000001 are infinitesimal components that take us 0 to 1. In essence, this idea reflects what I learned about writing and progress…that progress signifies more than just moving from first draft to final draft, but also all those drafts in between that where all the progress takes place. Just as there are infinite numbers between 0 and 1, there can be infinite number of drafts for an essay, but perfection will never be accomplished; instead all the small improvements through various assignments have allowed me to express myself more clearly and amplify my thought process. So this is a meaningful lesson that I learned this quarter: you might never be able to reach that number one, but what lies in between is where all the interesting progress comes into play—the foundation that truly exemplifies growth in writing and your thought process!

                Part of that infinitesimal progress that I underwent throughout this course is my understanding of fairy tales. Coming into 39B I just had the basic perception of fairy tales: literature meant to entertain the minds of children. But after analyzing fairy tales for ten weeks, I have learned that they are more than just that; I have learned that fairy tales are works capable of molding the imagination of children; I have learned that fairy tales are capable of teaching anyone, be it a kid or be it an adult. But putting the psychological benefits of fairy tales aside, what poke my attention was the rhetoric found within these fairy tales. For instance, reading Donald Haase's article where he explains the connection between the author and context was a jaw dropping moment where I realized that fairy tales have a tendency to reflect values from specific cultures. And that they manage to do so through conventions common to fairy tales. My study of fairy tales opened my eyes to see the functionality of conventions as the backbone of any genre; that the real world is inundated by specific conventions or set of guidelines that guide us to recreate works and classify them.  To begin understanding those guidelines, we began analyzing texts deeply.

              A major component that demonstrates progress in my writing is the rhetorical analysis essay. This essay was a great foundation to articulate solidity in arguments and to begin to think deeply about genre conventions applied to a specific text. For sake of simplicity I will say that a meaningful skill that I learned from this essay was condensing ideas to make them more clear and simple to follow along. In my first draft, I begin to develop my arguments around the idea of violence in fairy tales, but once I revised it, my second draft focused more on the idea physical violence. As I wrote with that focus, I noticed that I couldn’t make substantial arguments because my chosen fairy tale (Cinderella) lacked examples of violence. This is where my second meaningful lesson comes in: from this letting go of ideas and maybe explore new ones. So I went back to my second draft focus on a paragraph where I vaguely mentioned sexism in Cinderella. So I took this idea and began to develop it, exploring the relation between Cinderella, sexism, and our society today. After creating new draft, I then realized that there was more relevant connection between my thoughts and the text. So through the RA essay, I was forced to closely check my writing, through away ideas that were taking me nowhere, and condense my writing to make it smoother and cleaner.

               To achieve the progress I experienced through my RA essay, I had to put time and effort into my critical reading exercises. These exercises proved to be progressive in the sense that they got me thinking about fairy tale conventions, which were essential for a well-developed RA essay. Some critical reading exercises like “The Fairy Tale Genre” were instigators that got me thinking of how authors used rhetoric to make their tales effective. For instance, I was able to see how most Cinderella versions usually have a female protagonist, but that breaking this convention can be effective as seen in “The Story of the Black Cow,” where the protagonist is a male. Similarly, this critical reading exercise allowed me to see that most fairy tales tend to have magical creatures, a common trope encountered in most fairy tales. Another meaningful exercise was “Rhetors in Context .” This exercise helped see how the historical setting and the political environment in which a fairy tale was written plays a great role. This influenced me to develop a similar idea for my RA essay in which I attempted to explore how the brothers Grimm were influenced by their historical context to display ideals that fit with that context. These exercises also forced me to write down copious notes and to read carefully… these are skills that can be applied under any circumstance for any class. And this note taking skills proved extremely useful during the editing process

               In the midterm portfolio, I describe the editing process of the RA essay as a way of criticizing other works to then apply that same form of criticism to my own work. Over the last half of the quarter I came to alter this meaning to something more along the lines of this: Using editing as a method of checking my understanding and how well that understanding reflects in my writing. So by providing my peers with criticism, I was given the opportunity to apply my understanding of the expectations of an assignment, and then going back to my own work and check how well I applied that understanding. In other words, proving constructive feedback allowed me to analyze where I was standing; this same feedback allowed me to better understand the assignment itself. Also, all those peer reviews pushed me to keep working on my essays—providing and receiving criticism helped me realize that doing three drafts would not create a perfect product— that writing requires more than that. So for my upcoming classes I will constantly edit and read out loud my work to better criticize my work and evince that progress.

               Although the RA essay and all the steps in between did help my writing progress closer to that 1, I cannot hide the fact that my understanding of the RA essay was hindered by my own lack of understanding “rhetorical analysis.” I failed to understand the main purpose of the essay: to analyze critically the rhetoric of a text. If had the opportunity of taking my present understanding a couples of weeks into the, then I would definitely change my thesis and do more deep rhetorical analysis of how the Brothers Grimm depicted sexism in Cinderella. To draft a better essay, I would simply ask myself this simple question: how did the Grimms portray sexist ideologies? Then I would make my thesis something more along the lines of: The Brothers Grimm took advantage of the overuse of female protagonists (Genre convention from critical exercises) to depict sexist ideologies that were rooted to the 19^th century. If I had done this then I would have been forced to analyze how through characterization, they were able to incorporate cultural context just like Haase says. I think this exhibits more or less what was expected from us and what the purpose of the RA was. But it wasn’t until moving to the RIP project that I was able to see my lack of awareness of the rhetorical situation and genre conventions.

               It is hands down that the RIP project was my “aha” moment and my wake-up call from my misunderstanding of the RA essay. Moving from the RA to the RIP, my opaqueness was pushed away and I realized that the RA offered us the basis to begin thinking of how authors use rhetorical strategies and genre conventions to delineate the importance of choices. So to transition into the second half of the course, I had to think of a medium that was rich in rhetoric use and abundant with genre conventions. Thus, I decided to recreate a satirical comic book. Once I decided to create my own satirical comic book, I had to look at real life models for two main reasons: inspiration and to explore their conventions. Just as mention before, the purpose of the RA became clear to me when working on the RIP because I realized that the RA was meant to help me explore effective ways of using genre conventions to create an effective work. This step is imperative in the course because when analyzing comic book models, I had to apply the same idea of the RA: to analyze deeply in order to understand how comic book writers used rhetoric to call for an audience, achieve a purpose, and send a meaningful message.

               There were many meaningful works throughout the quarter that equipped me with the necessary skills to recreate a real world work using similar strategies. The most influential pieces of work that resonate with are the “Rhetoric of Murder” exercise and some in class activities.  These two exercises allowed me become aware of how different conventions fit into different work mediums. For instance, the police report used a more personalized account, the news article a more descriptive account, and finally the lawyer argument used more logical accounts. This exercise also helped me practice my ethos, which was extremely useful because by pretending to be a police man, a reporter, or a lawyer I gave credibility to my work. This was also true for the RIP project where I had to embody a comic artist or a cartoonist to make it more realistic.

               Within the entirety of my RIP project, the companion essay was the only method in which I incorporated some writing. Within this essay, I was able to practice the skills gained from the RA essay. For instance, the RA essay taught me to condense my ideas, and so in the companion essay I had to do the same because of the word limit, but also for more clarity. I really liked the second paragraph from the companion essay where I explain the message and the purpose of my comic book. This paragraph cuts straight to the chase and proves my progress from the RA essay to this essay. Also I noticed that after practicing this condensation of ideas, it became easier to do and it helped me with my organization of paragraphs and flow of ideas!

              My progress of becoming more rhetorically aware of the choices people make within their works has also helped me become a better writer. It is inarguable that every time I watch television and the commercials come on, I begin to think of those Ad publishers, companies, and groups of people and the choices they made to make their commercial rhetorically effect. Why is it that Coca Cola advertisers chose to have a family in their latest commercial? What makes the Super Bowl ads successful and catchy? Why is it that the trailer for Mockingjay part 2 showed snippets of action? Why is the satire a great choice to make acclaim? All these are questions that I never took the time to ask myself or even consider, but after taking this course I grew more aware of the power of rhetoric and how essential it is in order to understand the world.

               Writing 39B is synonymous to a puzzle, where you need one piece in order to connect the next piece allowing you to create a final, completed puzzle. I will admit that some of my pieces didn’t fit perfectly like the RA essay, but after moving on to the RIP project, I was able to elucidate on what the purpose of the RA was and where I misconnected the puzzle. Nevertheless, the RA helped me develop progress through my writing while the RIP helped apply analytical skills gained during the RA and critical reading exercises to understand genre conventions. That is, I was able to see genres as the backbone of a specific works and how this genres have all this conventions, so that we can classify them and recreate them. With that said, when going to writing 39C, I will have to apply genre conventions of research papers; I will look at research papers written by others and look at the strategies that they used to make their work effective. In other words, I will analyze (RA) and look at models for inspiration (RIP). This class also taught me to reflect upon my work—and personally one of the best ways to examine where exactly I stand in the infinitesimal journey of progress from 0 and 1.