by Ryan Yeung

Introduction

My name is Ryan Yeung, and I am a freshman attending the University of California Merced as a Computer Science and Engineering major. I moved to the United States from Hong Kong when I was in High School, so English was never my favorite language. I attended traditional Chinese schools when I was in Hong Kong, I had to overcome my inability to speak, understand and write in English. Before I was in Writing-001, I always use the same technique whenever I write an essay, I always use the same rhetorical device, I always use the 5 paragraph structure format I learned from high school, and I always just write down whatever is my mind without organization. At the beginning of the semester, I did not believe I would gain anything for the class, and I am enrolled because it is a requirement course for me. However, after the course is over, I realize I have obtained and understood new techniques and tools to use when writing. 

I had to overcome numerous difficulties in Writing 001, the course was challenging for me not only because of my background and where I grew up, but because it is the first college level writing class I ever attended. The writings and essays that was assigned in this class were challenging because it requires a lot of detailed analysis and comparison, which requires a lot of effort and time. Even though I believe the workload in the class was considered normal in college, but it was still quite a challenge to me. 

Throughout the course, I learned skills and techniques that I believe could impact me and assist me in the future. I have learned language brings a huge impact to everyone, language is not only a way of expressing one’s feelings and thoughts, but it is also a method to present yourself, your culture, and your ethnicity, language is different in different cultures, it could change throughout time and it could be changed due to events that are occurring. Also, I understood that it is really important for a good writer to “think out of the box”, and it often requires the writer to view the situation or topic in different angles and perspective. And most importantly, I have learned about the five program learning outcome: process, Rhetoric, Collaboration, Craft, and Research Ethics, which I further discuss in my portfolio. Despite my major may not require extremely high level reading and writing skills, I think that enrolling in Writing 001 provides a good transition for me from high school to college, and I believe that the skills I have learned from Writing 001 would bring a large positive impact on my future studies 

Process

One of the five programs learning outcome is process. Before this semester, I never write rough drafts when I am writing a paper in high school, even when I was told by the teacher or instructor to peer review or get peer reviewed by another student, I would always ignore my mate’s comment or advice. I always believed that the use of a rough draft is in order for a student to “take breaks” or for the teacher or instructor to “check on the student’s process”. But after attending writing 001, I understood that rough drafts are important in the process of producing and writing a well written essay, writing a rough draft allows one to write down his/ her basic thoughts which could be add more as he/ she does more research. I also realize the importance of peer review, no matter how good a writer is, people would makes careless mistakes and there are always flaws in one writing, so a peer or a classmate could identify mistakes and improve the writing or paper, and most importantly, often people are limited by their own mind and own thoughts, so it is beneficial when someone else could provide a view or comment from a different perspective, this can let the writer to view the topic differently and “think outside the box”. Grammar and structure has always been my weakness, throughout this course, my peer has identified and corrected numerous grammar mistakes during peer review. 

In Writing 001 class, one of our assignments were to write our own literacy narrative, where we discuss about our experience learning English and our literacy developments. While I had a slight experience writing a short paragraph in my junior year of high school that is similar to the literacy narrative, I realize I was only sharing my background but not actually identifying the significance of my developments and connecting my learning journey with my identity and culture. However, through a rough draft and peer review in this course, I was able to gather my thoughts and I was able to connect my topic with a bigger picture. 

One of the books that brought a great impact to me was “They say/ I say” by Gerald Gaff, in Writing 001, we would write a summary and a reflection about each chapter of the book every week. The book provided a lot of tips and advice that assisted me on my reading and writing. The assignment helped me understand the book more thoroughly and more detail, I was also able to use the templates not only on my assignments in the course but also in the other courses I was enrolled in.

Literacy narrative WRI001

Rhetoric

Another key of the five programs learning outcome is Rhetoric. I didn’t realize the significance of Rhetoric, I thought the only use of it is to “sound better” or “sound fancy”, so I would not put in the effort to include it in my writings. After this semester, I understood that Rhetoric is a requirement tool when writing any type of literature, all writers should first identify their target audience before they start writing, this helps the writer to develop an argument or thesis. By identifying the target of the literature, the writer would use different tools so that he/ she could view the issue in the same perspective as his/ her target audience. I think that it is really important for the writer to show the reader why the issue or the topic matter and why the reader should care. If the writer doesn’t answer the question of “why it matters?”, the reader or the audience would feel “left hanging”, they would think that the issue doesn’t matter and some people may even lose interest in the actual topic. According to “They Say/ I Say” (which I read in Writing001), the author  believe that “”who cares” asks you to identify a person or group who cares about your claims, “so what?” asks about the real world applications and consequences of those claims – what difference it would make if they were accepted.” Without answering “Who Cares?” and “So What?”, the reader or the audience would not feel the significance of the literature, and it would be easily forgotten by them.  

I agree and I believe that Rhetoric is a requirement tool in order to write a persuasive piece of literature and the three main Rhetorical devices are Ethos, Pathos, and Logos. Ethos is when a writer uses different tools such as quoting from experts or sharing a personal academic background to build credibility and authority, which helps convince his/ her reader or audience. Pathos is a technique to persuade through the use of emotions, such as using a sad story to increase the readers or audiences’ sympathy. Logos is a method to convince the reader or audience through the use of logistics, statistics and facts. In my “The True Power of Language”, I was able to successfully identify why I believe language could bring a positive impact to people and improve people’s lives, without rhetoric, my readers wouldn’t understand my main thesis and they are less likely to support my argument.

Weekly Response #8

The True Power of Language

Collaboration

The next key of the five programs learning outcome in Writing 001 is collaboration. I was never a student that participates actively in class, I do not usually enjoy being actively part of a discussion, or answer questions from the instructor even if I know the correct solution. Even though I am often shy to speak in front of the whole class, I still was able to collaborate with my classmate on the group presentation and peer review my classmates’ draft essay. 

At the beginning of the semester, I was shy and afraid when my classmate peer reviewed my essay, because I feel that my essay is not as well written compared to my peers, and I was afraid I may get made fun of. However, as we had more and more peer review sessions, I felt more and more comfortable, not only because my writing skills are improving, but also because my peers were really helpful and my self-confidence is higher. Moreover, during the process of peer reviewing, I was able to gather new thoughts and think about more new ideas even when I was peer reviewing my classmates’ draft essay. I understood that when peer reviewing others’ work, it is better to directly give them my honest feedback and constructive criticism. During the first peer review session, I was cautious about the comment I was giving, I was “holding back” and I would say “your essay is very nice and well written” even when there were significant problems. I soon realized I should be honest and straightforward, or else it would not only help my classmates, but actually could be harmful to them since they may believe that it doesn’t need any improvement, therefore they would not proofread their work. 

My group mates and I were able to collaborate well when preparing for the group presentation. The topic my group decided and presented on was about slang, specifically slang in youth, the types of slang, and the effects and impacts of slang. Me and my group mates sustained good communication and decide each of our roles, I was researching about the origins of slang and the positive and negative impacts of slang. We were able to gather all our research information, and make sure it answered the core question we presented to the class. Even though me and my group mates are not excellent on public speaking, we successfully completed our presentation. I believe this experience would be beneficial for my future studies not only when in a group presentation but also when I collaborate with my peers.  

” Slang in Youth” group presentation

Compare and Contrast Essay Rough Draft

Compare and contrast Essay Final Draft

Research Ethics

In every type of paper, especially a persuasive essay, evidence and research information is an essential part that supports the writer’s argument or thesis. Nowadays, most people research through the internet, where there are numerous websites and resources. When I was in high school, the main resource I would use while researching is google and wikipedia, but as I am enrolling in a higher and higher writing courses, I learned that a lot of sources on the internet especially Wikipedia are unreliable. In order to confirm the legibility of a research information, I should always confirm the research information is updated, and the author or the writer is an expert or professional in the field. Furthermore, the library ipod tour at the University of California Merced assist me when searching for books for research, since I always struggle finding books in a library, I was also able to find various scholarly papers through the UC Merced library database. 

I also realize that there are numerous methods of research, it often takes time but we should never be limited by a few sources. In the Writing 001 group presentation, me and my group mates researched for numerous amount of research information. Our topic was “slang in youth”, we not only research for scholar papers and articles, but we also had to research through social media, we especially looked at the celebrities and rappers that invented some of the slang words that are popular among teenagers. 

I first learned about MLA format citations in high school, but I often forget including my citations, mainly because I didn’t understand the importance of it. In Writing 001, I was told that the importance of citations is not only to prevent plagiarism, but it is a way to give credit to the resource and show respect to the writer, the author and the publisher. 

“Slangs in Youth” group presentation

Work Citation Example

Craft

The last of the five learning program outcome is craft, which is the aesthetics of writing. Throughout being in Writing 001, we read a lot of books and articles which we would have to answer questions and reflect on it. Every week, we were assigned a weekly response on an article or “They Say/ I Say”, it not only increase my vocabulary, but it also provided various tips when reading or writing, for example, in chapter 5 of “They Say/ I Say”, the author the author states that the reader is able to understand the writer’s view or every point that the writer is trying to express, it is a really important skill to being able to identify the signals that shows the reader’s perspective in passages. I was able to apply the skills and tips I used in my essays.

I also learned that tone is a really important part in language, a writer would use certain wordings or sentence formations, it is reflective of the writer’s emotion or the speaker’s mood. A writer or a speaker with a bad usage of tone could cause the reader or the audience to misunderstand their arguement or thought, a misunderstanding of tone could change the entire meaning of a sentence or even a paragraph. The tone not only show one’s writing style, but it is also a way for a writer to represent his ethic background and his/ her culture.  

Moreover, as I look back and compare my final essay to my first essay in this class,I noticed a significant improvement in grammar and punctuation, however I still believe as I read and write more and more, I would be able to continue improving. In my learning journey in Writing 001, I learned that to use an appropriate tone based on the situation, I learned that using rhetorical device could strengthen a piece of literature, I learned that it is important for a writer to think “outside the box” and most importantly, I learned that the process of producing a well written paper or literature requires a lot of time and effort.  

“They Say/ I Say” Chapter 5 Summary

First Essay In Writing 001

Final Essay for Writing 001

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