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Yuting Yao (Ariel)
Lynda Haas
Writing 39B
1 June 2014
Reflection Essay
Ten weeks ago, when I first entered the classroom of writing 39b, I felt
nervous about the new environment. However, time passes so fast; it is already the
end of the quarter. I still remembered how nervous I was when we were told to do a
presentation to introduce ourselves on the second day of the class. Luckily, our topic
is Sherlock Holmes, one of my most favorite detectives. We learned a lot about
mystery genre; we discussed about the classic conventions about Sherlock Holmes.
Through this process, I feel that metacognition is an important element in study since
we have to learn to reflect how we did in the past so that we can improve in the future.
In this class, I have more opportunities to work with other people; in some way, I got
to know more about my classmates. To be honest, I was not got used to work in a
group before, but after the experience of this class, I feel that I enjoy discussing
problems within a group. Even though the ten weeks include plenty of work, I learned
a lot from this unique class.
From the experience of ten weeks, I learned that it is important to read a
source carefully, so that I can fully understand what the source means. Adding
reliable source correctly plays an important role in writing academic essay. It can
increase the credibility of the essay and show the analyzing ability of writers. When I
wrote the first draft of literature review essay, I did not read the scholar texts careful
enough, which result in the misunderstanding of some contents. To be more specific, I
was trying to show the addiction characteristic of Sherlock Holmes in the first essay. I
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pointed out that the scholars Keep and Randall suggest that Conan Doyle was
intentionally making Holmes a symbol of the empire. However, actually, the scholars
did not directly say that. Therefore, what I expressed here was actually not accurate,
which is not acceptable in an academic essay. Only when I fully understand a
scholarly article, can I combine the content correctly into my essay. For what I did for
my first draft, when Professor Haas read my paper, I believe she was so confused
about some points that I was trying to make. Since I made a point first, I should find
resources which could support the point, but the resources could not. From this
experience, I learned not only the importance of writing skills, but also engagement.
While I was engaged in the scholarly texts, I found easier to understand the materials
and was able to lock on the sources I wanted.
For the revision of my essay, I decide to fully revise the RA essay and partly
revise the literature review essay. The conventions I choose for my RA essay is
Holmess intelligence and eccentricity. After comparing Holmes behaviors in the
Conan Doyles stories and in TV series Sherlock, I found that these two conventions
were kept in the 21
st
century show. The reason why I choose to do the fully revision
for this essay is that I am more interested in analyzing the scenes and comparing the
two versions of Sherlock Holmes. I got much useful advice from peer view and
Professor Haas comment; their suggestions gave me a basic idea of where to analyze
more and where to express more concise. With their help, I know exactly how to dig
further to show Holmes characteristics and how to explain the cinematic effects
clearer; so that the analysis of the scenes would be more effective and obvious.
Therefore, the greatest strengths of the final draft would be the close and specific
analysis of the scenes with enough details which perfectly show the conventions.
However, if I had more time to work on this essay, I would check the transition
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between paragraphs carefully. To make sure the paragraphs transit smoothly, I will
add more transition words and sentences. In terms of the partly revise essay, I decide
to revise the paragraph which relating to Sherlocks discovery of the three important
elements for a qualified detectiveobservation, knowledge and deduction. My topic
for this essay was the hero characteristic of Sherlock Holmes. From revising this
paragraph, I can practice my critical reading ability and analyzing ability at the same
time. Since I did not use enough and correct sources to support my point, I have to
read the scholars texts into more depth and find proper sources for the paragraph.
From this process, I gain experience and practice skills at the same time.
Group work makes me know that collaborating with classmates is essential
and useful. We divided into groups in the first week and started to work as a group.
We did presentations, set up the wiki pages, found sources that related to topics and
reviewed other group members paper. From the group work, I learned responsibility,
openness, and flexibility. It is necessary to be responsible for my task; since we work
as a group, the projects we presented not only represent myself, but the whole group.
Moreover, sometimes I have to finish my work earlier so that other group members
can start working on their tasks. Therefore, being responsible is a necessity for
working in a group. I also learned that we cannot follow what we want all the time
during group work since every person has his/her own opinions. As a result, it is
important to be open and flexible. Listening to others different opinions and try to
accept them if the opinions really work for the project are general rules for teamwork.
Besides, I may not always get the tasks I want; when the tasks had been taken, I have
to go for another one, and this is flexibility. This quarters group work helps me
realize the importance of these three Habits of Mind, which will benefit me in other
occasions since group work is inevitable in future study and work.
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One thing that I enjoyed most for this class is the RIP seminar in week 9. The seminar
was a unique experience since we presented in front of our class and the other class
who knew little about our themeSherlock Holmes and mystery genre. Our group
was responsible for modern day Holmes, and we made a video with voiceover to
show the conventions. As a result, we did not present at the seminar; instead, we
showed our video to the other class. For the video, my main job was to collect clips
from BBC Sherlock, the film Sherlock Holmes and Sherlock Holmes: A Game of
Shadow directed by Guy Ritchie. To find the clips that showed adapting or revising
classic conventions of Sherlock, I watched the films again and made time stamp for
the convenience of the editors to cut the clips. Both classs presentations were
successful; I could tell how much effort they put into the project from their work. The
other class presented about horror stories with interesting videos. I learned what
makes a horror story and what a horror story is. This reminds me the importance of
curiosityI have to be curious so that I can learn new knowledge consistently. For
their presentation, I think what they did well was the interaction with audiences. For
example, they prepared some questions to ask, and also some presents to get us
involved in the speech. Besides that, they also made videos which showed us their
topic in a easily understood way. They introduced the theoretical stuff at first, which
was boring and difficult to understand; but then, they presented the video to illustrate
what the theoretical things they mentioned before. However, there was something
they really need to work on. The most obvious one was that they prepare too many
words on their PowerPoint, and the font of some of the PowerPoint was too small.
Anyway, the whole seminar went so well and I enjoyed every presentation.
After the hard work during the ten weeks, I gain useful experience but at the
same time, I find out that there are many things that I should keep working on. The
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first thing is creativity. During the discussion with my seminar group, I found that
many of my group members could easily come up with a different idea of making the
video; while I could only sit and listen to them talking about their ideas. I am not as
creative as other members to provide new ideas in a very short time. I have to work
on that so that I can improve myself next time. This is important since in the future,
the one who contributes the idea would impress others more or less. Next, after
metacognition, I realized that I was not persistent enough. Writing needs long-time
practice and I would never achieve a higher level without insistence. As the old
proverb says, Practice makes perfect. I believe after long-term training of reading
and writing, my academic writing ability would improve much more.
In conclusion, from the ten weeks practice, I learned many writing skills such
as analyzing and giving credit to sources correctly; I learned how to collaborate with
classmates; and I learned how to present with profession in front of people. This
knowledge not only helps me to be a more successful student in academic area, but
also gives me a hint on how to behave when I enter the society and start to have a job.
With these skills, if I insist practice increasing my creativity and persistence, I believe
I will achieve a higher level in the future.