Weekly Blog Posts:
Below are weekly posts that will give you more insight into what students were required to learn throughout the course. It also provided students with the opportunity to create a list of their accomplishments, goals, and concerns for that week and overall demonstrate our growth in writing.
WEEK ONE & TWO
For the past week, my writing course has asked me to implement rhetorical analysis in every film and writing I encounter. Although this course has provided me with captivating films, I noticed I cannot thoroughly enjoy the art pieces due to the bombarding rhetorical questions I must ask myself throughout the films. This course has conditioned me to observe modern horror from a scholarly perspective, requiring a never-ending analysis and queries, that eventually commence a deeper comprehension of the creator’s mind and abstract message. Therefore, I am ecstatic to see my growth in evaluating symbolic short stories and films as well as adhering to their techniques to improve my writing and soon create obscure pieces others must rhetorically peruse.
Apart from the excessive approaches and strategies to pinpoint all of the rhetorical devices in one’s oeuvre, the course requires various writing assignments that have cultivated the creativity and expressiveness I thought had wilted away in my writing style. Now, my motivation to write has skyrocketed due to the riveting prompts given to me in this course. For instance, the “My Monstrosity” assignment, allowed me to express myself in an obscure and metaphorical way that allowed me to think outside of the box, rather than be bounded to a structural essay hindering my imagination and creativity. However, I do struggle with organizing my thoughts onto a piece of paper. I noticed the content I want to unveil is arduous to follow because there is no order. Everything in my writing seems to be off due to having no timeline nor foundation beforehand, so the intended rhetorical devices and key elements are concealed because my classmates are more focused on jumping through my choppy oeuvre than enjoying it. I am aware that a simple resolution for this conflict would be prioritizing the construction of a rough draft along with a timeline to successfully reveal key concepts in my writing. Additionally, I believe that as a writer, it is crucial to apprehend criticisms from peers to make as many revisions to perfect one’s work because the biggest concern is captivating the audience and not confusing them. Thus, if my readers are struggling with understanding my content because I did not put enough effort and time into the preparations of a project, I have failed as a writer.
In hopes of ceasing this distress, I yearn for more opportunities that require writing imaginatively and eloquently because I see a significant improvement in my motivation to write. With years of struggling to find a motive to just sit and write, I am grateful that this course has formulated my fondness for writing. Overall, I know it will be a grueling journey to enhance my writing techniques, but I cannot wait for the rewarding feeling of growth and improvement at the end of this course.
WEEK THREE
This week, the course has required all students to read I am Legend, written by the notorious American author and screenwriter, Richard Matheson. The 1954 horror novel focuses on the protagonist, Robert Neville, surviving a worldwide pandemic that causes humans to mutate into vampires. At first glance, the vampires are the obvious stereotypical monsters Noël Carrol had described as Horror. Categorizing vampires as unnatural creatures that are to be avoided as they are threatening to the protagonist. However, further on in Neville’s journey, readers begin to see the protagonist battling more extreme obstacles other than the horrendous nocturnal creatures waiting outside to devour him. As Robert Matheson utilizes the first-person point of view and flashbacks throughout the novel, readers are provided with an in-depth perception of Neville’s life and mentality to recognize that the true monster’s identity is Neville’s haunting past of his wife and daughter, Virginia and Kathy. After the revelation of their unfortunate deaths due to the infection, readers recognize a toxic pattern emerging in Robert Neville. For instance, each chapter started smoothly with the protagonist’s everyday routine of avoiding and assassinating vampires in search of a cure, but the memories of his deceased family interrupt his chores, restrains him, and forces him into depression. Neville then becomes dependent on alcohol to drown out his haunting past and struggles to move forward song his journey. Additionally, Matheson intentionally showcases Robert Neville’s routine in each chapter to demonstrate the desensitization towards vampires, in contrast to his horrific mental state of mourning the uncanny past.
I was genuinely surprised that it did not take too long to realize that the vampires are not the intended monsters in the novel compared to Neville’s tremendous loss. He feels alone, abandoned, and ashamed for being alive. His past continuously eats him up alive and to avoid it he chooses to abuse alcohol. However, he can never avoid it. Everything reminds him of Virginia and Kathy and the audience can see the shame and guilt Neville possesses each time he experiments with or kills a female vampire. As I read Matheson’s novel, I experience chills pondering on the idea of being alone in an infested world ruled by vampires who prey on human blood. What terrifies me the most is the thought of being alone. This is why I can personally understand how Robert Neville had become desensitized by the creatures because what affected him the most was the haunting and lingering memories of his loved ones forcing him into depression.
Soon, the course will require students to write a Rhetorical Analysis paper on I am Legend and fortunately, I have been preparing by highlighting key shreds of evidence throughout my reading to support my thesis and essentially save time. Also, I noticed how easy it has been to recognize rhetorical elements. They are just so clear now due to the hours spent discussing its effects on an audience. I have also seen growth in identifying the author’s intended mood transition and messages when reading a novel and I cannot wait to elucidate that recognition in my rhetorical analysis paper.
Week Four:
After week four, the course’s assignments and projects have conditioned me to feel prepared for the rhetorical analysis of Richard Matheson’s horror novel, I am Legend. The “Short Passage Presentations” notably, allowed me to pick apart an excerpt in the novel and successfully recognize the rhetorical elements Matheson utilized to provoke a reaction from the audience. Matheson particularly applies diction, metaphors, and imagery to stimulate his readers’ senses and commiseration to allow the complete immersion in the fictional world he has created. Although I feel knowledgeable about literary devices, I am ultimately concerned over the fact that I am incapable to identify every one of Matheson’s rhetorical devices after listening to my classmates’ presentations. Despite the discussions being extremely enlightening, it, unfortunately, was disheartening to realize that my classmates’ interpretations were not so obvious to me. However, seeing the in-depth interpretations of Matheson’s literary devices, I hope to acquire the same scholarly viewpoint that would allow me to pinpoint the intricate symbolic elements within the novel. Essentially, the assignment had taught me to pay close attention to what I read because, in a short excerpt, repetition, diction, and metaphorical messages could be concealed from the naked eye. So far, the process of rhetorically analyzing I am Legend has been slightly difficult because there are so many instances to choose from. Genuinely the initial draft was rough only because I knew it would be time-consuming to gather up all of the useful shreds of evidence. Other than that, the prompt was straightforward and easy to follow.
In conclusion, I am grateful for this week’s assignments because it has prepared me for the initial draft of my essay as it allowed me to test my ability to distinguish the various rhetorical devices in a short passage. Therefore, my ultimate goal is to distinctly elucidate my understanding of rhetorical devices in my essay. However, I am concerned that my writing is not going to be comprehensible. I am worried that my thesis will not be clear enough nor stable throughout my writing. The only hope I cling to is the fact that I will be receiving revisions from my peers. This comforts me because I know my initial draft is going to be ROUGH, so revisions are inevitable. Overall, I am ecstatic to receive feedback from my peers to revise my writing and be able to construct a natural flowing essay that demonstrates the impact of rhetorical devices.
Week five:
The duration of week five consisted of studying rhetoric to be able to successfully analyze the classical novel, I am Legend, written by the notorious American novelist, Richard Matheson. Before writing the rhetorical analysis essay, the course prepared me to think critically about Matheson’s choice of genre and his intended message for the audience. For my first rough draft, I utilized several sources we had read throughout the quarter to allow us to pinpoint our art-horror monster and the author’s usage of rhetorical techniques. In I am Legend, Matheson intentionally guided his readers through a third-person narrative of our protagonist, Robert Neville, and his journey through an apocalyptic world taken over by vampires to showcase the terrors of isolation and grief. I was worried that it would be very difficult to analyze the novel, but with the help of peer reviews and our professor’s critique, I felt very prepared for the final draft because now I know what I need to improve on. My anxiety concerning meeting the prompt’s expectations was dispursed as soon as I received the feedback because the professor’s commentary was so upfront and clear, I knew what needed to be done. Additionally, being allowed to peer review other classmates gave me the opportunity to see correct examples of a rhetorical analysis on I am Legend, in contrast to my flawed paper, and showed me what not to include in my writing.
Essentially, after carefully reading all of my classmate’s reviews and receiving my professor’s comments on my first draft, I realized that nothing in my essay had covered the message of the novel nor the genre, like the prompt had ordered. Instead, my first draft consisted of an extensive description of all the specific rhetorical devices Matheson utilized in his novel as well as pathos appealing to the audience’s reaction. For instance, one of my paragraphs mainly focused on imagery and its impact on the audience rather than the author’s internal message and the classic horror genre he is trying to portray. In other words, my thesis concentrated on how the author evoked emotion and not how our protagonist was actually the intended art-horror monster. I knew now that my final draft needed to include Matheson’s writing style pleasing the major tropes of the horror genre and the shifting image of the novel’s intended monster. The only way I had discovered this mistake was through trial and error. Thus, I am very grateful for this course enhancing my writing skills and the professor personally regulating our improvements. I hope that growth will be elucidated in my final draft after my very flawed and disappointing rough draft.
Week Six:
During week six, we finished up our peer reviews and it was time to write our final draft for the rhetorical analysis on Matheson’s classic horror novel, I am Legend. Before writing my first draft, I was genuinely confused about the prompt’s expectations and it clearly exuded my lack of understanding in a notably flawed paper, which received very brutal but truthful comments that I needed to hear. After completing several reviews for my classmates and taking in all of the evaluations, the process of writing my final draft went more smoothly than my rough draft. I can proudly say that my comprehension of the course material was clearly elucidated in my final essay. Although I needed to trash my initial draft and completely start over, I immediately saw the shift from how I first felt unsure of submitting my rough draft to proudly submitting my final essay. Essentially, I saw the professor’s process of enhancing his student’s writing skills and how successful his technique truly was.
For my full draft, it was still in the process of trial and error so the professor continued to make critiquing comments that gave me insight into my strengths and weaknesses. Additionally, I was reminded that I needed to incorporate more sources into my arguments and to improve my topic sentences because they were unclear and weak. This week the students were also required to play a group game that allowed us to blindly put each other’s topic sentences in order based on context and its clarity. This process was extremely beneficial because it allowed me to recognize the professor’s and course’s expectations for my full draft. However, even after the exercise prepared me, I was even more nervous about my topic sentences because no one was able to correctly put them in the right order. Thus, informing me that I need to improve on the clarity of my topic sentences, so not only did I need to rewrite my whole essay to properly follow the prompt, I was also struggling with strong opening sentences. Overall, my only hope is that my essay will clearly depict growth and effort in comparison to my initial draft as well as my comprehension of the art-horror genre.
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Week Seven:
During week 7, I finally completed and submitted my final draft on the rhetorical analysis of I am Legend. This process was easier and smoother in contrast to my rough draft. I felt more confident in the course material I had discussed in my paper as well as the several sources I utilized to back up my arguments. I did my best to improve the clarity of my topic sentences and the urge to talk about how the author appealed to pathos by evoking reactions from the audience. In my final essay, I made sure to successfully follow the prompt by checking off the requirements on a list the professor uses to grade our essay. This was extremely helpful because it gave the students a clear understanding of the essential elements needed in our analytical essay. Additionally, our professor required a final peer review that needed to be extremely thorough now that we were given a rubric checklist. In my opinion, I thought this was very beneficial to the class because rather than skimming through the list, we were required to actually study each item as we examined our classmate’s papers for any missing elements. This genuinely improved my essay because I was missing so many elements in the checklist. For instance, my conclusion would have been extremely flawed if I did not see the comment “your conclusion should not be the recap of your essay” because I would have failed. I am so appreciative of the rubric checklist because, without it, my conclusion would have infuriated the professor and overall make my rhetorical analysis essay weak. Instead, I followed the suggestions made by my professor and altered my mindset on concluding paragraphs. I now know not to ever recap my ideas at the end of my essays and alternatively make creative connections in my conclusions that would strongly support and close my arguments.
Throughout this week, I notice a huge difference in my writing skill and mindset. I ame to the realization that the process of writing an essay actually takes longer and more patience than I perceived. Trial and error is a mandatory process and it is important to take into consideration all of the brutal critique that will essentially improve your writing in the long run. What I have learned these past few weeks has definitely prepared me for other writing assignments and courses in the future. I know now my weaknesses I must surpass as well as my strengths to motivate myself. All in all, this weak was very enlightening.
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Week Eight:
For my RIP project, I chose a group to write and record a short horror film that would elucidate the rhetorical devices involved in the art-horror genre. Ultimately, the story’s plot will heavily revolve around a college student being threatened and stalked after sundown to evoke human vulnerability and the terrors of being alone. It will start off with our protagonist dancing in a studio alone until she receives multiple creepy messages from an unknown number saying that she is being watched following by an attachment of images showcasing that she is indeed being watched. In the next scenes, the audience will notice the paranoia emerging from our main character as she walks home alone in the pitch-black dark. Scenes would be interrupted with short glimpses of our monster as a lingering dark figure to reveal that she is being followed. Additionally, there will be several instances where our protagonist tries to getaway. For example, she calls her friends for help first, then tries running towards her friend’s dorm room, and finally makes it to her car. As she receives no help and realizes she is alone in this mess, everything starts to spiral out of control. After all of her failed attempts, the monster will eventually be revealed as her dance coach that envies her talent and is devoted to getting rid of her in any way possible so that his daughter receives her rightful solo piece and fame. Thus, causing a plot twist for the audience and elucidating fears of envy and its toll.
So far, our group only has a brief overall idea of the film’s plot and timeline but has not yet constructed an actual script. Our project’s process has been frustrating and unprogressive due to the several differentiating ideas we have contributed to the film’s plot. Essentially, I realized that working in a group is very complicated as each group member cannot decide what works and doesn’t work in our short film. For instance, we struggle to agree on one idea, and each time an assignment is created to allow us to progress, it backfires because we end up changing the initial storyline with a completely different one instead. Although the process has been very slow, my group is devoted to including twists and societal fears into the film to evoke a response from our audience. If I were to start all over again, I think what I would change is to include more characters in the film to allow all team members film time. Even though we only cast two main characters in our film, everyone has contributed equally to this project. Despite the busy schedules, our story has slowly come along with everyone’s creativity and hard work. We even have a member that constructed a schedule to figure out everyone’s availability to commit to this project. Overall, the project started off horribly, but slowly it is coming all together due to the diligent group I have. I cannot wait to showcase the final product of our RIP project and ultimately creep everyone out.
Week Nine:
Throughout week nine, my classmates and I came together on the weekends to film a grim tale of a college student being stalked on her walk home from UC Irvine. Our goal was to elucidate the psychological terror college students must experience when walking home alone at night as well as the fear of death and mistrust. For instance, it was necessary to incorporate a scene where the stalker’s identity is revealed as the protagonist’s dance coach so that the film evokes the fear of betrayal, particularly from those who are deemed trustworthy and reliable. As I wrote the storyboard, I had envisioned each plot in an orderly fashion, the several camera angles, and the sounds to successfully set the film’s melancholy mood. However, when filming I discovered that it is very difficult to film everything I had envisioned. I experienced complications with communicating the frames I had visualized for the storyboard therefore, the whole process was extremely difficult and discouraging for me. I also felt like our film could not evoke fear or shock due to how short our film was. We did not have time to build up the story or the character development and there was no dialogue in the film for the audience to understand what was going on. In other words, I wish we had met up more to discuss the project and its storyline, but in the end, the film was finalized and the art-horror message was able to be conveyed. Additionally, I give props to my classmates for acting so well in front of the camera and finding the time to film their individual scenes and it was very enjoyable to see the behind-the-scenes process of a film and the storyboard coming to life. However, after mimicking a director and a producer this week I realized that the role is very essential and tedious, but extremely rewarding. This project notably sparked my interest in filmmaking as well as developed a stronger passion and appreciation for writing. The course’s material has also given me a better understanding of modern horror and insight into the genre. Overall, the final project was enjoyable and provided a great creative outlet for the students in Writing 39b.
Week Ten:
After completing week ten in writing 39b, the course material has allowed me to learn several assets necessitated in my subsequent writing courses. In particular, the class has taught me the importance of rhetorical analysis due to films and texts possessing several intricate elements and devices that satisfy the major tropes of the horror genre. Even after reading, I am Legend before the course, it was not evident to me that the intended art-horror monster was the protagonist. Due to the contentment of oblivion when reading most novels, the course has taught me that scholars must be accustomed to analyzing every detail presented by the author. Thus, I realized that by reading Matheson’s novel senselessly, I completely missed the genuine art-horror monster. In actuality, Neville was the threatening factor in the vampire’s point of view due to his inhumane obsession with assassinating the vampire society. I also never put too much thought into the author’s intended message nor the specific rhetorical devices utilized to evoke psychological terror from the audience. However, the duration of this course has taught me to pay close attention to every scene, frame, dialogue, and narration to comprehend the hidden metaphors embedded by the author. Notably, rhetorical analysis was so heavily emphasized throughout the course that it is fairly impossible to casually enjoy a film or book without arduously evaluating the work and trope. Not to mention how significant the time period of a project is as it plays a huge role in genre and interpretation. For instance, I am Legend was written during the Cold War era and this time period is extremely important for scholars to inquire as it reveals the author’s internal message about society’s psychological fears. The Cold War was an era of destruction and paranoia of invasion and plays a major trope in the novel’s storyline as readers in that era related to the vampire’s anxiety of Neville. Essentially, writing 39b has taught me to be attentive when evaluating novels and films as well as the significance of rhetorical analysis.
Throughout the course, the professor substantially enhanced my writing skills with truthful critiquing, assignments, and lectures. The personal comments gave me insight into my strengths and weaknesses in writing. Now, I know that it is important to have clear topic sentences that introduce the argument that is about to be discussed and that conclusions are not a place to summarize the essay’s ideas, but instead, a place to go beyond the scope of the essay. I started off the course being accustomed to writing an uninteresting recap of the essay’s arguments in the conclusion, but once I discovered it would result in losing the reader’s interest, I found that it is essential to discuss a riveting idea that contributes to the thesis than a summary. In addition, I found the exercise of blindly putting my classmate’s topic sentences in order, enlightening and beneficial as it demonstrates how crucial topic sentences are. Thus, topic sentences must be clear and upfront enough to insinuate the ideas in an order that all readers can understand. In conclusion, the course and the professor have taught me essential skills that are critical to take forward into my future writing courses as well as substantially improving my writing skills and comprehension of rhetorical devices.
