Angelo Pastelin

Lynda Haas
Writing 37
4 November 2015
Final Reflection Essay
Being able to write effectively is a skill that takes time to acquire. Some may be born
with the skill and others may develop it over time, regardless, practicing to write effectively is
the most essential to success as a writer. Writing has never been my strongest subject, and
entering UCI, I knew the courses were only going to get more difficult compared to high school.
Taking writing 37, a lower division writing course taught by Dr. Haas, has opened my thoughts
on writing and what it is all about. The writing course I have come to take at UCI has had little
similarities to anything I had ever done in high school concerning writing. As the course has
come to an end, I have grown to become a more effective writer along with being able to enjoy
myself while doing it.
Taking this course, I knew I would have to devote a great amount of time and effort to
succeed. Although the workload is high, the benefits that I have gained outweigh the work I had
to overcome. For this course, we learned mainly through groups. It has been a much different
approach to learning than a traditional high school classroom, considering that the class is much
smaller and all work is done in groups. Unlike high school and the few times group work was
done in a writing class, being able to interact and learn from group members in this course was

much more effective. Our whole time in class relied on computers as well. We were assigned
assignments on a workspace called Canvas, and we also wrote notes, read tales, and read
articles on the computers. Another part of the course was practicing grammar, which was done
on a computer as well, through the website Connect. With writing 37, I have become
accustomed to new ways of learning that I would not see before, such as working through the
internet and in groups.
For writing 37, our main focus has been on the genre of fairy tales. Before taking this
class, I had little knowledge on fairy tales and what they were all about, I just knew they were
tales that were passed down from generations ahead. Starting the course, my knowledge on fairy
tales grew by becoming introduced to them and reading many Wikipedia articles, as well as
doing research on the development of fairy tales. I read about the Grimm brothers history and
famous historical time periods such as the Salon Era, to make the understanding of tales and
how they come about much simpler to comprehend. From here, we learned that There are some
clues in the Grimms' tales themselves and their styles that provide background information about
the views of the tellers of the tales and the sociohistorical context (Zipes 16). This knowledge of
the Grimms allowed us to understand more clearly that tales are shaped through society and the
events relevant at the time.Throughout the course, we have familiarized ourselves with famous
fairy tale authors such as, Charles Perrault, the Grimm brothers, and Basile. With these authors,
we have been able to get a feel for the older and more original fairy tales from three different
cultures, the French, German, and Italian cultures, respectively. We read, and watched, the fairy
tales to be able to fully understand the elements contained in each and make comparisons. Not
only did we just focus on the traditional authors and their adaptations, but we worked with the
more modern and new-era tales, to be able to analyze major changes between the two time

periods. We watched and read texts such as Maleficent (Sleeping Beauty remake), The Sleeper
and the Spindle (Sleeping Beauty and Snow White), and Into the Woods (A combination of
classic fairy tales). By being able to familiarize ourselves with fairy tales from two very different
time periods, we were able to analyze what changes were made and how the tales evolved. Most
of these changes were notes when writing our Rhetorical Analysis essay, where we used close
reading of classical fairy tale texts with specific attention to elements of rhetoric to analyze the
elements such as social context or author purpose. For example, a sentence from my Rhetorical
Analysis Essay shows one of the major changes evident from one time period to another:
Generally, we are used to the well-known and typical Prince charming to come save the day
and rescue the princess in distress. This time, with the newer version, that did not happen. The
queen is the hero in the story and there is no real sign of a male figure that plays a heroic role.
The Rhetorical analysis essay was a key assignment that displayed our knowledge on the fairy
tale genre, and rhetoric. Now, I am fully able to understand the major fairy tales and their
rhetorical context, all due to achievement of some of the course objectives.
When we started the course, we were introduced to the course objectives, and now ending
the course, we have fulfilled and achieved each and every one of them through our assignments.
Some of the course objectives that were included and we covered with every class and
assignment are those that relate to computers, group work, and rhetoric. We have been able to
become literate digitally through the constant use of computers and learning new ways of using
them every time. For example, before, I did not know how to make a google slide and document,
and although it seems so simple, this course allowed me to become advanced in creating and
successfully understanding how to work with the google programs. With that skill, we adapted it
to fit another objective: Being Able to use several digital mediums to improve communication

skills. By using our computers and the internet, we made presentations through google docs,
Prezi and PowerPoint. We also familiarized ourselves with creating a website and writing essays
more than ever. Writing blogs in our website, creating an Intro to me presentation, and working
on grammar through connect, are all assignments we completed through the internet to
understand how to not just do everything by hand, as we were once accustomed to. This way, it
prepares us for life and courses outside of writing 37.
One of the final projects we did was the Rhetoric in Practice project. With that, we tied
all of our knowledge together from the quarter to address the class theme, using our rhetorical
skills to appeal to an audience. My group project consisted of analyzing three conventions about
the modern adaptations of fairy tales, specifically Into the Woods and Maleficent. We created a
power point presentation along with visual accompaniment to present and show the evolution of
the conventions of the prince, happy endings, and the archetypal villain. Through this project we
were able to understand rhetoric and rhetorical situation and understand that how since we are
living in the 21st century, the conventions grow out of our society and norms that we are
accustomed to in present day. We learned that the tales go by and grow out of history and society,
and since there have been drastic changes in both over hundreds of years, the fairy tales are
bound to change. For example, we now know that women have a large role in our society,
whereas before, they were traditionally just housewives who did not go to school or work at all.
This change of the dynamic women in our society is show in the film Maleficent, by having a
female character save the day and be the protagonist. By taking all of this information, we were
able to utilize the rhetoric effectively, since Rhetoric is about seeing opportunities to build
bridges between where you are and where your audience is by using the ideas, experiences,
texts(McNeil 3). We achieved this through connecting with the audience by making the slides

visually appealing with no words, and speaking clearly and effectively. The Rhetoric in Practice
project was our own take on rhetoric and how to use it to communicate.
With all of our work in class and at home, we reach out to a particular Habit of mind.
Whether the habit of mind may be responsibility, openness, or engagement, everything we do
can be related to connect with a habit of mind. With discussions we see openness because
through hearing different sets of information being delivered differently from others, it allows
one to consider a new way of thinking, or improving our own thinking by implementing other
ideas. With just completing the workload, we see responsibility, and that is a key habit, since the
work we do in class and at home requires a significant amount of effort and tine. There are many
instances where there are multiple habits of mind being used and connected with, which is all a
part of the work we do in the course. Communication and analysis is what we focus consistently
to become effective in writing.
Writing 37 and Dr. Haas have prepared me for the next wave of writing courses to come.
I have realized that writing can be enjoyable and there is a way to analyze almost any form of
work, whether it be visual or a text. Before, I would despise writing essays and reading, but after
doing it so frequently now, it has attached to me and I have gotten used to it. Now my skills in
wiritng and analysis have become more effective than and as strong as ever. When writing an
essay in the beginning of the quarter, I would write a sentence such as the following: This may
not seem as such a big element, but it has established even up to present day the way the readers
view witches in stories, or other forms of entertainment. The constant association of witches and
negativity is the reason why. Now that my knowledge and practice of rhetoric and analysis has
become more effective, my concluding work began to look more like this. In the end, many
would have thought that the queen would go back and marry her prince charming, but it did not

happen, instead she Walked away from the sunset and the lands they knew, and into the night
(Gaiman). The queen ends up walking away from her royal castle and leaves her prestigious
lifestyle, along with the three dwarves. In classical tales, we would really never see this happen,
because the queen always got her prince and continued to live the royal and flashy life that she
was already familiar with. This is a big appeal to the audience in a way that pertains to a more
broad audience, displayed with a more realistic ending because the queen leaves her riches to
live a normal lifestyle. It is easier to relate to the queen and understand that her intentions were
only for good, and not being arrogant and vain such as many of the early version queens. I can
say I was successful in the course, mainly because I completed all of the assignments, wrote
analytical and rhetoric-based essays, and communicated effectively with my classmates. What I
am most proud of in this course, is being able to write with ease and not being afraid of public
speaking, as I was before. I know I have grown not only as a writer and reader, but as a person
who will apply that knowledge for future courses and the real world.

Works Cited
McNeil, Hayden, the Anteaters Guide to Writing and Rhetoric. Plymouth, Mich: N.p, 2015.Print
Zipes, Jack. (2014) Introduction: Rediscovering the Original Tales of the Brothers Grimm.