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Isaac Nguyen
Dr. Lynda Haas
Writing 37
07 November 2015
Reflection Essay
The progress I have developed in not only my social skills but also my
writing skills is astounding. Being in this writing 37 class with Dr. Haas
has definitely allowed me to open up and develop a new passion for
writing. Before coming into this class, I was very uncomfortable with
the idea of speaking in front of my peers, yet alone give a
presentation in front of an entire class. However, Dr. Haas made each
student present several times, which was a bit scary at first but it
really helped me develop confidence each time I presented. As for my
writing, I was a pretty weak writer and never had depth in my essays.
Dr. Haas showed up how to analyze texts, as well as identify rhetorical
situations that caused changes in certain works. Although my peers
and I faced some difficult moments in the quarter, we were able to
overcome them and grow as a writer. I became more comfortable with
writing as well as reading texts. The assignments that Dr. Haas
assigned made reading fun, and the notes that we were required to
take allowed us to dig deeper into the text rather than take analyze it

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at face value. Through these assignments that Dr. Haas assigned, I was
able to develop into a stronger student.
With writing comes editing. The revision process that we went through
in class was very systematic and efficient. When we were doing peer
reviews for our rhetorical analysis, we were in groups of 3 and were
given an objective to look for each time we looked at an essay. Each
time we finished going through all 3 essays and discussing it, we
moved on to a different aspect. This was a very beneficial system
because we focused on one aspect rather than multiple which allowed
us to see the differences in all the essays as well as identify which
essay was stronger or weaker. After being able to identify what was
strong or weak, we were able to go back into our essay and see if we
had that aspect embodied in our essay. In addition, Dr. Haas also made
revisions and comments on what could be in improved in our essays.
As for mine, I was given a lot of feedback on how to make my 3rd
paragraph stronger, which discussed the change in first loves kiss.

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Below is a picture where you can see the advice Dr. Haas gave me.

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I agree with Dr. Haas on this, and I will be working on this paragraph
following the advice from her. I took the reading from its literal
meaning (a female-to-female kiss), rather than looking at the meaning
of the situation. To show my progression in learning, I will be editing
this part and show my final draft to display my expertise and growth in
writing and analyzing.

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The reason I chose to write about the Sleeper and the Spindle,
Sleeping Beauty, and Snow White is because there were very clear
changes in the story that I was passionate and interested in writing
about. One of the aspects was the change in the female role. I am a
believer in the feminism movement, so writing about this was a breeze
for me since I was already so interested in the topic. The reasons I
used for the change in the convention was to display an updated
image of women due to a change in time period as well as audience.
Something I would do differently is to be more careful choosing the
topics I will write about. I wrote about a topic that was not very
accurate, which I discussed in paragraph 2 of this essay. I will make
sure I understand everything and analyze more in order to stray from
such a mistake again.
We read and analyzed many works in class. Dr. Haas first
presented us with many original classic fairy tales to embed the
conventions of a fairy tale into our heads. Then after a while, we were
presented with modern day fairy tales that took those conventions that
we learned about and changed them up. I found this to be very
effective because it allowed us to see the changes in the conventions
as well as realize why these changes were made. Reading these works
greatly informed my own works and ideas because I learned to dig
deeper into the texts and ask questions, rather than just read and be
done with the texts. An example of this would be when Gaiman had the

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Queen be the heroine rather than a prince. Rather than just stating it
was just a change in the role of a female, I did research and realized
that he was a feminist writer, and that he believed a prince was not
needed to save the day. In addition, he adapted to modern day values
and how women are perceived as equal to men. The audience also
played a role since the female role has been changed, it would be more
appealing to the people reading the story. Overall, everything that I did
in this class had a great impact on my progression as a write as well as
a reader.