Sebin's Portfolio
A. If you could name a song that represents your experience in this class, what would it be and why?
I do not know many pop songs, but when I read about this question, the one song that came up in my head was David Guetta's Without You. So far we had three big projects and many blog assignments during this class. The reason why I chose this song was because I couldn't pass this class without my husband's feedback on my projects and assignments. Although the feedback occurred outside of class, the work that I have done in this class went through my husband's review as well. Upon completing my work, my first audience was always my husband. He reads all my papers and gives me the best feedback. Even though his major was not in English, his point of view when looking at my paper was the most accurate and objective. Of course I received a lot of feedback from my peers and they were very useful in shaping my projects and assignment. However, my husband could be the most honest in criticizing my paper because he did not need to consider my feelings since we are family, neither does he compete with me to have better grade. For example, when I had my husband read my final ethnography paper, he said "You shouldn't say this here. Your purpose in writing this is to be objective, not showing your conservative point of view." I was very upset that he made a criticism regarding the content of my paper that I had worked so hard on for three days. After I read it again, I deleted that sentence without him knowing it before submission because his advice made sense.
The lyrics of this song are
"I can't win, I can't reign
I will never win this game
Without you, without you
I am lost, I am vain,
I will never be the same
Without you, without you
I won't run, I won't fly
I will never make it by
Without you, without you
I can't rest, I can't fight
All I need is you and I,
Without you, without you
...
This song is reflecting my mind about this class. I thought that it would not be easy to obtain a great outcome from this English writing class because I was not a confident writer. If he did not give me many tips that helped every corner of my papers, I wouldn't receive the grade that I was hoping to get. My husband is very curious about my portfolio. Hopefully he sees my reflection where I mentioned him and knows that I very much appreciate his advice.
Oh my god. I just remember that song Britney spears' "Oops, I did it again." because I wrote something again that my husband was involved in. My other audience must think that I love my husband too much. I hope that no one gets angry from me bragging about my husband too much in this portfolio.
B. If you were to teach this class, what ideas would you emphasize?
I was growing up in a pretty conservative educational environment in Korea. When I was an elementary school student, my friends loved to see my writing notes because I always thought differently on a subject that was given during the class compared with other students. For example, I had to choose and write about one household electronic product. When other students were writing about the shape of TVs and the function of refrigerators, I myself became a toaster and wrote a paper from the viewpoint of a toaster. "I am a Philips toaster. I hate people. They always put their food in my head. So, I get angry and hit that thing very hard until they get bruised. Then spit it out. Those people are very strange because they actually eat what I messed up. One time, a kid put his hand in my head, so I did the same thing. I was angry and steamed, so I hit his finger so hard! Then the kid started crying. The parents of kid grasp me with an angry face and dumped me in the trashcan. But it was okay because I met my new friend there. His name was Samsung 24 inch TV.”
However, the writing class in my middle school and high school required me to comply with certain rules. There was always a restriction in genre, content, format, and the style of the writing. I believe that I started losing my creativity from that point. I started hating writing. However, this class was very different than the typical writing class in that it allowed me to use any material and write freely using any genre. Therefore, if I were a teacher of this class, I would focus more on the student’s creativity by showing them different kinds of materials and encouraging them to think outside the box and that there are no specific rules in expressing their ideas. Also, I will stress to them that even if they are called a geek by presenting something in different way; it is a good sign because they succeed to change the paradigm in seeing something (defamilarization).
C. This is your opportunity to speak back to an author or a source that we’ve referenced in this class. If you really enjoyed a reading/resource, what did you enjoy and why? If you disliked a reading/resource, what would you suggest? Do you have an idea for an alternate reading/activity?
I enjoyed the game where we were spending money for one month with minimum wage income. We played the game before starting the ethnography project. It did not describe many things representing the culture and people who are living day to day with minimum wage, but I could understand their financial difficulties right away. I tried to spend money in the same manner I am spending it now without worrying about my lower income. As a result, I lost all my money in 20 days. I was totally immersed in the game as if I faced real bankruptcy. This program developer must have understood the culture and people who earn minimum wage. Also, he must have had thought deeply in the way he should present it in order to best deliver his message to the audience. Therefore, this resource immediately organized my thoughts about what an ethnography project was and how I needed to present my observation for the project.
D. Explain your writing successes and the things you would you could have changed. Then, focusing on a particular piece of writing (it could be any piece of writing you’ve done, for any class), please discuss rhetorical choices you made and why you made these choices.
When I had abundant knowledge about the topic that was given to me, my writing always ended up with success. When I was a sophomore in college in South Korea, I registered for women’s studies for one of my general education courses. I did not have any intention to be interested in that subject, but I enrolled in that class since my friends all registered in too. For the mid-term test, I had to write about women’s rights in Korea. I never faced that kind of serious topic for writing. Moreover, I never even got a good grade in any writing class ever since I stopped writing in middle school. However, I accidently read about women’s rights in Korea in old times from a history book that I saw in a book store.
The book was describing the women’s rights during the Koryeo period as being very powerful. Before Confucianism influenced Korea, most Koryeo people practiced Buddhism as their religion. Women had the same rights as men and were even able to hold the safe keys and food garage keys. Therefore, when a married couple argued, men had to be kicked out from the house since the women were in procession of the keys and held more power. In this way, Buddhism emphasized that everything alive is equally important, while Confucianism emphasized on the ethics between the role of men and women.
This story was great starting material for the paper because I could draw a big picture of why Korea still had serious inequality problems between women and men and how we should approach these problems. I argued that it was the problem of perception which stemmed from Confucianism rather than the insufficiency of institutional devices (I am not blaming a certain religion here. Confucianism is a great religion because it taught me to love my family and be a polite person in general). Next, I started to support my argument with several reasons based on facts that people can easily observe in our society. For example, even after the introduction of new religions such as Christianity, many Korean people still serve their ancestors by holding a memorial service on Korean Thanksgiving Day and Chinese New Year. Also, Koreans still think the best virtue as a human being is treating old people respectably. Furthermore, many elderly Koreans still believe that all family problems come from women.
By using these facts as evidence that supported my claim, I approached my audience with the Logos appeal. When we talk about social problems, Logos appeal seems to be a good way to deliver how serious a problem has spread in our society with events, statistics, and logical reasoning.
My strategy using Logos worked and I earned an A in this class. It was a very amazing experience because I realized that I could write on something with organized structure, a good flow, and very strong support.
In this UWRT 1101 class, I experienced the same situation. When I observed single guys’ culture closer and spent almost 8 hours with them, I collected so much information and obtained much knowledge. There was no problem in writing my ethnography project with the rich knowledge about the subject. Therefore, I believe that this resulted in successful writing.
E. Tell the story of UWRT 1101. Focus on the elements of narrative we discussed this semester.
After I told myself that everything was going to be okay in this class, I was about to open the door of the classroom when Dr. Rand opened the door for me and said “Come in!” with a big smile on her face. I was relieved after I met her in person because she seemed to be very nice. The class was already full with students even though I arrived there at 11:18. Everybody looked very nervous and quiet because it was the first day of the class. Dr. Rand distributed the syllabus to everybody, but I already had the syllabus and read her blog. She explained about our projects and things we need for class. After that, we wrote in our day note about who we were and what we are doing here. The 1 hour and 30 minutes of class time flew by so fast and we were told by Dr. Rand that we had to bring three objects that represent ourselves.
While driving back home, I was thinking about which objects can best represent me. As soon as I arrived home, I started searching through my house to find objects to take to school. I found my Korean traditional socks, molecular model that I was using in organic chemistry class, and my wedding ring. The next day, when I arrived at school, Keith was already there wearing a pink t-shirt. He said that he couldn’t think about something to bring which represented him. I said “Me too” and we became very quiet again. When class started, everybody had to introduce themselves with one object that they brought. It was very interesting that people brought items such as a trophy of a dance competition, a saxophone receipt, military cap, and a blanket made with so many t-shirts. Everybody has very unique characteristics and this self-introduction gave me the chance to get to know the other students better.
The class was conducted with many discussions between classmates. We also used a variety of interesting material such as Ted talk, audio resources, and YouTube. One time, we were talking about genre while sitting in a circle. In the middle of the circle, Dr. Rand dropped one item at a time and we had to guess what kind of genre we can induce from that item. The genre ended up being ‘food’ which was very funny because there was a paint brush and fan as items but everybody thought that they could be used to brush some oil on the food and to cool down food. These creative ideas could come forward because the atmosphere of UWRT 1101 was diverse with many different people having different backgrounds. The closer I am with peers and Dr. Rand, the more improvement I could sense in my writing.
Dr. Rand always gave me great feedback after reading my assignments and projects. Her detailed feedback always solves my thirst for the answer to why my writing sucks and why the project looked like it had something missing. She also encouraged me to speak out after finding out that I was shy when speaking in front of people. Overall, this class was meaningful to me by offering the chance to meet amazing people and learn the many skills I needed to express myself in the future.
F. What will your writing do in the world? What types of writing will you do, and how will you prepare to do that writing?
There is a person who I respect the most and who I want to be like. Some of reasons why I would like to pursue being a pharmacist were influenced by him; he is Father John Lee (Tae-Suk Lee). He dedicated his whole life to take care of sick and poor people in the small town of Tonj in Sudan due to the long lasting civil war. However he had to go back to God at the early age of 47 due to liver cancer. The work he did in Tonj was very impressive; he built a hospital, school, and even a church. He gave the poor children the opportunity of education. In order to give them a dream, he also made a brass band and taught each and every student how to play the music instruments. Before Father John Lee passed away, he wrote a diary that shows the poor facilitation and environment in Tonj. His book aroused a sensation in Korea, many people started having attention to Tonj and voluntarily donations started in Korea to help them. His book was not written for the purpose of attracting donation, but readers sympathized from his sincere writing.
Once I become a pharmacy doctor and around the time when I retire, I would like to go to a third world country and help them by distributing basic medication such as antibiotic, fever reducers, and antiseptics. Also, I would like to find a way to offer vitamins to children in North Korea dying due to starvation and deficient nutrients. Like Father John Lee did, I will record their lives and let people know about their difficult situation. I will be satisfied even if one reader can find hope that he or she is still happy by having water to drink, food to eat, and having a house where he or she can sleep compared with the less fortunate by reading my book.
In order to reach this goal, I need to prepare now. I have to focusing on the present writing class and I have to do my best in college to get into a pharmacy school. Once I graduate from pharmacy school and start working at a hospital or a retail pharmacy, I will communicate a lot by writing many letters, emails, and instructions for medical doctors and my patients. I believe that I can change the world a little bit by reaching my goal and making a book based on all these experiences which will become the foundation of my small goal.
Documentary "Don't Cry for me Tonj"
G. Do you consider yourself a writer? Why/why not?
I consider myself a writer but not a great or professional writer. Even though I do not have a professional writing technique and a specific writing style, I considered myself to be a decent writer because I can at least express my ideas, thoughts, and opinions. When I was a kid, I wrote a diary every day to record my daily life. When my friends went to military base camp for 2 years in Korea during college, I wrote them many letters in order to communicate with them. Once or twice a week, I am talking to my parents with a messenger application on my cell phone and I always report to them what is happening to me recently. In chemistry and biology class, I wrote so many lab reports that showed my research. Also in writing class, I started writing something with advanced skills using different genre and different subjects. All these activities couldn’t be done if I did not think myself to be a writer.
There is no specific boundary to who is or isn’t a writer. It varies by people’s perception on what defines someone to be a writer. One person may have the view that if you don’t like to write about any subject at all, then you are not a writer. Another may think that as long as you know how to physically write, you are a writer. My perspective about what defines a writer is that it is someone who knows why they are writing, what they are writing about, and whom their audience is. For example, I wrote my lab report to show my experimental results and I knew exactly the reason why I was writing. Also I knew my audience could be the TA, a professor, or students who conducted the same experiment and would like to refer to my papers. In this sense, I was a writer who knew the purpose and audience.
Now and forever, I will still be a writer as I was in my past. If there is only one adjective that I would like to add in front of the word “writer” when I describe myself, it would be “humble” writer. I don’t want to deceive people with any fancy techniques and exclusive words in my writing. I just want to purely express myself in a way where I do not hurt people’s feelings and reproach them.