Writing Showcase
Rhetorical Analysis Essay
The Genre-Based Rhetorical Analysis assignment is one of the two major assignments for the Writing 45 course. For the first six weeks of the quarter, we trained in every aspect that goes into being able to piece together my Genre Analysis (GA) essay on Michelle Zauner’s “Crying in H Mart.”
From tasks like the metacognitive reading, peer review, and exploratory draft assignments, I was able to break down the distinctive genre conventions of a personal and meditative essay in Zauner’s writing. With this, it is required for us to dig deeper into the essay, and find the author’s purpose of writing, and how that applies to what the audience wants to see.
The Writing Showcase showcases specific moments in which I have portrayed my learning thus far in the course. The following are six artifacts that showcase my learning, along with their respectively connected learning objectives.
Artifact 1
Forming my Thesis
Original thesis:
Final thesis:
Analytical Reflection/Curation
Although my original thesis and final thesis share the same format and language, it is the slight adjustments to them that make the essay entirely different. From my original thesis, I changed my first genre convention. At first I said I was going to talk about character development, but later realized that this is not a genre convention of a personal or meditative essay. Character development falls into the fiction category, which is what I changed the convention to. With this, I was also able to talk about the storyline of “Crying in H Mart,” and how that falls into the category of fiction. Not only this, but the second sentence of my thesis changed. Instead of saying that the genre conventions work together to appeal to the audience, I stated how they appeal to the audience. I stated that they work together to portray Zauner’s message to the audience, and made sure to describe exactly who the audience was. With this, I set my Genre Analysis essay up to answer the prompt more effectively, because I was then able to bring my genre conventions back to the way that Zauner is appealing to what the readers wanted to hear.
Learning objective: Develop arguable claims based on textual analysis of appropriate evidence from primary sources and thoughtful engagement with competing viewpoints in secondary sources
Artifact 2
Revising Body Paragraphs
Original Body Paragraph:
“Crying in H Mart” utilizes the genre convention of showing character development to show her personal insight on her story, thus making her piece a personal essay. When it comes to one’s cultural background, people often associate certain memories with the way that they perceive their culture. For Zauner, her korean/cultural memory consists of a time when she would consistently be called by her mother during a trip to H-Mart. She poses the question, “am I even Korean anymore if there’s no one left in my life to call and ask which brand of seaweed we used to buy?” (1). Although depressing, this quote paves the road for Zauner to portray her message to the audience. She is showing her Korean audience what she is currently missing out on, following the transition of her mother’s death. She is narrating the story as to why she feels the way that she does, and she is implying that she lost her Korean identity because she lost this aspect of her life. Her audience is able to relate to the story and make a connection, which Zauner hopes will make the audience appreciate their culture more.
Final Body Paragraph:
“Crying in H Mart” utilizes the genre convention of fiction, specifically character development and storytelling, to show her personal insight on her story, thus making her piece a personal essay. Zauner tells the story via first person, and it is as if the entire story could have been made up. There is a plot, setting, and internal dialogue within the story. Zauner begins by setting the timeframe for the story. The story already begins with Zauner’s mother having passed away, and follows with a quick description of what H Mart is. “Ever since my mom died, I cry in H Mart. For those of you who don’t know, H Mart is a supermarket chain that specializes in Asian food” (Zauner 1). This is immediately followed by an explanation of just how important H Mart is to Zauner. These are both key aspects of fiction, which is a shared trait among memoirs, personal essays, and meditative essays (Silverman 4). With this, internal dialogue is seen throughout the entire story. “I’ll wonder what my Mom would have looked like in her seventies– if she would have the same perm that every Korean grandma gets as though it were a part of our race’s evolution” (Zauner 3). Even while she is still fighting her emotions, she still allows her ethnic background to be the basis of her reasoning. In this example, she could have kept out the part where the perm is typical for Korean grandmas, but instead she chose to include it. The perm is a key aspect of her culture, and now she is using that to help her find comfort.
Analytical Reflection/Curation
Between these two body paragraphs, my second one answers the prompt better by a landslide. In the first paragraph, I begin by giving a personal example that connects to the transition sentence. This contradicts the rubric based on the GA essay grade rubric, so I made sure to fix this in the final version of the body paragraph. From this, I learned not to include personal references and examples in my writing, as this would not follow the rubric properly.
Toward the end of my first paragraph, I reported what Zauner did in her essay, which could have been summarized to be much more straightforward. In the final version of this paragraph, I used that space to further analyze the quotes that I provided. Not only this, but I was able to wrap up my thoughts much more efficiently, and was also able to connect everything back to the author’s message, and how it would have been interpreted by the liberal audience of “Crying in H Mart.”
Learning objective: Explain relationships between critical reading, critical thinking, and the writing process, including invention, drafting, collaborative feedback, and revision
Artifact 3
Close Readings
Annotations from Perusall Assignments:
Analytical Reflection/Curation
Perusall assignments were ones where we were assigned a section of our textbook, The Anteater's Guide to Writing & Rhetoric, and we were to partake in conversations with our peers in annotating and analyzing texts. Within this, we would expand on each other's ideas and state how we felt about certain topics.
In the first annotation seen here, I talk about how the text reminded me of a specific objective of this course, which is to partake in being part of an academic discourse community. While reading, I was reminded of all the discourse communities that I have been in without realizing it. I have grown a bit of an appreciation for looking back and realizing that I have been a part of groups that expand on each other's ideas so well, which has turned me into the rhetor that I am today.
In the second annotation, I am referring to a skill that I have been taught throughout my years of writing: including information about the author in the introduction. Despite me knowing this as a strategy for writing, I did not follow through with this in the first or second draft of my Genre Analysis essay, so I made to do to so in the final draft.
Learning objective: Apply key concepts related to genre and rhetorical situation, including convention, discourse community, purpose, context, audience, and ethos
Artifact 4
Peer Review
Peer Review I received:
Peer Review I gave:
Analytical Reflection/Curation
From giving peer review I learned how I can actually use my own criticism to help my own essay. For example, when I would comment on someone else's writing that their thesis needed to be more specific, I would then go and check whether or not my thesis was specific enough. From receiving peer review, I was able to hear other people's points of view as to where my work needed to improve. The peer review you see done by Alan Jiayi Xian provided me with the constructive criticism that I needed to beef up my Genre Analysis essay. From receiving peer review I also learned that not all peer review is worth taking into account and that sometimes people just have different voices and approaches to writing. With this, the biggest thing that I learned is that I would much rather give peer review than receive it, simply due to the fact that I realize ways that I can improve my own writing.
I did my best to incorporate the changes suggested to me by my peers, but I am not sure if I did it perfectly. Beyond college, learning about peer review will be helpful to me as I will no longer look at it as a chore, but instead look at it as a way I can improve others, as well as myself. I learned that giving peer review should not be looked at lightly, as I would not want somebody to provide me with useless criticism. In addition to this, I was able to see how others' ideas formed essays, which I could then use as inspiration for constructing my overall essay.
Learning objective: Give productive feedback on peers’ writing-in-progress; prioritize and implement feedback received from instructor and peers to revise effectively over multiple drafts
Artifact 5
Statements of Fact
Statement from my GA Essay:
Statement from my Memoir Essay:
Analytical Reflection/Curation
Here are two statements of fact in both my Genre Analysis essay, and my IP Multimodal Memoir essay. When it comes to a Genre Analysis essay, one must contain a consistently academic voice. For example, the writer must never use improper grammar under any circumstances. When stating a fact the fact must be cited with a source. However, when it comes to a memoir essay this can be altered. Facts don’t need to come from sources, as the fact is simply just coming from me. When it comes to grammar, it is important for the author to use their natural voice and tone.
In the first excerpt from my Genre Analysis essay, I am telling my readers about The New Yorker’s audience, as they are consistently liberal, and then stating the source where this comes from. In the second excerpt from my Multimodal Memoir essay, my tone is non-academic. I use a word that is not politically or grammatically correct in this instance when I say “the blacks.” If I were to take this phrase and put it into an academic piece of writing, this would pose many questions. What am I talking about that is black? Why am I not black enough? Not only this, but in an academic piece of writing, I would be required to immediately explain with context why this is true. In my memoir essay, I do not explain why this is true. Instead, I tell a story as to how I know this to be true, and it is then up to the reader to interpret it as such.
For memoir essays, this language and tone work just fine, but this is not the case for an academic essay. This is where the genre conventions of these two pieces of writing contradict each other.
Artifact 6
Contradicting Voices
Excerpt from my GA Essay:
Excerpt from my Memoir Essay:
Analytical Reflection/Curation
For a memoir essay, it is crucial for the author to use retrospective voices, according to the Genre and Medium objective of the IP Multimodal Memoir Essay Rubric. What this means, is that the author must reflect on the story. It is vital for the author to add in their current perspective of the story, in order to nail the retrospective aspect of a memoir. In my memoir, I made sure to pay extra attention to this, especially in my main scenes. I did this by including questions and thoughts that were coming to mind while recalling what happened at the time. “Why didn’t she teach me?” “I’ve dreaded quinceñeras since that day.”
According to the GA Essay Rubric, it is very important that the writer must not “overwhelm [their] own voice” when analyzing and curating quotes. For a Genre Analysis essay, it is crucial that the writer stays academic with their tone and language. Not only this, but they must not bring bias into the story. In the excerpt from my Genre Analysis essay, we don’t see any of my biases come into the equation. I could have given my input on the situation, but I did not as this does not fit the genre conventions of a GA essay.
The difference here is the contradicting voices between the two genres. First, we see that my memoir has many aspects of reflection, and retrospective voices, yet in my Genre Analysis essay, we see none. This is done to fit the genre conventions of both essays and has been done properly based on each respective rubric.
Reflection
I am well aware that my first draft may have been the worst first draft ever created in the history of the universe. Despite this, I am confident that I properly used my resources to revamp my drafts into a properous Genre Analysis essay. During my mandatory GA essay conference I received suggestions from my professor on how to form a better overall essay. From my classmates I received comments as to how my analysis can be further explored. I searched the grading rubrics for each assignment. These were all crucial to me being able to form my Genre Analysis essay. Every little quick write assignment done during class, as well as all of the assignments about breaking down genre conventions within their respective genres, helped tremendously.
A big challenge I faced while forming my essay was making sure that my genre conventions were arguable. The fact that I talk a lot about a genre convention that is not super arguable is a downside to my essay, but with this I am proud of the strengths of my essay. I was able to connect the evidence to in-depth analysis, and I made sure that my analysis connected back to the message that Zauner conveyed. This was a huge steo from my exploratory drafts, and my final draft. My final draft properly connected the analysis back to Michelle Zauner’s message to her liberal audience.
Although my GA essay did not turn out perfect, I feel as though I did my best, and for that, I will carry my chin up high.