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Huazhang Liu (Arthur)

Professor Steven Kapica
ENGW 1102
29 March 2015
Opening My Mind: the Consultation Report of the Writing Center
Honestly, before I went to the Writing Center, I nearly had no idea about how to write my
Final Composition. Jonathan F., the writing consultant, helped me to analyze my ideas in our
meeting. I enjoyed the time and opened my mind in our discussion. I received great help from
Jonathan F. and I am considering meeting him again after I finish writing the draft of my
Final Composition. Therefore, the experience in the Writing Center opened my mind and
gave me strong help on my Final Composition.
When I received the assignment to meet the consultant of the Writing Center to discuss
the Final Composition, I made an appointment as soon as possible since I knew that the
appointments are often full due to my previous experience. This was not my first time I had
been to the Writing Center. Last year, I came here once to talk about my philosophy essay. I
really enjoyed the meeting, and the writing consultant gave me a lot of advices. Fortunately,
for this time, I made an appointment with the same consultant, Jonathan F. Last time, he gave
me a lot of useful and awesome ideas, which made me to think about my essay in another
way. However, although he wrote some suggestions on my paper, I did not take some notes
from his words. For this time, when I read the assignment about the Final Composition, I
decided to take notes and paid more attention on his words and our discussions so that I
would remind myself from the notes and I was able to have a really good beginning to write
my Final Composition.
Before I went to the Writing Center, I still had not decided to use my INQ SPOT 1 or my
INQ SPOT 2. I preferred to use SPOT2 because this was the second SPOT I wrote and I

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believed my ideas were clearer and better in INQ SPOT 2, which was evolved out of my INQ
NOTE 3 and 4 about Capica and Transcendent Man, rather than in INQ SPOT 1. However, I
did not receive the comments and grade from my professor, Steve Kapica. In this case, I
decided to bring both my INQ SPOT 1 and INQ SPOT 2 to the Writing Center, and also I
brought the Information for Writing Consultant for Jonathan F. to understand the assignment.
Thus, on March 26th, at 12 pm after I finished my calculus class, I went to the Writing Center
located on the fourth floor in the Lake Hall to discuss my Final Composition with Jonathan F.
About one hour, we discussed a lot and Jonathan gave me a lot of ideas about my Final
Composition. At first, I gave him the instruction first and then let him to read my two INQ
SPOTS. I told him my concerns, and he read Steves comments about my INQ SPOT 1. After
reading two essays, he asked my ideas about my Final Composition. Although I was a little
confused about what I need to write for my Final Composition, I told him the idea about
technologies and dystopian science fictions. I came up with this idea when I improved my
SPOT 2 during the spring break. Before the spring break, I read Steves comments about my
INQ SPOT 1 and I realized that maybe it was better to concentrate on one point rather than
several points. Talking about dystopian novels was one of my supporting ideas in my INQ
SPOT 2. I told Jonathan that I had read a lot of dystopian novels and watched several
dystopian movies. I was able to find several examples, such as the Hunger Game, Matrix.
Then, Jonathan told me this was a really good start. He asked me a question --- what is the
reason that these dystopian novels author wrote these novels? I said that they wanted to point
that there are some shortcomings or disadvantages of science and technologies.
Next, we started to discuss what kinds of disadvantages they are. I listed pollutions and
natural disasters. The Adoration of Jenna Fox and Caprica pointed that science disobeyed
human morality. Jonathan said he had watched Caprica before and he agreed with me. He
said the way in which Zoes father saved his daughter wasnt right from moralists point of

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view. That was the reason why many philosophers enjoyed discussing about some science
fiction, such as Matrix. However, he asked me two questions, which were quite important in
our discussion, --- what is the attitude of these authors about science, and what do these
authors want us, as normal people, to deal with science? I tried to find my answers but I
couldnt summary in some clear and concise words. In this case, Jonathan gave me three
options: they wanted us to reject science because science bought so many troubles; we
accepted everything new and did not need to care about the trouble because we were not
scientists; we accepted science but we needed to be conscious of the disadvantages of
sciences. After he pointed out the third option, I knew that this is the key idea of my Final
Composition. I told him I agree with his third statement and I believed I could work on this.
Then, he said that I could search some academic passages, which related to these topics.
These passages would talk about the details about the dystopian science fictions, some
writing methods the authors used, the central ideas that the authors illustrated. He believed
that I would find some similar ideas in these academic passages. In this case, in his words, I
could write about how each science fiction reminded people to be conscious of the
disadvantages of sciences. I was very excited that we had worked out some key points about
my Final Composition. However, I was thinking about the difference between these science
fictions, in which all of them pointed out this topic. I asked myself whether there were some
different ways that these science fictions used to point out this topic. I finally realized and
told Jonathan that these science fictions pointed out the different concepts about the
disadvantages of sciences. For example, the Adoration of Jenna Fox pointed out breaking the
relationship between people. Caprica talked about human morality. The Hunger Games
talked about injustice. Therefore, I could support my ideas in different points of view.
Jonathan F. was really interested in my ideas and hoped that I could come back with the draft
and talked about my Final Composition again.

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Consequentially, I was really glad to come to the Writing Center. Jonathan F. gave me a
strong help to analyze my ideas about my Final Composition. Before I came, I had nearly no
idea what I was going to write. He opened my mind and helped me to almost finish the
outline of my Final Composition. I know that before this Friday, April 3rd, I need to have the
first draft of my Final Composition. In this case, I made an appointment with Jonathan F.
again on Thursday, April 2nd, and I hope he can give me some advices again.