Yutong

Yutong Liu
Dr. Erin McLaughlin
Multimedia Writing and Rhetoric
Reflection on Final Portfolio
I have always taken pride in my English writing. Growing up in China in a family of
two college English teachers, the study and use of English have always been an integral part
of my life. Unlike most of my peers, I didnt struggle with learning English as a second
language. English is a part of who I am I spoke English, breathed English, and dreamt
English. That is why I have always been proud in my skills in English. Triumphing against
the 300 word paragraphs we were required to write during high school have built up my
confidence in my English writing. This confidence was reinforced when I was admitted by
Notre Dame. Although knowing full well that writing for the SAT and college applications is
far from college level writing, I told myself that if my writing is good enough to get into
Notre Dame, it must be good enough for the courses at Notre Dame.
The multimedia writing and rhetoric course has proven my belief wrong. Although
my other courses tolerated my mistakes in spelling, sentence structure, and paragraph
development, this course did not. Further more, this course went beyond the basic errors of
my writing and examined it under the light of rhetoric, focusing on the target audience and
the cohesiveness of the elements used in writing and their effects. During the course, I felt the
pretty cover put over my English writing skills stripped away and the diseased guts torn out
for examination. This is why throughout the first half of the course I resisted the courses
evaluations of my writing and the things it taught me. However, as the course progressed, I
started to accept the realties of my writing, and started bridging the gap between my past
writing ability and the requirements of this course.

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I started by understanding the writing process. My approach to English writing has

always been no revision. For the assignments back in high school, revision was not needed
because of the low standards; for the SATs, revision was not possible; for the courses I took
last semester, mistakes were tolerated. The only real revisions I made in the writing career
were for the college application essays, and I didnt enjoy them. Through the course, I was
able to reestablish my understanding of the writing process, shifting my practices from 1
draft-writing, to 2, 3, 4 drafts, plus revision. This is most evident in the composition of my
audio narrative script, for which I wrote 3 drafts. Initially, I had little idea of how to approach
the narrative essay, and started my first draft by randomly writing events that I remembered
from the past. Through this kind of free-writing, I was able to find the main stories for my
narrative my fight with Sheng. I immediately started a second draft on that subject. After
finishing the second draft, I revisited it a day later to make further revisions, generating the
third draft. Lastly, I took the third draft to the writing center, and, after a short discussion with
a tutor at the writing center, completed the final draft. Through the audio narrative essay and
many other projects, I realized that writing (or at least good writing) does take the form of
short bursts, but is a process of preparation, drafts, and revisions.
Through this course, I also learned what rhetoric is and the elements of
argumentation. One key concept behind rhetoric is the care for a targeted audience. This is
demonstrated across the board in the portfolio from the choice of words in the narrative
essay (specific references were deleted because they are not appropriate for an American
audience), to the organization of paragraphs in the film analysis (in the revision, analysis of
each character was grouped with their respective implications to ethnic discussion to provide
more clarity), to the music choice for the satirical video (chosen light, acoustic to imitate a
public announcement). Argumentation is also integral to many of the projects in this
portfolio, and is most prominently shown in the film analysis, and the research paper. In both

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the film analysis and the research paper, appeals to logic and authority were used to defend a
single argument, or thesis statement. For the film analysis, specific scenes and writing on the
principles of rhetoric by scholars such as Judith Lancioni were cited as evidence to support
the analysis. For the research paper, a significant amount of data and comments by
researchers of ISIS were used as evidence for the papers main argument. Principles of
rhetoric and argumentation were key to my writing in this course, and I hope to continue
using them in my future writing projects.
The course also introduced me to library research and critical reading in the process of
research. This is best demonstrated in my research paper on ISIS. In the process of doing
research on ISIS, I reviewed many different sources. During this reviewing process, instead
of using all of the sources I came in contact with, I applied critical reading skills, examining
the author, acknowledging the main points made, and comparing the information between
source, in an attempt to select the sources that are most reliable and best support my
argument. During the process of writing the research paper, I used the sources to support m
argument and draw new conclusions, instead of simply restating each source. Doing research
and utilizing critical reading skills allowed me to acquire skills in the selection, incorporation,
and organization of different sources in my writing. Reading different sources, which often
are also pieces of argumentative writing themselves, allowed me to learn from the writing of
others, especially in the aspects of paragraph and essay structure.
Multimedia played a key role in my learning process in this course. Through
examining and analyzing different images, videos, and films, I was able to acquire critical
reading skills and understand the principles of rhetoric. This is especially true for the film
Dear White People which we viewed in class. Though analyzing the rhetorical devices used
in the film, I was able to better understanding the arguments presented in the film, and utilize
them in the satirical video that I made later on (an example is the mixing of shots from two

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different scenes via editing). Multimedia also benefited by writing and research skills. By
using sound as the media of my narrative essay, I learned about the effect of the sound of a
word on the reader since a lot of readers read out loud in their minds when reading,
putting words that does not sound right together hinders the readers focus and understanding.
The use of visual assistance (maps of ISIS) in my research paper helped me to demonstrate
my argument and draw interesting conclusions (that military action is not enough to stop
ISIS).
The work that I am most proud of is my research paper and the presentation that
accompanied it. I learned many things in this course, including elements of rhetoric, critical
analysis, and argumentation, and my writing skills grew as the course progressed. Therefore,
I viewed the research paper and presentation as a final project, and wanted it to be a
deserving ending for the course, representing all that I have learned. In the research paper, I
demonstrated principles of rhetoric and argumentation through acknowledging the target
audience of paper government officials and social media company administrators and
constructing the paper according to their needs, using ample amount of cold data, hard facts,
and logical analysis to support my argument. In the following presentation, I used a simple
narrative to at the beginning to draw the interest and attention of my audience, demonstrating
skills I learned from the narrative essay from the start of this semester. I also wore a suit and
used simple design languages in my slides to show a sense of professionalism, which utilized
skills I learned from the rhetorical analysis of the film Dear White People and the making
of the satirical video. The research paper and presentation demonstrated my strength in
analysis, oral presentation, and the ability to learn and grow as a writer, which I think is most
important.
This course revealed to me my flaws in English writing, which I was blind to for a
long time. It fostered my growth as both a writer and critical thinker by providing me with

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knowledge and skills in the art of rhetoric, argumentation, and research. It expanded my
understanding of reading and writing through the use of multimedia, which is very
important in the digital age. In short, I consider this course one of the few courses that really
allow me to grow as a student and as an individual, and I am whole heartedly thankful for it.