Yang Wang
WR100 N1
Prof. Kim
12/09/2014
Introductory Essay
My process in this semester is that I developed my papers more deeply and there is more analysis in my papers than before. Before taking WR100, I often wrote about some obvious facts and lack more detailed and deep analysis in my paper (This is also happened to my papers of other courses), and as a result I got a low grade. Now, in the end of this semester, I find out that I have developed more analysis in my papers and other writing exercises. I gradually learned how to compose analysis and talk about my argument in a deeper way. The outcome of this course is therefore really great because I think analyzing is the most important element of a paper.
In my view, paper 2 is the most satisfied writing in this semester. In this paper, I learned how to analyze people’s psychology and behaviors by carefully watching the movie Eat Drink Man Woman. The actors’ dialogues played an important role in the movie and inspired me to write this paper. In draft 1, my first body paragraph is:
…through a long time, the father has been trying to give his daughters better futures. He cooks fancy dinners, washes the dishes and even distributes the daughters’ clothes in order to provide the best environment for them to focus on their study and jobs…Besides, the family gets together every Sunday for a dinner while the four people do not chat intimately with each other on table but usually give announcements…
This paragraph only talked about obvious facts in the movie and lack analysis. During the peer review, my peer also pointed out that I need more specific evidence and there is no analysis in this paragraph. Now, when I read this paragraph, I feel it is a summary of the movie but not an academic essay.
Accordingly, I added more analysis in my final draft of paper 2. The argument is “Although she dies very early, the mother still affects her three daughters’ view of love and destinies.” I talked about three daughters in three different paragraphs. In each paragraph, I used at least one scene—the dialogue happened in the scene is very useful to support my claim. For example:
…Jia-Chien has sex with a man who used to be her boyfriend and gets married now…they enjoy their current relationship because it is more relaxed for them… Jia-Chien wrangles with Jia-Jen because she disagrees with her about their parents’ marriage. She says the parents often disputed with each other and the early death of the mother is an early end of the war.
In this paragraph, I analyzed Jia-Chien’s opinion of marriage thorough her dialogue and behaviors. As a result, we could conclude that she does not believe marriage means happiness and prefers more relaxed relationships with others. This probably could explain why Jia-Chien appears to be an amorous woman who has love affairs with two men in the movie. Thus, instead of talking about apparent facts like I did in the first draft, I analyzed three daughters’ thoughts through several important scenes with strong evidence. I believe this is the main reason for getting an A- for this paper.
Paper 3 is a new try for me because I was supposed to write a type of paper that I have never written—an ethnography essay. However, I learned much from this paper. First we need to go to a restaurant, try the food there and ask manager some questions about their food, culture and so on. I remember the meal is the most “academic” meal in my life. We asked the manager so many questions; the manager introduced the food, environment and business of the restaurant in detail. During the second visit, I interviewed some customers and ask some other questions to both the manager and the waiters. Extensive questions and research build my paper an interesting ethnography eventually. The progress of analyzing thesis is shown through the draft and the final version. In the draft, I only talked about the customers and the environment of the restaurant. However, in the final version, I included three important aspects of the restaurant: food, environment and business. In the business part, I pointed out an interesting fact that Ethiopian people do not dine out, compared this custom to Chinese, Korean and American customs and made a guess about business of restaurants in Ethiopia. In the food part, I introduced Ethiopian people’s idea which is “the materials should always be fresh and healthy”, to what extent Ethiopian food represents African food and the customers’ feedback of the food. So, instead of only discussing the business and the food of the restaurant, I also connected them to other cultures and talked about the stories behind the food. I think these points enriched my essay and made it, according to Professor Kim, an interesting ethnography essay.
The essay “Food is Good” by Anthony Bourdain is an impressive essay to me. In that essay, the author talks about his early experience with food which makes him realize the power of food. “[Food] could inspire, astonish, shock, excite, delight and impress. It had the power to please me…and others.” Food can change our lives. As an “unusual” topic, food is not a mainstream in writing. However, Bourdain changes my idea after I read his essay. We see and eat food every day, and food often gives us a new experience and perception of our lives. So why do not we take food as an interesting topic for our writing? Bourdain’s descriptions of his first try of Vichyssoise and oyster are striking because he writes about his feeling of them so carefully and they become magic to me when I read the article. Before I take this class, I do not think food can be a great topic for an essay, but after reading Bourdain’s “Food is Good,” I feel writing about food is far more appealing than I could imagine.
Overall, I enjoyed this course very much. The class, like its topic— food, is very intriguing. I could never imagine we can dine out for a paper, try different types of chocolate, and watch a chef making shortcakes in a class! The class combined both academic and entertained parts and the most important thing to me is: I learned analysis is considered an essential part of an essay and how to analyze my thesis in a proper way.
Word Count: 1077
Works Cited
Bourdain, Anthony. “Food is Good.” The Norton Mix. Katie Hannah, ed. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2013. Print.