Xing Han

Mary Prince, Instructor

Foundations of Writing ENL 109 03

14 November 2023

Final Project

Reflection

My name is Xing Han, and I’d like to be called Xing. Chinese is my mother tongue, and I can speak

and write it well. I learned English since I was young. I could say I had grasped the basic writing skills

before. I didn’t like writing research because it took time to practice, record and search for information. I

was used to writing argumentative writing because I can express my true feelings freely through this kind

of writing. I could say argumentative writing was that I was good at since I practiced it a lot in my high

school. What troubled me most was how to generate the new ideas and how to express them in the most

appropriate way.

I have made some progress and learned some other practical skills like freewriting, open-ended

method, the official MLA format thanks to this class. These writing skills help solved my concern of

generating new ideas to some degree. It’s confident to say that my essay is more organized now.

Writing essay 1 was not a challenge for me because I had a lot to talk about my personal experience.

And I was taught to copy and paste the discussions before and edit them to save time. However, I could

still feel my troubles which haunted me while rereading essay 1. It lacked some transitions, and the words

were simple and immature. Since I used the freewriting, my ideas were not organized well even though

freewriting eased my burden of writing. I remembered there was some revision after I finished the first
copy of essay 1 because of my professor’s guidance. I added some details of the process of generating my

name. During the process of rereading, another treasure for me was that I found some spelling errors for

the second draft. So, I edited them. Some ideas and opinions that I held at that time surprised the present

self, like the stories that happened because of my name.

For me, the most important skill that I learned from the editing session of essay 2 was taking away

any unnecessary words like “I think, I believe” to strengthen my ideas, which meant a lot to me because I

was used to doing that before. I found essay 2 was more perspective because I used MLA format, like the

work cited page and doubled-spaced and “Type”. I came to use open-ended method and freewriting in my

other classes like creative writing.

What’s more, the peer review and tutor review helped me look straight to my writing problems. I

came to realize Petter Elbow’s name should appear in full for the first quote, take out the word “quote” and

introduce a quotation with at least one sentence before the quotation. By the way, navigating the Salem

State University Library and searching for information were practical for me. There were a lot of useful

books and articles waiting for me.

I could find pathos in my song “500 Hundred Miles”. The feelings of homesickness and loneliness

stood out to me through its soothing lyrics when I heard the song.

When I started this course, I knew rhetorical devices. I know rhetorical devices in my first language,

and I needed to learn them in English. The most difficult rhetorical devices to recognize on English are

image, tone, humor, sarcasm and irony. At first, I didn’t get the humor of some memes, so I didn’t laugh.

What’s more, I just had the vague impressions of the tone, but it was hard for me to analyze it.

Rhetoric and genre need to match. We won’t use jokes when we apply a job, just like it’s

inappropriate to talk about Valentines’ Day on Halloween. Also, When I write a poem there are

expectations of the format and rhyming words.

 When writing essay 3 I learned more about MLA format. The biggest skill is in-text citations, it is the

most basic. Plus, the method of matching the works cited page to the in-text citations is practical.

Furthermore, the in-text citation for picture is a surprise to me because I just read about it before in other

books. And I am used to using double-spaced in my essay now.

Doing the reflection assignment is like summarizing my whole course for this semester. I enjoyed the

course of learning the open-ended method step by step. And I’d like to follow the prompts and tips to do

my assignment so that I can see my progress. This course laid solid foundations for my future English

learning. My writing is becoming more formal and prescriptive thanks to the learning of MLA format.

Xing Han
Mary Prince, Instructor
Foundations of Writing ENL 109 03
26 September 2023

Essay 1
Hi classmates, my name is Xing Han. And also, my English name is Cynthia. You can
call me either. I was born in Anhui province in China, but I moved to Suzhou, Jiangsu
province with my family when I was four years old. I am an international student who
involve in 1-2-1 program, which means I studied my first year in Nanjing normal university
in China, I will spend my last two years in Salem State University and will go back to China
to continue my fourth year there.
I major in English and haven’t decided which minor to choose. As for my interest,
actually I haven’t found out where my interest lies in. Even though I think I am an outgoing
girl, sometimes I keep silent because it seems like I don’t have something interesting to share.
But I’m willing to hear other voices and new points. Lying on bed watching the movies or tv
series gives me happiness. Instead of saying I chose this major, I’d rather say this major
chose me because I just reached the score line of this program when I finished my college
entrance examination. Actually, my past 18 years was boring because I have just lived my
life step by step, and that’s why I wanted to go abroad and challenge myself to see what the
world was like. I’m not good at English and my oral English is poor. So, it may take me some
time to understand what you are talking about. But I will keep practicing my English.
It is difficult for me to find the meaning of my name because I didn’t participate in the
process of generating my name. So, I tried to turn to my mother to find out the actual
meaning. Unfortunately, my mother is a forgetful person. She even couldn’t remember who
named me and as if she didn’t pay attention to the meaning of my name. I was a little bit
disappointed at it then. She said that my grandfather named me at first, and they went to the
police to register my identity, but the police said it’s like a boy’s name and they changed it.
So, my first name, which means the roots in the morning, got lost. When I grew up,I asked
my mother about my name again. And she said they wished me a happy life and till then I just
realized my name has a similar pronunciation to happiness in Chinese. And also, it means
stars in Chinese. Maybe that’s why I loved stars. My name Xing means the happiness and
brightness in Chinese. But when I was young, my name sometimes makes me feel
embarrassed because it has the similar pronunciation with a man who called Xin Han in
Chinese history too. Every time I was called, some people laughed and that made me feel
awkward. But since I got the meaning of my name, I found it’s unique and some people said
my name is cute and the most important, it’s a name of my own, it’s not something worth
making fun of.
I came from China, which is a country with a long history. I lived in Jiangsu province,
and its rapid economic development and elegant living style impressed me a lot. My
hometown is famous for the melodious Kunqu opera and the wonderful Suzhou Garden.
Under the influence of such a cultural background, I like listening to and singing lyrical
music. When I put on my headphones, I feel like I have entered the world of music. Lyrical
songs can give me peace of mind.
My school life is a mixture of happiness and worries. Because I have too many
assignments to finish every day, but I still meet some good people. They comforted me when
I got low grades and relieved my stress. Chinese is my mother tongue, and I can speak and
write it well. Actually, I also meet some misunderstandings when I use Chinese. I learned
English since I was young, but my oral English is poor. By the way, I am not good at writing
and organizing my ideas, whether in Chinese or English.
As we all know, the society is changing all the time. Since I have entered the university, I
think it’s a time for me to think about my career planning. To be honest, my first concern is
how can I earn as much money as possible to live a relatively happy life. Maybe the foreign
trade is a good choice, that means I need to develop my oral English and the interpersonal
skills. I also take the position of teacher into consideration. It’s stable and I’ll have more time
to accompany my mother. But I don’t think I have that much patience to get along with
children and it makes me nervous to stand on the podium. Anyway, these are two directions
of the career choices.

Xing Han

Mary Prince, Instructor

Foundations of Writing ENL 109 03

26 September 2023

Essay 2

Peter Elbow said “To begin the sea voyage, do a nonstop freewriting that starts from

wherever you happen to be” (51). It’s not difficult to start a narrative essay because I can just

write down my initial thoughts. I didn’t know I used the open-ended method until this class.

Thanks to the guidance from Professor Mary, I completed the open-ended process naturally. I

just followed the prompts and wrote down whatever I could in class. And I looked over to

find the central ideas and kept writing. I will use the open-ended method in my future

narrative essay to generate new ideas. Every ten minutes I will stop and organize my ideas to

find the central theme.

To be honest, I did experience the fluctuation. I usually got stuck because I didn’t have

another resource or experience related to my original thoughts. For example, sometimes I

started with describing how sleepy I was at that time. Then I turned to write more about my
dreams. Sometimes I had the sound sleep, sometimes I had nightmares. Dreams are always

beyond my imagination. In the end, I summarize my ideas to form a journal.

Open-ended method is prewriting in the writing process. During the process of doing

open-ended method, many different thoughts had sprung up, even they may not have

connections.

Although the open- ended method is great, I am used to making the outlines before

writing now. It can help me organize my ideas first. To me, using outlines or graphic

organizers gave me a sense of security to write.

From my point of view, the process of using open-ended method is like grasping the

driving skills in China. First, the coach taught us some theoretical knowledge. Then, we got

on the car and practiced the car at the driving school. We made mistakes and summed up the

experience after driving for some time. We cycled this step until our driving level tended to

perfection. I can compare the process of grasping driving skills to sea voyage. (51) After

that, we went to the exam room and finally got our driver’s license, which meant we reached

to the new land. (51)

“You won’t waste so much time getting started when you turn to the real writing task…”

(Elbow 15). I really agreed with this statement. When I tried to start my assignments, what

appeared in my mind was always some difficulties, like I need to write down 500 words,

think about the abstract structure first, generate the main idea or something else. The end

result is often that I postponed the completion of my homework until the deadline. But when

I used freewriting, I just started with what I thought at that time even they were some

nonsense words. I don’t need to care about the spelling, grammar, and the structure. I used
dangerous methods when I write the test and email. “Trying to write things right usually

means writing very slowly & carefully” (Elbow 43). It’s easy for us to spell wrong or make

some grammar mistakes if we are eager to finish the writing in a rush. So, we have to slow

down to ensure that we didn’t make some low-level mistakes in our writing. When I need to

finish the test to get higher grades or email to my professor, I have to use some formal words

and correct grammar. Peter Elbow means we need time to consider the words and check our

spelling or grammar.

I started with what I thought and continued my freewriting in the class. During the

period, I sometimes generated some new ideas. When I summed up, I found what I have done

can gave me a lot of inspiration. As a result, I like freewriting.

I am trying to use the open-ended method in my creative writing class now. Maybe I will

write some nonsense language or words that doesn’t relate to the writing prompts. But it can

be another topic. Who knows?

In conclusion, the open-ended project helped me generate new ideas and made the

narrative writing begin. It’s a practical method for me.

 Works Cited
“Open-Ended Writing Process.” YouTube, YouTube, 28 Oct. 2014,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJ4-WxEYqsw.

Elbow,Peter . Writing With Power : Techniques for Mastering the Writing Process.

OxfordUniversityPress, 1998. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?

direct=true&AuthType=cookie,ip,cpid&custid=ssc&db=nlebk&AN=143997&site=eds-

live&scope=site.
Xing Han

Mary Prince, Instructor

Foundations of Writing ENL 109 03

14 November 2023

(Blake)

Essay 3

The song “Five Hundred Miles” was written by Hedy West. The genre of “Five Hundred

Miles" is folk music. “Folk music is a genre that includes traditional folk musicand the genre

that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival” (Toutiao,). As for me, folk

music records the life of the countryside and expresses feelings for this specific group.
 Hedy West was one of American folk singers. Also, she was a composer and lyricist.

Hedy was born into a musical family and grew up listening to folk songs in his mother's

arms. Her father, Don West, was a chamber of commerce organizer and a Southern poet, and

some of his poems became the inspiration for her songs. “Hedy West is a well-known

American folk singer. She was born in a musical family and grew up listening to folk songs.

Due to the long-term influence of music, Heidi West still composes her own songs. She is a

singer, composer and lyricist. In 1961, her song "500 Miles" was released and became one of

the most beloved songs of many Americans. She was hailed as "the best American female

artist in the folk revival process" (“Hedy West”). Her family background contributed to her

writing style.

The subjects of “Five Hundred Miles” include a lot, such as homesickness, lament,

adulthood, and dream. The lyrics describe the subject, a foreigner who has accomplished

nothing and plans to go home, but because he is penniless, he can only rely on kind-hearted

people to help him along the way. When there is no ride, he can only sit on the roadside and

wait, while reading his mother's poems over and over again. “It has been many days since I

wrote home, but now I am still five hundred miles away from my hometown” (Toutiao).

These impressed me a lot.

You can hear “Five Hundred Miles” in many settings. “Five Hundred Miles”used to be

sung by English choir at the celebration song of Jinling college which was one of the collages

of my university when I was the freshman. Also, you can hear it when driving because its

soothing rhythm will comfort you. It’s a good choice to listen to “Five Hundred Miles”

through headphones in the dorm or on the sofa too.

 The participants of the song involve the writer, Hedy West. Peter, Paul & Mary, The

Brothers Four, The Journeymen、The Innocence Missioncover bands once covered this song.

People can listen to this song in karaoke. The fans of the cover singers can listen to “five

hundred miles” too. Besides, the audience in the concerts or music festivals can listen to it

too. People listen to the song because too much realistic pressure overwhelmed them, and

they need the soothing rhythm to relieve the burden. Those in the myst of homesickness will

listen to the song and can relate to it.

Though Hedy West adopted a kind of plain narrative style of his own, I can feel the

emotion, or pathos, that the song expressed. It told a story in the tone of a traveler. He is far

away from home and didn’t have enough money, so that he was too ashamed to go back

home. Through the lyrics I can feel the interweaving of complex emotions, including lament,

distress, miss. It’s a vivid practice of pathos. The lyrics are as follows. “Not a shirt on my

back,Not a penny to my name. Lord, I can't go back home this ole way” (“500 Miles”).

Rhyme can be seen here “correspondence of sound between words or the endings of

words” (Google). We can see the songwriter used rhyme to express the feelings of sadness

and homesickness. “If you missed the train I'm on, You will know that I am gone” (“500

Miles”).

The rhythm of the song is soothing (“Rhythm.”). The lyrics don’t express some strong
emotions, but we can feel it from the calm narration and tone.
Repetition can be seen throughout the song. The usage of repetition strengthens the tone

and describes how far the traveler was away from home.
“A hundred miles, a hundred miles. /A hundred miles, a hundred miles. /You can hear the

whistle blow a hundred miles…” (“500 Miles”).

“Away from home, away from home. /Away from home, away from home./Lord, I'm five

hundred miles away from home” (“500 Miles”).

Parallelism means sentence construction which places equal grammatical constructions

near each other. (“Parallelism”). “Lord, I'm one, Lord, I'm two. Lord, I'm three, Lord, I'm

four. Lord, I'm five hundred miles away from home.” (“500 Miles”) The counting from one to

five showed long distance from home. It highlights the hardships of the journey away from

home. Every step of leaving home reveals a touch of sadness.

To me, “Five Hundred Miles” is a plain but touching song. I chose this particular song

and genre to analyze for the following reasons. First, I like folk music, I am attracted by its

soothing and relaxing style. “Five Hundred Miles” is not an English song that far away from

me that I can’t understand as an English learner. Second, “Five Hundred Miles” carries a lot

of memories for me, it reminds me of the childhood and the experiences in the English choir

one year ago. At last, “Five Hundred Miles” is a reflection of my inner thoughts as an

international student who is far away from home. Also, as the adolescent who desires to

improve myself and make money but undergoes the awakening situation like “not a penny to

my name” (“500 Miles”).

Works Cited

“500 Miles - inside Llewyn Davis.” YouTube, YouTube, 13 Jan. 2016,

www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAZJAzCshN4.
“500 Miles - Lyrics.” Joni Mitchell, jonimitchell.com/music/song.cfm?
id=670. Accessed 17 Nov. 2023.
Blake, Thomas. “Hedy West: Untitled.” Folk Radio UK, 17 Sept. 2023,
www.folkradio.co.uk/2019/05/hedy-west-untitled/.

“Country Music - Latest News, Breaking Stories and Comment.” Country

Thang Daily, 9 Sept. 2023, www.countrythangdaily.com/bobby-bares-500-
miles/).

“Folk Music.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 10 Nov. 2023,

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folk_music.

Google 搜索, Google, www.google.com/search?q=what%27s%2Bthe%2Bmeaning%2Bof

%2Brhyme&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=zh-hans-us&client=safari. Accessed 20
Nov. 2023.

“Hedy West_百度百科.” 百度百科,

baike.baidu.com/item/Hedy%20West/16975010?fromModule=lemma_inlink.
Accessed 20 Nov. 2023.

“MLA In-Text Citations: The Basics.” MLA In-Text Citations: The Basics -
Purdue OWL® - Purdue University,
owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/mla_style/mla_formatting_and_style
_guide/mla_in_text_citations_the_basics.html. Accessed 13 Nov. 2023.

“Parallelism Definition & Meaning.” Merriam-Webster, Merriam-Webster,

www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/parallelism. Accessed 20 Nov.
2023.

“Rhythm.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, inc.,

www.britannica.com/art/rhythm-music. Accessed 20 Nov. 2023.

Toutiao.Com, www.toutiao.com/article/7001673257002795558/?
source=seo_tt_juhe. Accessed 20 Nov. 2023.