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Rodney Appling Suzanne Ingram English 1102 Nov 23, 2012 It is done-time to reflect The final few steps in the journey of English 1102 class is here. It has been a short semester with Ms. Ingram, but a long journey of writing enrichment. There has seemingly been a never ending stream of writing assignments and quick warm ups but it was all for the better. I honestly believe that this course has helped me go further in detail with my own work. One of my fears with writing was that I can be too brief and to the point, getting my point across immediately but leaving a lot of space for detail and improvement. Looking back, it actually was not that hard to go back and add a few more information to fill out my paper and make more sense. I was able to do this in the "whats it like to be you essay", with Ms. Ingrams way of letting us advise our first two drafts then work on a final draft for our electronic portfolio. Doing this, I was able to get different types of feedback from my peers and teacher, which in turn, opened my eyes to the areas of my paper where vast improvement was a necessity for total comprehension. The final drafts that I have uploaded unto my e-portfolio are my ultimate attempt at saying what I think needs to be said about the topic at hand. In the portfolio, I have included many of our in class works, as well as the four writing assignments we were given over the entirety of the course. The papers I uploaded are in the same order in which they were assigned. To me it is sort of a chronological thing, in the sense that my first paper might not be as good as my final work. It is easy to see the improvement from beginning to end. For example my first paper which was the, "what is it like to be you" paper, it

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was an assessment where I just let the pencil flow. There was no order in the paper and the organization was non-existent, for this reason it was somewhat informal compared to my later works. I wrote this paper thinking of it as an easy quick write, giving a brief background on myself. I didnt realize how wrong I was until I had someone else read it. My peers pointed out the work that it needed and where I needed to emphasize. Someone wrote that I should talk about my dad, my friends, my job, all details that I initially left out. It opened my eyes to how much help it would do if I re wrote some parts and added information. The final draft of this paper turned out to be one of the best papers I think I've written. I thought this was an excellent starting point in my portfolio, because the assignment is mainly about me. It gives a little insight on who I am and my style of writing, this way the reader can understand and get to know me. The second thing I included in the portfolio was a warm up that I did. I think a little example of my everyday writing and work kind of fits into this section. This warm up was a free write journal entry talking about the previous class' group workshop, and to continue writing until time ran out. It shows what I think about, where my mind goes and it is really raw. I also put in a peer review of my first paper, as this helped me reorganize and to rethink. Honestly this is some of the best advice I couldve ever been given when writing. This sets up the flow of the portfolio, with a major assignment followed by a self selection being the main organization layout. The next assignment to be posted is the Annotated bibliography. This writing assignment was an easy exercise to help me with my research paper. It was different from my free write paper, formal but still somewhat informal since there was no real paper, just a list of sources and an explanation of why we chose to go with them and how they can help me in the future. The information I collected was then used in the Three-Sided research paper. The evolution of my writing becomes more prevalent at this point. Trying to write with my topic was really tricky for

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me, and investigating three different perspectives on the topic was a challenge. Since there were different sides to the topic, I had to really focus on what I wanted to say and try to understand each side. Engaging myself in the academic conversation and listening to what others had to say about my topic is what made this harder to deal with. The counterargument concept is essentially what this was about, understanding someone might disagree. On page 62 of our, "from inquiry to academic writing" textbook it says, "Anticipating readers' objections demonstrates that you understand the complexity of the issue and are willing at least to entertain different and conflicting opinion." To be aware that some people might not agree with your stance on a topic is very important in any academic writing. I think that most of the time, when you dont agree with someone, you just tune them out, but here I had to incorporate it into my work. I then added some poems from the Peace Butter and Jelly book in the portfolio. I also put in our fish drawing warm up, to show that everyone is different and not the same. I included this here in my portfolio, because it kind of goes hand in hand with the annotated bibliography and three sided essay. Continuing on my design of doing things in order of which they were assigned to show improvement in myself, I included the argumentative research essay. This was, in my opinion an essay that I finally had to piece together my past few papers and try to make an ultimate paper. The trouble I had with writing this was that I couldnt exactly find out who I wanted my audience to be and later the tone I tried to give off. With some thought I figured why not write to the group that the topic concerns. Why not write to college students about how sleep can affect their grades. This way I could possible make more sense and not to mention I fall into that same group of people myself, so I also can relate. I think the rhetorical triangle of ethos, logos, and pathos is what helped me become able to better understand the direction in which I was headed.

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Being totally lost with the way I want to proceed, meaning who I am approaching and talking to, can hinder the writing process. So by looking at examples of each and how they relate to the paper, I was able to piece together my research essay. Thinking about the way I want to word my paragraphs and my own involvement with the topic for that matter helped out as well. I felt that since I feel so strongly about it and which group I myself fall into is how I chose my audience. In the end, I think this paper was well put together after I finished my final draft. I still think that my topic made this way harder than it actually had to be. Just trying to find information on who would be arguing with my inquiry question was tough. At the end of my portfolio, is my midterm paper, something that I thought I should include to show my train of thought. It gives the reader a glimpse into my mind shows different aspects of the courses writing assessments. Another thing at the end of the portfolio would be the page in which I give the link to my writers' blog, and an explanation on what it was. I thought the blog was in an interesting way to help brainstorm ideas and get our papers started and off the ground. I approached the blog as an extension of my brain, a unique way of putting my thoughts down on a webpage. This was one of my favorite parts of the class, considering one of my main weaknesses in any writing class, is that I have what I like to call severe writers block. When I brainstorm and come up with a general outline of what I want to say by doing a blog post, then I have an actual flow and concept in mind. In particular, thinking of my inquiry question at the start of the semester was challenging, and when everyone seemed to have already picked one, I still had no idea. After writing about how lost I was in my first blog post, I started to go over the topics we discussed in class and which ones stood out to me. That is how I chose to write about sleep affecting the grades of college students and how to get better Z's.

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Most of the works that I included in the final were pieces I felt showed character and some things I thought were important to show, as these were constantly referenced by me during the duration of the semester. The feedback I received from different papers and the course, was taken in consideration for all my works. Like the one I got from Ms. Ingram around midterm. I put it right under the portfolio essay to show how some words do mean a lot and carry weightm enough to make me reconsider my approach when writing. I began to add more details to my first draft papers and look further into my topic. It's funny how before this class, I didnt think much of peer editing and use to loathe at the thought of someone dissecting my work and changing it around. In the end, I have grown to like it and it really does come in handy to have a different view of your writing. Finally, a self assessment on how I think I did this semester in this class. I can honestly be hard to grade ones self, so I will try to focus on my overall participation and my submitted works. I think the final drafts of the papers I put in my portfolio are pretty good at showing the revision I put into each one. In my eyes, it is a far reach from my initial first drafts I brought into class. When I start out writing, sometimes I lose track of the main idea and get off topic. Fortunately, being able to get some help from my peers and re-working the paper has helped me put my best work forward. It may be good to me but someone else might disagree, but is that not with every piece of writing. We all have different views on what good writing is, what speaks to our individual souls. This collection of my final revised, rewritten work makes my portfolio good as a whole. The organization and everything else is all put the way I want it to be, so to me it's awesome. Now turning my attention to my participation in the classroom, this is where I have to be totally fair, because I know what is expected of me and what a good student should do. For

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starters, I think my attendance to class was ok, I mean I actually didnt feel to good on the days I was absent, and some days I was a little tardy. So my attempt to come to class was pretty solid, including the small group conferences and being there at the start. When it came to turning in my work on time, I could have done better. There were a specific times when I forgot to bring in a draft, but due to my crazy schedule I lose track of a lot of due assignments. This is what I think is unacceptable considering the due dates were all on the syllabus and moodle. On the other hand, I always participated in class discussions and in the class in general. I did a lot of peer editing with my small group and brainstorming as a whole to help each other out. We came together when doing group work to accomplish the given tasks. My experience in this course has changed my perspective of what I thought English 1102 has been all about. It has been a great fall term and in this class I think I did a B. My preparedness in class and bringing my work in on time is why I went down from a good grade, but my participation with my group and giving my all on my final drafts is what I am proud of and worked hard on.