Aaron Thompson, III 4/16/2013 English 1102 Portfolio Essay

Final Portfolio Essay

My portfolio is a collection of work I have done throughout this semester. It displays how I go about the writing process. From the process work to the final draft, viewers can develop a sense of how I come up with ideas for writing topics and how I make connections with them in my writings. Over the course of the semester, one thing I have striven to become is a better writer. I have constantly asked myself how can I make this writing better or what can I do to make this sentence or paragraph clearer to my audience. While constructing my portfolio, I tried to gather past assignments that helped express who I am as a writer. I tried to use notes that displayed my weak tendencies as well as my strengths and specialties. My work has been arranged in a way that my audience can best view my improvements as the semester progressed. I feel like my readers can best view the changes if I order them from the smaller assignments to the larger ones. Even though there will be a mix-up of the types of work I am presenting, the increasing level of work input will go nicely together with displaying the changes in my thought process and why I made certain changes with my drafts. The smaller tasks show my way of thinking and accomplishing tasks. The bubble map is a great way to open up the portfolio because it helps my audience understand the level of intellectual thinking that was required for this class. Next, the free write I did on the word

Aaron Thompson, III 4/16/2013 English 1102 Portfolio Essay inquiry would make a great addition to introducing viewers on how I think. On the other hand, larger tasks helped me tweak and make improvements on my ideas and language flow. The revision notes on my essays should go towards the back of my portfolio because allow the audience to see what changes I made and why I did so. This arrangement would be the best way for viewers to help see the change in my work and ideas over time. Throughout this class, Ive had challenges just like every other writer. Most of my problems have occurred in the length requirement of certain papers. Sometimes, when I am working on the rough draft of a paper, I would run out of things to say or just go blank in the middle of a sentence. Other times, I might have trouble with my organization and I end up having trouble with coming up with ideas for paragraphs and details. As a result, I end up turning in a paper I could have done better on. Another aspect I had trouble with was maintaining a centered focus on my inquiry question. I had trouble with this part because my question was pretty broad. As a result, I was doing all kinds of research on my question topic. I ended up having to make extra sure that all the ideas in my paragraphs connected with my topic question in one way or another. This just caused me unnecessary stress and took up far too much time. However, on a positive note, I learned that writing requires lots of revision and that the more revision is better. In addition to learning from the ups and downs I experienced in this class, I also took many risks as well. For example, while writing a paper on What its Like To Be Me, I chose to include details of my personal life in order to help my audience

Aaron Thompson, III 4/16/2013 English 1102 Portfolio Essay understand what its like to be me. This was a risk for me because it was a challenge for me to talk about issues that I have faced and eventually overcame. I think putting a visual in my essay also helped convey my thought process as well. Fortunately, adding details about my personal struggles gave life to my essay. From this experience, I learned that it is important to include as many details as possible in order to help engage your audience. The evidence I will display to my audience consists of process and revision work, excerpts from daily entries, and handwritten students responses. Selecting the writing pieces was challenging because I wanted to choose the work that best represented my growth during the semester. Therefore, the daily entries represent my ideas as a result from critical thinking. For example, I chose to use a bubble map because it shows all the ideas I connected with the semester theme question: what does it mean to be healthy? Another example I used comes from a prewrite on the word inquiry. I talked about how I used inquiry in my everyday schoolwork and how it helps me understand the reading material better. In one of my student responses, I talked about how I needed to stay focus on the subject matter at hand and to not talk about multiple ideas and perspectives in the same paper. In a different assessment, I was able to talk about my personal experiences in relation to my research essay question. For me, choosing pieces of my process work was a little more challenging than the rest because I wanted viewers to see what parts I made improvements. I selected papers that had written questions or teacher suggestions written on them so it was easier for them to notice the changes on the final portfolio.

Aaron Thompson, III 4/16/2013 English 1102 Portfolio Essay For example, in my research paper, I had to make improvements on writing towards a particular audience instead of just presenting facts. The essay and topic discussions were also a great way to help me improve my writing because it helped me identify common mistakes and tendencies as a writer, such as staying organized and focus on the central theme. Those writing exercises helped me make the most improvement on my papers as well as my learning abilities. I consider this to be one of the most important and significant aspects from the class this semester. This English class was different than past ones because I only wrote papers and turned them into the teacher for a grade. I never got actual feedback from the teacher on what I needed to improve on. Also, writing down what went well and what improvements I needed to make helped me map out what direction I wanted to go for the final draft. Even, though I hate to admit it, reading the lessons from the academic writing book helped me make small but crucial improvements the punctuation on my annotated bibliography page. Taking the time to reflect on my writing was, yet, another crucial factor that helped me decipher areas that needed improvements in my essay. Overall, the work I displayed in my portfolio shows that self-reflection was one of the main contributing factors that helped improve my writing abilities. I think my viewers can obtain a real inside look of how I strategically incorporated my rough drafts and process work to show how I enhanced my writing techniques throughout the course of this semester. After seeing my writers portfolio, I think

Aaron Thompson, III 4/16/2013 English 1102 Portfolio Essay many people will have a good idea of the improvements Ive made this semester as well as have a good sense of how to become a better writer themselves.