Takuya Kobayashi

UWRT 1101
Ms. Ingram
November 11, 2014
Final Portfolio Essay
As a freshman in college and an international student, I have gained a lot of
knowledge and writing skills through this course. In this portfolio, a compilation of the
work I have done will be presented and analyzed. I want to show people the growth my
writing has seen throughout this course. My portfolio will include all the essays I have
written, RRL and this FPE final draft. I would like to write a caption easily understood
by the audience and include my works in a well-organized manner. I am also going to
put some quotes from my work so I can compare them and see the improvement. The
overall design is going to be vivid; the reader can fully understand my work and find
interest in the work I have written.

On the first page of my e-portfolio, I used a picture from football game,

introduced about myself, and described what I did on my e-portfolio succinctly and
clearly. When you click on the Literacy Narrative tab, you will see the picture of

brainstorming that I did before I started writing literacy narrative essay. You will see the
process of my writing, my improvement through the feedback I got from peer work
session. On the next tab, you will see the midterm and some pictures. I also wrote my
thought of how I improved my writing by this assignment. I put portrait of a writer on
the next tab and you explore the process of my midterm. You will see my improvement
from all the feedback I got and through RRL. This RRL was my idea and I was
surprised that my teacher actually adopted my idea and used it as an assignment. On the
next tab, you will see my blog posts that I had been writing throughout this course. You
can see my biography through my blog posts and get to know about me. Moreover, I put
final draft on the next tab. This tab is basically about writing process of this draft. You
are also going to see the process of my writing and the improvement like other tab. On
the next tab, you will see wild cards. I put a draft from another class to show how I
write in another class, also to let everyone know what kind of assignment I have been
working on in another class. This page will give you idea of what I have learnt and
helped me become a better writer throughout this semester.
The purpose of FPE final draft is to explain how I am going to organize my
e-portfolio and explain how I have improved my writing skill throughout this course.
Portrait of a writer essay serves the purpose to analyze myself and how I am as a writer

and what new things I learned about my writing style. In addition, I was able to
compare exactly how much I grew in my writing since high school. This essay was a
good chance to think more in depth about my writing. The midterm paper was one of
the most important assignments in this class and really showed how much I have
improved to that point. It was also a great chance to see other persons portfolios. I was
truly inspired by them and realized that I can also make one like them if I put more
effort into it. I really liked how they organize their website and portfolio: clearly written,
easy to follow, vivid.

I also learned not only writing but also how to embed a paper

into a website. I know for some people this is a piece of cake but for me, as I have never
done it before, the task proved difficult. I can use that skill not only for this writing class
but also for other classes. Embedding a paper to a website is applying the next step.
Literacy narrative essay took me back to the days back in high school. This essay made
me considers how I learned and improved my literacy throughout high school. I realized
that the literacy I learned in high school helped me become the person I am today. In
addition, the blog I have written in this class helped develop a lot more as a writer. I
really like when someone comments on my blog post and gives me some advice,
suggestions, and compliments. Getting some comments from my classmates truly
motivate me and made me want to write more blog posts so I can get more comments.

Everyone has different ideas and those ideas give me some tips to become a better
writer. This is one of my favorites assignments I have done in this class.
The brainstorming makes me organize my thoughts for each essay and spend
less time thinking about what I need to write. By doing this consistently, it helped me
remember the knowledge I gained throughout this course and put it to use. Every time I
write the essay, I get feedback either from the teacher or my group member. I know it is
better to use quotes in the essay but I tend to forget to use them. At one point, we had a
peer group session and I got a feedback: If you use quote, this essay is going to be
better. I saw this comment and I thought Oh wow, I completely forgot about using
quotes. I actually used some quotes on that essay and submitted as a final draft. Later
on I got a feedback on the final draft from teacher saying I like this quote! That
comment made me happy, and I was so thankful to my group member who suggested
me to use quotes in that essay. From these experiences, I truly think that getting
feedback from others is important and makes us into better writer. At times, we forget
even simple facts and these facts can be told to us by others. This is why we need a
group session before the final draft and need to make our draft as perfect as possible.
About the notebook, I really liked the RRL on other classmates draft, which I
suggested, and actually teacher made it as our classwork. I was writing RRL on Xujians

draft and I agreed with most of the thoughts he wrote about. I found this funny because
we are both international student, and we both have many common things that other
classmates might not agree with. It was also a great opportunity to see how people from
other groups write their draft.
I am taking a Small Group Communication class this semester, and this class
requires writing a reflection paper after each class. This assignment keeps reminding me
what exactly I learned from each class and makes me pay more attention in class. I
thought this would be integral to this writing class as well so we will pay more attention
in class. In addition, I do not think I missed any RRL or assignment in this class and I
am proud of it.
I have been attending this class for about three months and my writing has grown
dramatically. For instance, in the Literacy Narrative essay, I used sensory details. I
woke up earlier than usual and I cherished delusions how I play well in practice. I got
to school and I saw my coach and other teammates were already at the ground. I
exchanged greetings politely and introduced myself with my frightened voice. I have
never used this type of expression before and this made the audience fully understand
how I felt at that moment. I have been learning English for a few years now, but I have
never used sensory detail or expressed how exactly I felt in my previous essays. Using

sensory detail was a requirement in Literacy Narrative essay, but I referenced those
techniques from my group member as well. I honestly did not understand what sensory
detail was until we did peer work shop. When we were doing peer work shop and
reading one of my group members draft, I was highly impressed how they expressed
their feeling clearly by using sensory details. I was reading that draft, and it struck me
as an extremely interesting paper. I also realized how important peer work shop is at the
same time. By using sensory details, it makes my essay more academic, but also makes
audience easier to understand what I am trying to say.
I think that curiosity is well explaining about me from the key concepts. I
always have curiosity about new writing techniques and try to find ways to incorporate
what I learned in my writing. Those curiosities make me pay more attention in class and
in peer work shop. Especially when it comes to peer work shop, I always have in my
mind I need to steal at least one technique from them. This actually works well and I
got some of the techniques like how to include sensory details, how to quote etc.
I also think that critical thinking is engaged me as a writer. As stated above,
This essay was a good chance to think more in depth about my writing. I read and
analyze what I did and consider how I can be a better writer. This is what I always do to
grow and experience more rewarding writing.

I believe that the writing process and revision is also engaged me as well. It
helps me find mistakes and refine my writing. Taking a second look at my writing helps
me find sentences that do not make sense. Moreover, brainstorming leads me to find
multiple ways to communicate my writing.
I believe that I deserve an A in this class. I have done all the work that requires in
this class, did all the homework on time as well. As my e-portfolio, I made it
thoughtfully arranged and easily navigable. I also put all requirements for this final
portfolio essay. I did quote from my draft, feedback as well. I also believe that I
improved my writing a lot throughout this course by getting suggestions and feedbacks
from my professor and classmates.