Johnna Nance

Professor Suzanne Ingram

UWRT 1101
2 October 2014

Writing and Inquiry Midterm

1. Since the beginning of school, I feel that the most important questions that I
asked on my blog were answered and I have a good understanding of how
things work in this class. I feel like the most important questions that I asked
out of all the questions was What happens during the work shopping for the
papers that we write? and What will we be making connections about?
Starting with the question about peer review and work shopping, I have
realized that in this class, there are a lot of ways to get your paper work
shopped. The first is in the peer groups we have in class. We have certain
days in the class that are dedicated to peer review for the papers that we
write, like the literacy narrative. For every draft we do, the group can help
you find what you need to do better. You can also have your paper work
shopped at the writing center, where they will help you start you paper or
edit your paper. Pertaining to my question about connections, I realized that
we are making connections with everything that we read in this class. When
we are reading another classmates writing, we are connecting with them
and thinking about ways that we can relate to them. At this point, all my
questions have been answered.

2. Out of the key concepts on the syllabus, the ones that I feel like I am doing
well with are providing and receiving feedback, curiosity, and making
connections. When providing feedback, I always give my best feedback
because I know that I would want the same thing when it comes to my paper.
I am good at reading someone paper thoroughly and providing as much
helpful feedback as I possibly can. I am also good at receiving feedback. When
someone reviews my paper, I use his or her feedback to my advantage and
try to incorporate as much of the good feedback into my paper as I can.
When it comes to curiosity, I feel like I have mastered the trait. I am always
open to know more about something and expanding my knowledge. When it
comes to other peoples writing I am curious about what the person is talking
about, what their main point is, and what I can learn from it. Every time I
come to writing class, I make sure to bring my curiosity with me. I have
noticed that coming to class with that curiosity and an open mind has made it
easier for me to make connections with other classmates and their writing.

When I am reading someones writing and peer reviewing, I find ways that I
can relate to them and connect with them. Two things that I need to work on
are being able to step out of my comfort zone. I am starting to learn how to
do this by stepping up and talking when the rest of the room is quiet, but it is
still really uncomfortable for me and I am working on it.

3. While writing my draft for the literacy narrative, there were many revisions
that I had to make to come out with the final product. However, the one
revision in particular that I thought made the narrative strong was adding in
my gaming experience and how it all started.
My first PlayStation was given to me for Christmas when I was five
years old. I started out playing little games like Bob the Builder and Blues
Clues, but as I got older my love for games began to grow. I started to
become literate in gaming by learning the lingo, shortcuts for certain
games, and different strategies for how to play a game through in the most
efficient way.
When I first wrote the draft, I never really thought that video games had such a
significant impact on me when it came to literacy. This is my favorite addition to
the paper because I find it amazing how something I spend a lot of my time doing
and that I find fun and exciting has a huge roll in choosing what I want to do in
college and even beyond college. In a way this paragraph was surprising because I
never thought it would fit into the paper.

4. For rhetorical analysis I chose example #1:

a. The author of the text is Jala Robinson.
b. The audience that this text is intended for is anyone who is Ms.
Ingram, teachers, students taking this writing course, and anyone who
is interested in college writing/ UNCC writing courses.
c. The purpose of the writing is to show people what kind of writing is
done in a college writing course. It shows how throughout the writing
course, a students writing develops over time and this portfolio also
shows the different steps that one might go through to perfect their
writing.
d. The appeals that are used are mostly pathos. As soon as you get onto
the portfolio, the first thing that you see is picture of her with a little
kid in the background. When she goes on to talk about herself in her
about me statement. Also, throughout her writing she told stories
about her experiences with sports, which some tended to play on
emotions. There was also logos on the portfolio. She gave explanations
and facts about the class to help the reader understand what the focus
of the class was.

e. Modes used in this portfolio were linguistic, visual, and gestural.

f. The genre of this piece of writing is a web portfolio and also a school
project. This genre is exists on any device that is able to access the
Internet and the cyber world. The limitations of this genre are that
you have to have Internet to access it, so it is not available
everywhere. Your advantages would be that there are millions of
people on the Internet every day and there is so much room to put
your information on the site. Weebly would make rules for this site,
since the host site this person used was Weebly.
Overall, I feel like this text was very successful. It was well organized and
informed its intended audience well. Explanations were given for every
picture and there were many examples that would help inform someone
who was curious about college writing.

5. If I were to grade my e-portfolio now, I would probably have a D because I

have not uploaded any of my drafts or final products for the work that we
have done. However, I have done them and I am starting to get an idea of how
I can make my e-portfolio and exemplary one. If I had to grade myself on the
work I have done so far and not the e-portfolio itself, I would give myself a B.
I have kept up with all of the assignments that we have had so far and I am
starting to grasp the concept of this class. However, I feel that my writing
needs to still be tweaked to some extent in order to earn an A in this class. I
feel that, for me, an exemplary e-portfolio is definitely a reachable goal and
starting on the construction of my e-portfolio will help me get there.