Belton 1

Mackenzie Belton
3 December 2014
UWRT-1101-029
Ms. Ingram

Final Portfolio Essay

Introduction
Going from high school into college my writing did a total one-eighty. Writing now is
totally different than it was in high school because I think it is a lot more important now
than it was. Now we are focused on our careers and how we are going to start our lives and
we may not realize it now but writing is going to follow us wherever we go. Throughout
this course I, personally, could see a change in my writing and this paper along with my ePortfolio and hopefully it allows the reader to see the change as well. This paper is about
the organization and construction of my e-Portfolio and the reasons why I choose to talk
about the things that I did. I hope this paper clears up any unanswered questions one might
have about my e-Portfolio and anything in it.
Home
On this page of my e-Portfolio I decided to have this as the first page because I
wanted the viewer to know a little about me first before they read all my secrets. I put a
picture of my two best friends and I from our junior prom at the top because I wanted the
audience to know that I value friendship and that good friends are hard to find. I put a small
paragraph below it giving a brief description of whom I am and what I like to do.

Belton 2
Literacy Narrative
My literacy narrative was the one I liked the most; therefore, I probably spent more
time putting everything I could into it. For it being the first paper I have written for this
class, I think I did pretty well with it; it made me appreciate writing a little more. At first, I
hated the idea of having to write a paper multiple times and over again, however, towards
the end I was excited to see the finished product. I think the literacy narrative gave me a
jump-start into writing as a college student. It showed me how I can take an assignment
and run with it and eventually make it my own, unique story. In the literacy narrative I
described a moment I experienced and how that helped me become literate in that subject.
I loved this assignment because it allowed me to go into detail and dig deep into the
creative part of my brain. This helped me grow as a writer because I hadnt possessed this
skill before. Another thing that this piece of writing allowed me to do was explore dialogue
within my writing, internal and external. For this narrative I used mostly internal because I
was the only character described in the paper. Internal dialogue allowed the reader to fully
understand what I was feeling and thinking at that time.
The first artifact that I used on my Literacy Narrative page was the brainstorming
for draft 2 (Process Works Artifact 1). In class we did this activity and Ms. Ingram asked us
to close our eyes and think of a moment that we experienced and get it down to about a
span of three minutes. She asked us to think about and visualize what everything looked
like, smelt like, felt like, sounded like, and even tasted like and when we opened our eyes
we had to type/write it all down. This allowed us to hone in on our senses and remember
things that we hadnt thought we remembered before. That is how I got started in writing
my second draft and what would become my final one. I wanted to show this because

Belton 3
brainstorming can be in any kind of format, messy like mine, or organized with boxes and
arrows. Either way you can still produce a great essay. It also kind of shows my thinking
process and I want to share that with others. This activity was the turning point for me
because it made me use imagery in a way that I hadnt before and it truly made my essay a
hundred times better. My nerves are skyrocketing, my blood pressure is rising and I
can feel my heart beating like it is outside of my chest. This is one of the lines in my
paper that used sensory details and I like it because it allows the reader to almost feel the
same way when reading it.
The second artifact that I used with my Literacy Narrative page was my first draft
(Process Work Artifact 2). I decided to use my first draft because I think you can see the
biggest change from my first draft to the second draft and definitely the final one. My first
draft of my Literacy Narrative was literally the first draft of the class so it was already going
to be pretty bad. I think it is crucial for one to see change because that motivates them
more. I knew I would have grammatical errors up the wall in this first draft but the main
thing I was focused on was the content and thats what I needed the most help on.
Providing and Receiving Feedback was especially important in this process. Breaking up
into small groups and peer editing was probably the most helpful aspect of the writing
process because the critics and praises I got from my peers influenced my writing so much.
Feedback like, I would elaborate more in your conclusion about how these
experiences have impacted your education and how will you benefit from it in the
future. is from Sam Fehl, one of my peer reviewers. Advice like this really helped my next
drafts because it gave me ideas from a different persons perspective that I didnt think of
before.

Belton 4
The last part of my Literacy Narrative page is the final draft on my essay. This draft
is especially important because I want my readers to see the growth I have made and the
process I went through. I think this paper was a good idea for a first paper because it made
the writer use a lot of detail and imagery and, for me, I was able to use those skills in my
other papers as well as other classes. At the very bottom of the page I put a picture of
myself dancing my solo on stage because I wanted the audience to get a visual of what the
moment I talked about in the paper really looked like.
More: Portrait of a Writer Essay
This assignment was a hard one. It took me a while to get started because I was
wondering how on Earth I was going to write about Who I am, as a writer? I went through
the same phase I did with my Literacy Narrative; refusing to do it and angry that my
teacher assigned it to us. However, just like my Literacy Narrative, after the first draft when
I got feedback about how I can make it better and what I should add or take away, I began
to like the assignment more and more. For this assignment you had to answer eleven
important questions in the essay but you couldnt just simply answer the questions. In this
essay, it was very important to keep the reader interested and excited while still answering
those questions. So I had to critically think about what I wanted to say, write about and
how I wanted my essay to be read.
The first thing on this page is a picture of cupcakes. You might ask What does
cupcakes have to do with my portrait of a writer essay? Well, if you keep reading you find out
that I compare my writing process to baking cupcakes and I eventually name my paper
Cupcakes.

Belton 5
The second thing you come to on the Portrait of a Writer page is the first draft of
the essay (Process Work Artifact 3). I wanted to show this draft in particular because it was
a horrible first draft; I felt like I was just throwing words together. This time for peer
editing it was a little different. There was a member of our peer-editing group missing and I
felt like I didnt get enough feedback from just one person so I had my teacher edit it and
give me some ideas on what I could change or add. She gave me the idea to incorporate the
article Shitty First Drafts by Anne Lamott. I found this passage fairly interesting
because my first draft was well you know, shitty. In my paper I quoted from her passage
People tend to look at successful writersand think that they sit down at their
desks every morning feeling like a million dollarsthat they take in a few deep
breaths, push back their sleeves, roll their necks a few times and dive inBut this is
just the fantasy of the uninitiated. I wanted to quote this particular section because it
shines light on the fact that every writer is not the same and that there is no right way to
write anything.
The third thing you come to on this page is my third draft of my essay (Process
Work Artifact 4). I chose to incorporate this draft on this page and as a process work
artifact because I felt like this is the draft that I got the most constructive feedback off of. I
felt like I needed to show this as a Process Work Artifact rather than a Feedback Artifact
because I wanted to show the process I went through and the changes that I made rather
than the feedback given, even though it was good feedback. One thing that I really worked
hard on in this draft was the comparison of my writing process to baking cupcakes. I was
unsure of where I wanted to put it in my paper, at the beginning or somewhere in the
middle. In this draft it was at the beginning because I wanted to start the reader off with

Belton 6
something different and interesting. The first lines read, I like to think of writing
process as baking cupcakes. Just like you would read the directions of an assignment,
it is important to read the instructions of a recipe so you know exactly what you
need. I think this comparison also adds to the way I am as a writer; I like to do things
different sometimes.
The third thing you see on this page is the Reader Response Letter from one of my
classmates, Kelsey Summey, giving me feedback on my third draft of the Portrait of a
Writer essay (Feedback Artifact 1). I liked this type of feedback because it was more
personal and it wasnt just a couple of words on the side of the page. I think I was able to
get more out of the feedback she gave me. When she said I felt like you left me hanging
because I wanted more information from you. This was important to hear because I
need to know if I was leaving out something crucial to the essay.
More: Midterm
The first thing on my Midterm page is the feedback I got from Ms. Ingram on my
midterm (Feedback Artifact 2). I liked how we got to see how we did on our Midterm and if
there was anything we needed to add to it to improve it. In our midterm there was a part
where we were able to grade ourselves on how well we thought we did. I said I feel like I
am setting myself up for an exemplary e-Portfolio because I believe that I am very
organized, I have explained my work to the best of my ability, and I am able to show
my growth through quoting and analyzing my past work from this course. So in the
feedback of the midterm Ms. Ingram explained if she agreed with us or if she thought
differently. It seems like you are thinking about getting out of your comfort zone only
in terms of speaking up in class but are there other ways you may be challenging

Belton 7
yourself? Great job with question D, and I agree with your assessment that if grades
were due today, youd have an A. Her telling me that she agreed with me reassured me
that I was doing well so far and it motivated me to keep it up. In my midterm probably the
most important thing I got out of it was the analysis of the key concepts and which ones I
was doing best with and ones that I was struggling with. I made a table to help me, and the
reader, visualize which ones were in each category. Assessing this allowed me to figure out
which ones I needed to focus on the next half of the semester.

Key Concepts I am doing best with

Responsibility for my own learning

Curiosity
The writing and revision process
Providing and Receiving feedback
Making connections
Intellectual Growth and Maturity

Key Concepts I am struggling with

Independent Inquiry
Critical Thinking
Getting out of my comfort zone

More: Blog
When I found out at the beginning of the year that we had to keep a blog going, I was
concerned because I had never written or even read a blog consistently before. I think the
blog is probably where you can see most of my growth as a writer just in the sense of how I
worded things and how in depth I went with my answers. Even though these were
homework assignments I had a lot of fun writing them, it made me want to start a blog
outside of class. I think my favorite blog post was Blog Post #4. This post was about
students using conversational writing versus academic prose. I stated I believe students
should be exposed to academic prose type of writing because there are some

Belton 8
professions where that is crucial. I think the whole point of having a blog is to get the
students acquainted with writing about their opinions and how they can relate things to
their own life experiences. Another thing about blogging especially in this class is that you
can respond to others blog post and get feedback from others on yours. It is a great way to
get students to communicate and to get out of your comfort zone.
More: Writers Choice Artifacts
This page consists of two Writers Choice Artifacts. The first one being my Reader
Response Letter #5 (Artifact 1). Reader Response Letters (a.k.a. RRL) are another way for
students to express their opinions through writing. I decided to choose this particular RRL
because it was the one that we got to pick what we read about. I read the chapter on Does
Spelling Count and responded to it in the perspective that spelling does count. It is
necessary to build your vocabulary when writing in college for professors and future
employers because it shows your writing is well developed. I liked this RRL because I
connected with the text and the author as well.
The second piece of writing on this page is the notes I took on Rhetorical Analysis
(Artifact 2). These notes were crucial to the writing process because it is important to
incorporate all of these in your writing. For example, modes of communication are
especially important in this case because it is online so visual, spatial, linguistic, aural or
even gestural are good to use. In my e-Portfolio I organized it in a way that incorporated all
of the possible modes of communication. I used spatial, visual, linguistic, and gestural
modes of communication in my e-Portfolio and I am using a visual below. I used spatial
mode by organizing my documents and artifacts in a way that was visually appealing and
wasnt too busy. Visually I used pictures and colors to liven up the pages so it would be

Belton 9
more fun for the audience to look at. Linguistically, obviously, I have words on the pages
and pieces of writing. I used the gestural mode of communication for example a couple of
my pictures because it shows the audience what is going on through a picture.

Spatial

Visual

Aural

Gestural

Linguistic

More: Wild Card Artifacts

This page consists of two Wild Card Artifacts, LBST blogs and passage on Shitty
First Drafts. For the LBST blogs (Artifact 1) in my Global Connections class are fairly
similar to the blogs we write for this class, the only difference is that these deal with
writing and the LBST blogs deal with history. The major similarity between them is that
they both show my growth in my writing. The LBST blogs were a little bit harder due to the
fact that I didnt really like writing them and you had to be very specific in what you wrote
and you didnt give your opinion very often.
For the second piece of writing on this page I put the passage from Shitty First
Drafts by Anne Lamott (Artifact 2). I wanted to put this in one of my pages of my ePortfolio because I really connected with this passage and the author. The first draft is a
childs draft, where you let it all our out and then let it romp all over the place,

Belton 10
knowing that no one is going to see it and you can shape it later. I love this quote from
her passage because it is similar to what I do as a writer and it is nice that I can resonate
with someone. This passage taught me a lot about first drafts and how one doesnt need to
stress over it because the second and third drafts will be so much better.
Self-Assessment/Conclusion
In conclusion, this whole process has taught me a lot about myself as a writer and
writing in general. This essay allowed me to connect everything together I did this
semester and reflect on it. As far as assessing how well I have done throughout the whole
semester I would say that I think I have done pretty well. According to the grade scale for
the e-Portfolio I think my work is exemplary because I feel like I went above and beyond
the minimum. Not only do I feel that I have put my hardest efforts into the essays I wrote,
the blog post as well as the RRL but also I think that I can take something away from this
class (that is really clich but it is the truth). It is hard to evaluate myself and say that I am
doing a good job so I deserve an A. I think it is greater than that, I have to evaluate my
progress as well and there really isnt a scale for that.