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Nicholas Milem
Ms. Ingram
UWRITE 1101
12/1/14
Final Portfolio Essay
Throughout my process in this course I have examined, and created, many pieces of
literary work in respect for increasing and developing my skills as a writer. From answering the
inquired questions of the blog posts, responding to the many diverse and different topics
concerning reader response letters, and the self-inquiries of literacy narratives and defining my
portrait of a writer, I, as a writer, have grown since my initial arrival in the course. Not only has
my ability to create and scribe coherent sentences has improved, but the organization and content
of these writings have improved also. Such improvement is credit towards a number of different
lessons and talents discovered in the topics discussed in class.
One such work that has influenced my growth in my skills as a writer is the portrait of a
writer essay. This essay, while rigorous, allowed me to look and consider what to me a true
writer contains and uses in a literary work. Such reflection has even allowed me to delve into
who I am as a writer and what my strengths and weaknesses are as such. An example of my
portrait of a writer essay describing my strengths of a writer is such, My style of writing differs
from other mainly in the sense of my formality. Strength is derived by this style of writing by
presenting a narrative that can be composed into many forms of literature. Much like the essay

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discusses formality is a part of my writing that encompasses me to compose a work. This skill
has been compounded on during my participation in the course and has taken over every piece of
writing I have created. However like my portrait of a writer essay discusses I have weaknesses as
a writer as well as strengths. Weakness of the writing is also discerned from this formality, as
difficulty in creating an engaging or interesting work is created essentially by the formal nature
of my work. This statement drawn from my essay brings an important weakness to light
addressing the style of my writing. Creating a work in my formal nature poses great difficulty in
creating a piece that will appeal to the interests of my readers. By discovering and addressing
this weakness I am able to further combat this finding. By addressing this problem I hope I can
work to create more interesting and riveting works as a result from the course.
The literacy narrative assignment has also positively influenced me as a writer by
allowing me to somewhat revisit how and when I became literate. Literacy however is not only
defined as the knowledge and use of the spoken and written vernacular, but applies to the
acquired use of a particular knowledge towards the progression of skill in a specific field or
activity. For the first draft of my literacy narrative I discussed my progression as a literate person
in the respects of the literacy of the English language. Such reflection upon my past education
has allowed me to reflect on the finer points of my previous education and how these teachings
have evolved me as writer in the sense of knowledge. This assignment has also brought to light
the teachings of a unique few and some of my works created earlier in my educational career.
Such insight has given a sense of where I was as a writer and where I am now. Such a teacher
discussed was Mrs. Parrish, Mrs. Parrish had been extremely influential on my literacy, mainly

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in the fields of writing. Her teachings evolved my ability to form functional and coherent essays
that can be utilized for many different classes and topics, whether it is an evaluative,
argumentative or narrative. The discussion of teachers such as this has brought their teachings
to the front of my mind and remembering and relying on the tools and techniques for writing
discussed in her class. Such personal reflection has positively influenced my positive progression
as a writer.
Various new and unique topics have also been discussed in the text assigned to the course
and the teachings and the open response I am allowed to give on these writings has allowed me
to take certain teachings and key points away from the writings. The reader response letters have
allowed me to study and delve further into the teachings of other professors, and even students,
upon the subject of writing. The writings have discussed many key topics such as the transition
from high school to college, the effects of group work, both bad and good, and how to read and
review other writers works. From the respect of the first reader response letter, college is a huge
transition from high school, especially in the sense of writing. Discussed in the reader response
letter, and the text, as students we are no longer forced to write a paper in the template that a
teacher has embedded into our minds as students. For the first time, for a majority of students,
the way we write and compose literature is entirely left to us as the students. This switch in
writing can lead to some form of remote chaos among certain students as a product of lack of
rigidity; where some students given the new academic and literate freedom may thrive,
depending on their skills as a writer that may have been repressed in their previous education.
The writings of Straub in the text have also shed light on the growth of not directly my writing

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but my respectful analysis of the other writers works. The discussion presented by Straub has
positively influenced my work in the respect of work shopping the works of others in my
respective writing course. The ability to respectfully and knowledgably read and review the
literary works of others has positively influenced me as a writer, by allowing me to give and
receive feedback on my works. Not only does this new skill give direct feedback on my writings
but also provide indirect literary progression by evaluating the writing styles of other writers and
essentially learning the general spectrum of my peers in order to create a well-rounded and
respectable work. Another writer in the text discussed group work in great detail. Some of the
topics discussed in this passage were of some common knowledge to me as the negatives and
positives of group work. However as applied to the sense of writing I have discovered and
applied some of the positives to help me better accept and apply myself in a situation that
requires group work. As a receiver of a many of the negatives discussed in the writing such as,
placement of work upon one person, the lack of participation of others, and the event of a person
not producing adequate work, I was not personally a fan of the idea of group work. However the
positives discussed in the work apply to the group work in writing and can positively influence
my group work in a writing class. The positives outweigh the negatives and have helped me
understand and better accept group work. By consulting the ideas of others I am able to further
progress my writing and improve my works as a whole. Such evidence presented by the works of
others has changed my view on college writing as a whole and has positively influenced my
writing.

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Not particularly pertaining to my works in my e portfolio but my presentation of my

artifacts and my pieces I have composed carries almost as much importance as the actual works
do themselves. For if a portfolio is not organized, neat, and aesthetically pleasing, the reader may
become discouraged or even disgusted and not able to entertain the notion or the ideas presented
in my portfolio. As a precaution for this I have attempted to incorporate a number of features in
order to improve my portfolio from the readers standpoint, putting their best interests in mind.
The organization of my portfolio I believe to be satisfactory by providing different pages
containing different types of works, allowing the reader to easily find what they are looking for.
As for aesthetics many of the pages use pictures depicting some of my own interests as well as
pictures of my process, and the artifacts themselves, giving a relief from the bland dull collection
of embedded documents that might otherwise take their place within my portfolio.
My artifacts I have chosen carefully mainly to their personal importance to myself and
the progression of my writing. Despite them not being required for the portfolio I have included
my reader response letters, which I have found helpful to my progression in the course and my
progression as a writer. The letters are my responses to the writers of many different fields and
professions giving their respective views on writing and how the process of writing has changed
and evolved. Many of the writers that I have responded to have discussed their opinions on
certain areas within the field of writing, such as group work, feedback, and the gap between high
school and college writing, their opinions along with their evidence provided to support their
opinions has proven very useful to me in my writing by adopting and embracing some of the
principles brought to my attention. One such skill I have improved upon is group work.
Previously I have despised and loathed the idea of group work but after the effective use of
group work presented and taught in this course along with the help and ideas presented by other

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masters of the field have allowed me to change my opinion and my experience with group work;
further using my peers to improve my writing and improve theirs. Such ideas and lessons taught
by these writers have personally improved my writing greatly.
Once upon entering this class I had a general idea of who I was as a writer and by the
result of this class I have truly discovered my strengths and weaknesses, fully depicting myself
as a writer. By being involved with the course and engaged with my peers I have shared my
knowledge as a writer as well as retained the wisdom presented to me by my respective peers.
The work I have created in this class, whether it being self-reflective or the response to the works
of others has been a positive experience in the respect of my writing. My work has improved
since my initial beginning in the course and is a product of the works discussed in the class and
my personal works I have created and presented to be reviewed by my peers as well as my
instructor. As a whole I believe that my experience in this writing class has done nothing but
improve my writing.