Jesse

Greenlee
Ms. Ingram
UWRT1103
12-6-15

Greenlee 1

Final Portfolio Essay

The purpose of my e-Portfolio is to showcase the work that I have completed this

semester in UWRT1103, show how I grew as a writer, and how I worked to get my final
products. I am writing this FPE now that I am finished with my e-Portfolio.
Organization

I tried to organize my e-Portfolio in a way that made the most sense to me. The pages of

my e-Portfolio are set in chronological order; in class I began writing blog posts, then worked on
my exploratory essay and completed my midterm. After I completed the midterm I began
gathering information which I compiled into a bibliography; this was done in order to complete
my Muiti-Genre Project. Lastly, I included a page about the author; me. I believed that it was
important to include this page in order to portray myself and create a voice for this e-Portfolio.

While creating each page I thought of the layout in a spatial way. I put the final product

at the top of the page, as seen in the pages, Exploratory, Midterm, Bibliography, and
Multi-Genre. Doing this helps my best work to be seen first, and if my audience scrolls down
on those pages below the final drafts, they can see prior drafts or works that brought me to
that final product. Linguistically, in my work, I tried to write in a way that got my point across,
fulfilled the requirements of the assignment, and was easily read by my audience. A lot of my
work and artifacts I included captions such as, Above is a list of do's and don'ts for peer
editing. I believe that doing this makes it easier to differentiate what is what with some
context. The headings of my pages were created in a way that also provided context. For
example, on my page labeled Bibliography, I wrote the header as 3 Column Notes: Multi-

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Genre Project. This header not only showed what type of layout I used for the bibliography,
but also clarified what the bibliography was for. I tried to lay my work and pictures in a way
that was visually appealing; if something is more important, it is larger and easier to see than a
piece of work that, to me, is less important. For example, larger assignments, such as my
midterm are proportionally larger in size on my e-Portfolio than assignments and artifacts such
as the fish and the feedback I received for my Midterm Draft 1.
Pieces and Contributions

Everything included in this e-Portfolio contributed to my learning throughout this

course.

The first artifact that I included is the letter to Ms. Ingram. This assignment was

competed on the first day of class as a warmup. This assignment helped me to think about my
strengths and weaknesses as a writer and helped me decide how I was going to try to improve
myself over the the course of UWRT1103. In this letter I said, My writing challenges are using
higher level vocabulary and spelling correctly within my writing. I pointed out some of my
weaknesses and this is an example of something that I worked to improve over the semester.

In my first blog post, I read the syllabus, asked questions to Ms. Ingram and listed my

different reading territories. This assignment helped me develop my skills in independent

inquiry and curiosity and also understand the dynamic of the class. I looked at one of my peers
blog posts for inspiration on the layout of this blog post. She first asked questions, then to fufill
other requirements of the blog post, she included subheadings such as Reading Territories,
Romance, Writing Territories, and Other Literacies Territories.

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UWRT1103
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For the second blog post, I was asked to read out of the textbook. It helped me to
better my skills with reflection and critical reading. The most important line I took from the
textbook and included in this blog was, The author should think about their audience, topic,
purpose, and occasion when they are writing. This quote helped me think about how to write
in a more focused manner; I still think about this quote pretty much every time I write. Also, on
this blog post, one of my peers commented, you could use more rhetoric to make your essay
more personal to you. I had this feedback in mind while writing my final draft.

In my third blog post, I complied different topics of interest and narrowed it down to

three for my Multi-Genre Project. This helped me think about my options of what to research
and helped me decide which one I was most interested in. The single question I narrowed
down to in this blog post was Do social media and social networking promote or hinder
positive social relationships?

My second artifact was an earlier draft of my midterm. This draft helped me reflect on

the first half of my UWRT1103 semester. Ms. Ingram asked me to look at one of my peers
drafts as an example. This peers midterm had subheadings labeled Independent Inquiry and
Curiosity and Getting Out of Your Comfort Zone. This peer inspired me to include
subheadings in my final draft.

For my fourth blog post, I was asked to reflect on the feedback I received for my

exploratory essay, reflect on the first group I worked with, and read a passage in the textbook
about plagiarism and research. This post helped me notice what needed to be improved with
my first exploratory essay draft, and to slow down and think about how I was actually going to

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do that. In this blog post, I stated that My plans for my final essay are to change or completely
get rid of the second paragraph in my draft and add in some more personal connections. I will
also revamp some statements to make them more clear cut and more true to real life instead of
them being an American Ideal. What I wrote in this blog post is almost exactly what I ended
up changing for the final draft of my exploratory essay.

For my fifth blog post I was asked to make a round table for my Multi-Genre Project.

This helped me think of different audiences that would care about my topic and helped me to
think of the topic from different points of view. It also helped me to choose the best audience
for my audience and make a better argument. This is where my argument was, Social media/
networking hinder positive relationships in teens.

My third artifact is an earlier draft of my bibliography. This helped me gather

information for my Multi-Genre Project in an organized way.

For my sixth blog post, I was asked to make an outline for my Multi-Genre Project. This

helped me to plan what I was going to do and really got the ball rolling on my project. I decided
to do a Multi-Genre project instead of an essay in order to get out of my comfort zone. In this
blog post I decided that I was going to reach my audience with the use of a PowerPoint and a
twitter page. [I thought] that these two sources [would be] most likely to be seen by my
audience (teenagers.)

In my seventh blog post, I was asked to reflect on the six preceding blog posts. This

helped me to look back at what I have done and rethink about some of the things that were no
longer on my mind that would help me progress with this overall class.

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My fourth artifact was the list of dos and donts of peer editing. This helped me learn
how to edit my peers in a way that is both positive and constructive. It helped me to really help
my peers, giving me tips including Explain and follow up on your initial comments and Write
comments in 2 or 3 words.

My fifth artifact is feedback I received from Ms. Ingram on an earlier draft of my

exploratory essay. This feedback helped me know what to fix when I revised my essay. It helped
me know what to exclude and elaborate on. In this feedback, Ms. Ingram said Where is Jesse?
This made me think to put more of myself into my work and make my essay more personal to
myself.

My sixth artifact is an earlier draft of my exploratory essay. This draft helped me to

write creatively and think about what my passion was. As feedback, one of my peers wrote to
me, Still some grammatical errors make more personal This feedback helped to guide me
in the right direction for my final product.

Writing my exploratory essay was somewhat challenging. The prompt was What are

you so passionate about that you cant ignore? I said that if I had to chose a passion of mine,
It would be Happiness. This assignment helped me to deeply think about myself as a person
and break out of my comfort zone by writing completely in first person all about myself. Talking
about myself is something that I am sometimes uncomfortable doing.

The midterm helped me to reflect on the first half of the semester and figure out what I

needed to improve in the second half. In the midterm I wrote, I am also used to writing with a
specific genre, the five paragraph essay, and will have to get out of my comfort zone which can

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UWRT1103
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be achieved through writing in different genres. After focusing in on a challenge I had, it was
easier to improve this area of my writing.

My seventh artifact was feedback that Ms. Ingram had for the first draft of my Midterm.

This helped me by saying things such as, I think that if you experiment coming out of your
writing comfort zone and realize all the decisions that you can actually make as a writer, that
this class will start to be even more helpful to you. This made me think of my writing in a
different way than I have been thinking about it. It helped me learn that there werent as many
rules to writing as I thought there were and that I could be more creative.

My bibliography/ three column notes helped me gather information for my Multi-

Genre project in an organized way. It helped me summarize and analyze my sources which
made the overall construction of my Multi-Genre Project a lot easier.

My eighth artifact was a Genre Analysis worksheet that I completed with my group

during class. We were given choices of texts; my group chose a coupon for personalized
Goldfish snacks. This activity helped me understand what genres truly are and think about the
purpose of multimodality.

My ninth artifact is a fish drawing that I completed in class. Ms. Ingram asked all of us to

draw a fish. Everyone is class drew a fish but they all ended up different. This operated as an
analogy for the Multi-Genre project; we were all given the same instruction, but we could do
with it what we wanted.

My Multi-Genre project consists of a PowerPoint, Twitter page, and reflection. This

project helped me to think more about multimodality. I was able to think about an audience

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and cater to what I thought they should hear. This also helped me practice using different
modes of persuasion.

My tenth artifact is an earlier reflection for my Multi-Genre Project. This helped me

think about how is was using various modes of communication in my project and also its
purpose. Additionally, it helped me tie loose ends on my project by saying things such as These
genre pieces will help shine light on the problem, but there may also need to be changes in
other areas, such as a decrease in the accessibility of these smartphones for there to be change
in every single teenager.
My Writing

The quality of my writing has grown since the beginning of this UWRT1103 semester.

The weaknesses that I began with at the beginning of the semester have been focused on;
these weaknesses, I can say, are now less weak, but I still need to practice them in order for
them to be as strong as they have potential to be.

I believe that since the beginning of the course, my ability to write in different genres

has improved. I started out writing in a way that was far less understandable and straight
forward than it should have been. Up until I received feedback for my midterm draft 1, I was
writing almost exclusively in the form of a five paragraph essay. In this feedback, Ms. Ingram
wrote to me, The 5 paragraph essay genre also wasnt necessary for this midterm Are there
better, more efficient and effective ways that you could have organized this assignment for
your reader, for me? This made me think of writing in a different way. Now I think of writing
less in the sense of paragraph forms, and more in the sense of efficiently organizing my work

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Ms. Ingram
UWRT1103
12-6-15

for my audience. I began tweaking the genres that I used. In my final midterm, I included
subtitles such as, My Aspect of This Class, Responsibility for Learning, Critical Thinking,
and Getting Out of My Comfort Zone. I also did this in my Final Multi-Genre reflection. Adding
these subtitles makes it easier for my audience to get an idea of what each section is about and
facilitates navigating the paper.

I also used my Multi-Genre Project as an opportunity to write in different genres. I could

have chosen to write a simple essay, something similar to what I am/ was used to from my prior
experiences with writing, but instead, I chose to make a PowerPoint presentation and a Twitter
page to persuade and inform my audience.

Through this project, I improved my use of the modes of communication. As I said in my

Multi-Genre Reflection, I used textual communication by laying out the words in a specific
order, strategically moving from thought to thought. I also used a lot of visual communication.
In the past I couldnt really use visual communication in such an obvious way, but in this
project, I used pictures and unique types of tweets to portray my work in a way that words
alone couldnt.

Another thing I improved on was fulfilling the overall requirements of an assignment. A

good example of where this is seen is in my exploratory essay. The prompt for this essay was
What are you so passionate about that you cant ignore? The purpose of this prompt was to
get personal with myself, talking about my passion and how it fit in my life. My first draft of this
assignment was not personal enough to myself. In the first draft I wrote sentences that had
nothing to do with me, Jesse, such as Though most readers would relate more to the little boy,

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UWRT1103
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both of these examples show that happiness results in similar feelings to each individual, and
that it can be accomplished in countless distinct and varying ways. In revising this essay for the
final draft I spoke entirely in first person, writing sentences such as Happiness is the main
factor that drives and motivates me in my life. By talking more about myself, I fulfilled the
overall requirements of the assignment.

In addition, I improved in making statements that were not too general. An outstanding

example of this can also be seen in my exploratory essay. In this draft, I made the statement,
Anyone from any walk of life strives to be happy, ranging from young children to elderly
criminals; happiness is universal. As Ms. Ingram pointed out, this statement was too general;
there are clearly people out there that do not strive to be happy and wallow in their sorrows
and not everyone has the ability to be happy, depressed people for example. For my final draft,
I edited this statement to, There are countless numbers of individuals around the world who
are not searching for happiness, but instead dwell on their sorrows. Nonetheless, happiness is a
passion of mine, that in my opinion, should be pursued by everyone throughout their lives.
Revising this statement in this way allowed me to combine both my opinion and the truth of life
into one statement.

I have also improved on writing for a specific audience. Something that helped me with

this enhancement was a quote from my textbook, Who Says. This quote is The author should
think about their audience, topic, purpose and occasion when they are writing. I think I got
better with this as the semester unfolded; the best example of this is with my Multi-Genre
Project. I completed this project with my audience, teenagers, in mind. The genres I chose

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UWRT1103
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worked perfectly for teenagers. Most teenagers wouldnt sit down and read a seven-page
paper, so I used genres that they would pay more attention to: a PowerPoint to be shown at
their school, and a Twitter page that they could access on their smartphones.
Key Concepts

One Key Concept, which I had no choice but to engage with, was taking responsibility

for my own learning. During this course I have had to regularly check the schedule to make
sure that I am keeping up with the work. In planner I have written notes such as, exploratory
essay draft 1 due 9-14, blog post 6 due 10-29 and research draft 3 due 11-5. I have spent
multiple hours outside of class completing and revising assignments. I could have left my
products where they were at their first drafts, but I chose to revise them in order to get a better
learning experience and become a better writer. On my own time, I read out of our textbook,
Who Says, and have learned about things such as plagiarism and having an audience to focus
on. I have read what we were assigned, often multiple times, until I have fully understood what
it was saying; this could also be considered critical reading.

Another Key Concept that I engaged in was critical reflection. Critical reflection was

another concept that was vital to doing well in this class. Many blog posts and assignments
asked me to reflect on myself and other assignments, and I believe that I did pretty well at
doing this. In blog post 7, I was asked to reflect on the six blog posts I had earlier written. I said
things such as, My third blog post was really helpful for in the construction of my inquiry
project. I was able to come up with different topics of interest and narrow that list down to the
best one. Although my topic did change slightly from where it was at this point in time, this blog

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UWRT1103
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post did send me in the right direction. This showed that I understood why I wrote blog post
number three and how it helped me in this overall course. Another example is in my blog post
number 4. In this blog post I said, There is a lot of work for me to do on this essay, and my final
essay will probably end up being quite a bit different from my second draft. My plans for my
final essay are to change or completely get rid of the second paragraph in my draft and add in
some more personal connections. I will also revamp some statements to make them more clear
cut and more true to real life instead of them being an American Ideal. I pointed out things
that were wrong with my work and planned how to fix it.

In addition, I believe that I was strongly engaged in the Key Concept of composing

processes. For each assignment I mapped out how I was going to fulfill its requirements before I
got to working on the first draft. After receiving feedback on my first draft I payed close
attention to the feedback that I received. An example of this is in my exploratory essay. I
received a lot of feedback from both my peers and Ms. Ingram. As feedback, Ms. Ingram wrote,
you might want to experiment w/ interspersing more of you/your connections throughout.
After reading this I planned on how to improve my essay for the next draft. My final draft was
completed taking into account all of the feedback that I received, making it the best work that I
could produce.
Grade

Based on what I presented and according to the e-Portfolio grade scale, I believe that I

deserve an A

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I have completed to my best ability, all of the 5 major assignments for this course: an
exploratory essay, 3 column notes, Multi-genre essay, an ongoing blog and an FPE. I did the
best I could with my e-Portfoilo and FPE; they are arranged in a thoughtful way, they illustrate
my composing processes, and I dont think they will leave any unanswered questions. I
attended the majority of classes and have participated well in my groups. I have read all reading
assignments from the textbook, Moodle and the syllabus. I have completed all writing activities
in my writers notebook and participated in all peer work shopping. I have really enjoyed this
class and it has helped me on my journey to becoming a better writer.