Final E-portfolio Essay

Johnathan C. Steele
12/9/15
Ms. Ingram, Section: 030
Key:
Blue words: Examples of key concepts
Red words: Examples of writing growth
Yellow words: Quotes from other word or sources
Grey highlight: Actions

Introduction:
Over the course of this semester I feel like I have been able to grow as a student. This
course has been like a roaring wave and I feel like I was able to enjoy the ride that I got from it.
As a student I have gained tools and resources that I will be able to use and refine throughout my
whole college career and maybe even further. This course has taught me a few lessons that I feel
Ill learn to incorporate into my writing, even further, after I am done with this course. Dont
write for a grade, find your own independent inquiry and curiosity, making connections,
and responsibility for my own learning are just some examples of key lessons that I learned
during this course. With this final report I am going to take you, the reader, through my virtual eportfolio and tell you about my experiences with this course!
Organization and Design:
At first glance my blog may seem a bit difficult to navigate so I decided to write this
short little section explaining it. On the homepage tab of my e-portfolio I have three final
products (this report, traditional research essay, and exploratory essay), a visual bibliography,
and a revised midterm essay. The following three tabs that are located underneath the
homepage tab are a collection of all the assignments that Ive had to do over the course of the
semester. The artifacts tab is a collection of processed work, feedback, examples out of the
writers notebook, wild cards, and make-up work that Ive received or written while being in
this course.
I designed my blog using three of the five multi-modality modes. The first mode that I
used to get an overview of what I wanted to do for the design of my blog was Spatial. Spatial
mode has to deal with the arrangement; organization; proximity between people or object
(Arola, Sheppard, and Ball 4-12). In my blog I decided to arrange the assignments in
chronological order based on the due date of the assignment. This allowed me to give the reader
a step by step experience in what exactly I did over the course of the semester. Having my blog
designed in chronological order allows me to have things organized in a way similar to an

engineer mindset. Engineers are all about set processes and organizing things in a set order. I too
also like this and it allowed for me to stay within my comfort zone so I could produce the best
work possible.
The second mode I used to help design my e-portfolio is Visual. Visual mode has to deal
with the color, layout, style, size, and perspective (Syllabus homepage) of something. After
the first few classes of the semester I thought to myself that this course was going to be packed
with exciting experiences and a lot of challenges. The reason I chose surfing as the theme for my
blog was, because I felt it gave me similar emotions to the ones I felt while being in this course.
Surfing is fun, exhilarating, and challenging, which are all emotions or experiences I would
relate back to this course. I also used a variety of pictures in my blog to keep it interesting and
entertaining. I didnt want to have the reader bored with just textual blog posts and long drown
out reports, so I decided to include pictures of some of the actual work that I had done for the
class. This gives the reader a first-hand look at some of the corrections, and any feedback given
to me by my instructor or peers.
The final mode I used to help express the ideas and thoughts behind my e-portfolio is
Linguistic. Linguistic mode is the writers word choice; the delivery of spoken or written text;
the organization of writing or speech into phrases, sentences, paragraphs, etc; the development
and coherence of individual words and ideas (Syllabus homepage). The design to my blog is
definitely a reflection upon my own writing style and personality. I feel like I do have an
interesting choice in words that allows me to fully express my ideas or thoughts in my writing.
With the design of my blog, I decided to give each tab a secondary title with a word or phrase
expressing a thought for that specific tab. This allowed me to express the intensity, or
importance, of the work that was contained within that tab.
Reflecting Upon My Work:
The reflections for the assignments that I have done for this semester are in order by the
date they were due in class. You can find the beginning of the assignments by locating Blog
post 1, at the top of the Exploratory Essay tab.
Blog post 1: Doing blog post 1 gave me a clear understanding of the purpose the teacher had
for the class, as well as, allowing me to set clear, obtainable goals for myself for the semester.
Coming in as a freshly graduated freshmen I had no unique writing abilities or study habits that I
could show off. I decided that while in college I was going to actively pursue my education and
try to get the most knowledge out of the classes I was going to be taking. The first function this
assignment served was to give me a clear purpose of the class. The purpose of this course, as
defined by Professor Ingram on the syllabus homepage, is allowing you the flexibility as a
student writer to experiment with and improve your writing over time without the deterrent of
grades. This allowed me to gain an understanding that I was able to do what I wanted, however
I wanted, and though I was still given strong advice about what I should do, ultimately if I made
the decision to do the wrong thing, purposefully or by accident, nothing horrible is really going
to happen to me.

With this understanding I was able to gain a sense of freedom that allowed me to create
personalized goals in which I could work on throughout the semester. The two goals I came up
with, as mentioned in the assignment, are generating a substantial boost in my reading and
writing abilities by beginning to practice the 10 practices and habits of mind for you to work
with and positive results of an experiment to try and re-teach myself the common knowledge
and basic practices of English grammar. Like I mentioned in the paragraph above I wanted to
actively pursue my education while in college and I felt like these two specifics goals were the
first steps in the right direction.
Blog post 2: While I was doing blog post 2, I was able to absorb the meaning of literacy and
understand the importance of it, experiment with the forms of rhetoric, and relate all of that
knowledge to the current draft I was writing in class. The first part of this assignment had to deal
with literacy and why it was important. For inexperience writers, learning what literacy is and
why its important is crucial. Literacy, as defined by Dictionary.com, is a persons knowledge of
a particular subject or field. I think it was important for students to understand this at the
beginning of the course because it emphasizes that some writing will be easier, because of the
knowledge that we have prior to doing the assignment. It should be our goal to expand our
writing literacy because it develops students to be well-rounded in the different writing styles
they will encounter along their college career.
Experimenting with the different forms of rhetoric and then relating it back to current
writing was very helpful. Using Pathos, Logos, and Ethos in my writing was very challenging at
first, but with time I was able to fix that. An example of me using Pathos in my writing is the
personal experience I mentioned on the first page of my Exploratory Essay:
Leave it up to fate to send impulses into my friends parents to kick their children out for
unreasonable reasons. Due to this situation and our increased hanging out, we all grew closer
together and became very dependent on one another for our happiness...After recalling this
experience I came up with the passion of helping others and being able to understand them.
It took me a long time to really grasp the concepts of the rhetorical forms but once I got it
down it was pretty easy. In the post I gave a weak, skeptical reflection about the forms I used in
my essay. I feel like I didnt truly understand the meaning of the different forms at the time,
which is why my reflection strength was so lacking. Now that I am able to incorporate these
different forms I feel like my writing has improved.
Exploratory Essay (final product): My exploratory essay was written to express my
developing personality. This essay was very personal and made me examine myself more closely
than any other writing assignment has done before. This was the first test at incorporating the
new writing skills I had set out to learn and understand. One example of this the personal
experience/story that is mentioned on the first page of my report:
Leave it up to fate to send impulses into my friends parents to kick their children out for
unreasonable reasons. Due to this situation and our increased hanging out, we all grew closer
together and became very dependent on one another for our happiness...After recalling this
experience I came up with the passion of helping others and being able to understand them.

This example is important, because it shows me taking an active role in making

connections with my topic in order to relate what Im writing about to my personal life. This
essay was also beneficial, because it got me thinking about why I was studying at a university. It
got my mind stirring about what I was going to do with the knowledge I obtain after these four
years, and what impact did I want to make on the world. I appreciate this because it allowed me
to slow down and gain the motivation needed to get through all of my classes.
I moved this essay forward by incorporating some of the suggestions given to me by
peers and the instructor. I decided to clean up some grammar, revise a few paragraphs, and
incorporate my own personal connection into it.
*this should be the point where you have to click on the Visual Bibliography tab*
Blog Post 3: Blog post 3 was an assignment that started helping me generate ideas about what I
was going to research for my visual bibliography project. As you can see (if you are able to look
at the post) there are a list of interests that I wanted to do research on. Below that list is another
list that is more focused on topics that I felt I could do extensive research on. While I think its
humorous, I didnt actually use the topic chosen by myself in this assignment, as the final topic
for my visual bibliography. This just highlights the struggle I was having with choosing a topic at
the time.
Speed Dating Activity:
This activity was one of the stepping stones I used to narrow down
and specify my topic. It gave me a new perspective of my topic, because I was hearing differing
thoughts and opinions about my topic. My peers were able to help me generate different ideas
about my topic that I was able to use researching for this project. Examples of this can be seen in
the picture of the notecard.
Midterm:
The midterm essay allowed me to reflection upon my strength and weakness in
the course. It also gave me valuable feedback on how I was doing in the course. In the essay I
said that my strengths were rhetorical knowledge, independent inquiry and curiosity and
responsibility for my own learning. I feel like even in this present moment I would say those
strengths are accurate. I feel like my set goals revolve around these strengths and actively
pursuing them in my writing. My weaknesses as stated in the essay are getting out of my
comfort zone and making connections. Although I dont agree with those being my
weaknesses anymore, at the time, I was really struggling with those two things. By working on
different assignments and experimenting with different writing styles I have cured my fear of
adventuring outside of my comfort zone. While experimenting I was also able to make more
personal connections with the things I did enjoy writing about.
I moved the previous draft by incorporating more quotes from mine or other peers work.
Blog post 4: Although blog post 4 wasnt as important as most of the other post it still was
beneficial for my education. Blog post 4 allowed me to reflect on the feedback given to me, talk
about my experience with the peer groups and generate ideas, or questions that would help me
move my research along. Taking into account and utilizing the feedback given back to me was
my idea of being responsible for my own learning. In the post I took a positive standpoint on the
feedback given to me.

The comments that did take me by surprise though excited me. The reason for this
excitement was that there were still serious problems in my draft. Now I know that usually isnt
the feeling you should have when someone finds errors in your paper, but from my perspective
its like someone saying you still have room to grow.
Another positive thing in blog post 4 was the reflection I gave for the peer group
experience. Peer groups allowed me to gain new perspectives on ideas that I wouldnt have seen
otherwise. One flaw of peer groups though is that there isnt always going to be someone who
can challenge your perspective for the benefit of improving your mindset.
Blog post 5: I am very confident that blog post 5 was the most helpful assignment that I have
ever done, ever. While it didnt help me so much for the Visual Bibliography, this assignment,
coupled with blog post 6, were the game changers I needed to finish the Traditional Research
Essay. This assignment help me develop the idea for my thesis statement, narrow down my target
audience and who I would be writing to, and allowed me to collectively formulate my sources
into one big picture. Although I had done tons of research for this project I still didnt have a
thesis statement developed. This was a problem, because it kept my research at the surface rather
than being in-depth and narrow.
First I had to solve the problem of who exactly was I writing for. After seeking a
discussion with my instructor and a few classmates I was able to narrow down the audience I
wanted to speak to. Army veterans, disabled people, and rescue workers were the audience I was
seeking to speak to while writing my essay. After that I was able to create a thesis statement that
would give me the in-depth research I wanted to have in my essay. With a clear goal in mind it
was easier to sort and organize my sources into categorized groups, based on the audience I had
chosen to write for. This gave me an overview or big picture of my topic and allowed me to
understand how my sources related to it.
Visual Bibliography: This assignment was probably the most challenging out of the rest of the
assignment given in the course. The reasoning for this assignment being so challenging is the
process it took to completing the assignment. First Ill start off by mentioning my experience
with researching. Researching for me before this project was simple and fast. Type something
into google and pick the first three things that seem beneficial to you. After this project I now
understand that I must put large amounts of time into studying my topic and being able to fully
understand what exactly am I researching. After I was able to understand the basics I had to start
working on using proper annotating technique. This meant that I had to watch out for plagiarism
and making sure I was properly citing and accrediting things. This was a big challenge, because I
was never really held responsible for doing these things in previous reports. I knew I had a lot of
ground to cover when it came to this assignment because there was just so much information I
was learning about at one time.
*this is the point where you should have to switch to the Inquiry Project tab*

Genre Analysis activity:

This activity was helpful because it gave me insight in how
to rhetorically analysis my own work for choices that I am going to have to make. This took me

through a process where I have to identify the author of the text, identify his or her target
audience, analysis the purpose of the text, identify the 5 modes the author uses, understand their
appeal, and then consider what genre or sub-genre they are categorized into. This activity was a
great reminder for me because it reviewed the 5 modes of multi-modality, and revisited the terms
ethos, pathos, and logos. This post also allowed me to gain the knowledge to edit my own
writings so that I can specify these key points as well.
Blog post 6: As I mentioned in the reflection for blog post 5, blog post number 6 was one of
the game changers in my progress for completing my Traditional Research Paper. This post is
pretty much a long thought process I had while trying to narrow down my topic to fit the needs
of the assignment given to me. The first part of the blog post is my thoughts on the purpose of
my topic. I narrowed down the purpose of my essay to trying to show people what kind of
results we are getting from researching and developing powered exoskeleton suits and the major
possibilities for them in the near future.
The second part of the blog post is about formulating a thesis statement that covers all the topics
I wanted to include into the essay. Research and development of powered exoskeleton suits
should get more attention from the general public, because of the capabilities it has for adapting
to different situations.
Whole Life Concept Report: This assignment is from my 1201 Introduction to Engineering
Practices and Principles 1. This purpose of this assignment was help me develop my own plan
for the career path that I want to take. This assignment gave me more experience in writing in a
different style, allowed me to spend extra time researching my topic for my report, and allowed
me gain experience in editing and revising.
Conferences + Side-shadowing activity:
The conference meeting was very beneficial
to me because it set aside all doubts I was having about my paper. Allowing myself to read my
draft to my instructor and peers gave me the feedback I need to move my paper forward. Before
the meeting I was overwhelmed by doubts I had for my paper. I couldnt decide whether the
direction my paper was going in was the right direction or not. Thankful my instructor and peers
were able to give me enough constructive criticism (as you can see in the image that is below the
title Conferences + Side Shadowing=Brainstorming!) to be able to move my paper in the right
direction.
The side shadowing activity was recommended to me by Professor Ingram, herself. This purpose
of this activity was to help analyze my work, paragraph by paragraph, and then help me see if the
structure of my paper still works. Although I completed the activity on a separate piece of
paper, which is now long forgotten, I still appreciated the extra help this activity gave me on my
paper.
Traditional Research Paper: If this assignment wasnt last, or if it was due in a less strenuous
time of the semester I could have really enjoyed it. Now, dont think I didnt enjoy this
assignment but I was just super busy with the rest of my school work. The purpose of this
assignment was to research and express a topic of our choosing in a report or multi-genre project.
I decided to go with a traditional report because of the properties of my topic. With my topic

being exoskeleton suits I knew that doing a research report would probably be the best course
of action to take. With previous research done in the Visual Bibliography assignment I was able
to create a simple yet satisfying rough draft of this report. While working on the rough draft I ran
into one big problem that stopped all progress I was making on the paper. Was the direction of
my paper, the right direction for it? I simply couldnt answer this question on my own so I
relied on my peers and instructor to give me feedback on how my paper was fairing. With their
feedback I was able to complete a final draft of this paper.
Blog post 7: The purpose of this blog post was to give an overall rating of how my time was in
this course. I felt like this semester has been very good for me to be to expand and learn about
how to write again. This semester also taught me about my writing style and how I can improve
upon.
*this is the point where you switch to the Artifacts tab*
Only doing work that hasnt been reflected on, above.
Research Paper Draft:
I decided to choose my research paper draft as a processed work
because the difference between it and my final draft are evidence of how much revision and
thought was put into completing the assignment. This draft also highlights the key points I was
going after when I started off writing. A key thing to notice is that I completely took out the
second paragraph of the draft and replaced it with another idea. I didnt scrap the whole idea
though, because I knew it was an argument in which I had the advantage in.
E-portfolio Planning: I decided to choose e-portfolio planning as one of my processed work
because it was the first real outline I had done for this class. This outline was very helpful to me,
because I was able to formulate my thoughts out and gain an understanding of what specifics I
wanted to incorporate into the design of my e-portfolio. Although it didnt save, at the bottom of
the document was an explanation of my thought process on the design and theme of my blog.
Due to technical issues I wasnt able to recover that explanation.
Whole Life Concepts Proposal:
This assignment can honestly have the same explanation as
the Whole Life Concepts Report. This assignment is from my 1201 Introduction to
Engineering Practices and Principles 1. This purpose of this assignment was help me develop my
own plan for the career path that I want to take. This assignment gave me more experience in
writing in a different style, allowed me to spend extra time researching my topic for my
traditional research report, and allowed me gain experience in editing and revising that I didnt
have before.

Analyze and Explain:

As you can see/tell I have turned the key concepts I mentioned, any writing growth that can be
seen in my work, quotes/examples from other peoples work, and places where any of the other

previous ideas were mentioned, into different colors. The key at the top of the report illustrates
what ideas are in what exact color.
Key concepts: The key concepts that I chose to emphasize on in my work are independent
inquiry and curiosity, making connections, and being responsible for my own learning.
Although I highlighted other ones I would like to think that these are the main concepts that I am
practicing within in my writing.
Example of Independent Inquiry and Curiosity:
It should be our goal to expand our writing literacy because it develops students to be wellrounded in the different writing styles they will encounter along their college career.
Example of Making Connections:
Leave it up to fate to send impulses into my friends parents to kick their children out for
unreasonable reasons. Due to this situation and our increased hanging out, we all grew closer
together and became very dependent on one another for our happiness...After recalling this
experience I came up with the passion of helping others and being able to understand them.
Example of being responsible for my own learning:
First I had to solve the problem of who exactly was I writing for. After seeking a discussion
with my instructor and a few classmates I was able to narrow down the audience I wanted to
speak to.
Writing Growth: The growth that Ive had in this semester is satisfactory. I stuck with my goals
and was able to proactively pursue my own education and learning. I feel like I wasnt wasting
my time being in another boring class. I was involved in my work, actively researched my topic
even when I didnt need to, incorporated lessons and concepts into my writing, and stayed
consistent with my writing.
Three examples of writing growth:
-Putting in more quotes and examples from others work
-By working on different assignments and experimenting with different writing styles I have
cured my fear of adventuring outside of my comfort zone. While experimenting I was also able
to make more personal connections with the things I did enjoy writing about.
-Using Pathos, Logos, and Ethos in my writing

What I Deserve:
If I had to be honest, I dont really care for what grade I get for this course. Of course anything
above a C would be nice, but if Im really being honest, Im just happy with the growth and
experiences gained from this semester. College has taken me through an extremely crazy

semester that I dont looking forward to doing all over again in the spring. Now of course I
would love to earn a better grade then just a C, but I feel like that would be pushing it. Although,
personally, I think Ive grown a lot since the start of the semester, I dont think you can really
quantify progress into an actual grade. Some have tried to, but most have failed for one reason or
another. Ill be happy with anything I receive, but if I had to ask for a grade it would be
somewhere in the range of a low B.