Contrary to normal-beliefs, evidence of growth is not always an extremely visible object measured by perfection; moreover, growth can sometimes

be measured by the change one has made from the beginning and end of his or her learning development period. Since August, I have had the privilege of taking responsibility of my own learning which is directly correlated to my enrollment in the advanced writing class here at The University of North Carolina at Charlotte. To show the growth and development of my learning, I have created an onlineportfolio to display the work that I have completed throughout this semester. To clearly show the progress of my writing, I have arranged my online-portfolio chronologically, and have included a second heading titled, final works, that will show all of the final drafts of the four main essays written throughout the semester. I believe this will make it not only easier to navigate, but also to clarify the magnitude and process of my growth throughout the semester. Throughout this semester, I have written and revised a total of four main essays along with an online blog and several other class assignments that were each on their own a step in my growing process. Working on these assignments throughout the year, my learning increased as the semester progressed. The very first assignment that was given was a free-write that was not going to be turned into the teacher. At first when I heard that our assignment would not be turned in for a grade, I had feelings of, what is the purpose of doing the assignment then? Looking back to that assignment now, I am very glad that I did decide to participate and not slack off because I truly see the progress that this spark lead to. This assignment was a quick-response to the question: what is inquiry, and the reason I have included this into my portfolio is to show the importance of inquiry during the semester and how it lead to my overall-growth. Inquiry is an important part of academic writing because it leads to a deeper thought process; therefore, widening not only

the amount of people that are willing to read your statements, but also your own understanding of the subject which subsequently leads to a better, un-biased opinion. The next piece I have included is the first draft of our first main essay this semester. I have included this draft because I believe that for someone to see the growth that I made it is imperative for them to see first-hand by comparing my first and last pieces of work. Our first, major, assignment was to write a response to the questions posed by an excerpt we read in class by David Seidel called Whats it Like to Be You?. The excerpt read, In all the classes I taught and business I conducted, the keystone of the relationship with my student, client, or reader was, Whats it like to be you? I continue to want to know, who are you? Can you tell me more? What is the stuff you are made of? You would be surprised how much learning you can do, even about yourself. The reason I have included this essay in my portfolio is to show you how my growth in learning took place. Not only was this essay the first assigned, but also the spark plug that fired my engine of engaged, critical thinking. The purpose of this assignment was not to truly get to know one another; moreover, it was to get each of us involved in our own writing, and to take initiative to grow as a writer. Because of this assignment, I believe that to grow as a writer you must first realize what your strengths and weaknesses are which can only be achieved if you truly know how to define what it is to be like you. This assignment was important because I was now starting to make connections with academic writing and the assignments we had been given thus far. This assignment made me take my own learning into my own hands which taught me the correlation between critical thinking and a more effective, precise argument. I have also included a cover letter that I completed to turn in with my second draft of my Whats It Like To Be You essay. The cover letter assignment was a page-long requirement that

we were asked to include on several different main assignments. The cover letter assignment would address several different questions correlating with the assignment that provoked your critical thinking and helped with my progress due to getting me involved in my own learning once again. An in class assignment was the next major impact of this semesters growth due to its huge effect on academic writing. This assignment was called, The Dos and Donts of Workshopping, and I cannot put enough emphasis on the importance of our peer-review workshops throughout the year. The reason I have included this as a main part of my semesters growth is because this assignment was the first time I had done a peer-review like these, and the fact that peer-reviews were the most important part of growing from each draft-to-draft. Even though I had participated in writing work-shops before, I had never been proactive by taking initiative and taking my own learning into my hands. This was an important step in my growth because I now knew that achieving the minimal effort required was not going to give me the results of progress that I were needed and I wanted to achieve. This assignment taught me not only the right ways to workshop, but also the correlation of importance and benefits in academic writing. I have also included the other first drafts of the four main essays throughout the portfolio that contain feedback written by various peers that will clarify how and why these reviews are beneficial toward making growth in writing. One assignment that was beneficial in many ways was the blog that we had to set up. I have included the URL of my portfolio so that anyone can look and see how and why this was beneficial because I included this due to the importance of it during my semester. A total of four different posts were assigned throughout the semester, and each one gave me a chance to either practice the techniques that we had been learning or work on developing more techniques.

It is surprising how so many different forms of teaching helped me progress throughout the semester. The next assignment that was helpful was actually a reading assignment in our book called From Inquiry To Academic Writing co-written by Stuart Greene and April Lidinsky. We were assigned to read pages 132 through 138 on how to evaluate sources, and the reason I have chosen this is because this excerpt gives you everything from how to search for sources to steps on how to evaluate sources. I believe this is an important attribute for good academic writing because a credible, efficient source is needed to help prove your argument. An annotated bibliography was another major assignment, and the reason this assignment was included is because it helped me find which source to use and help organize my information. The assignment was to find different types of sources that will add to your research for the inquiry question I had decided to discuss, and then the instruction was to evaluate each source and provide a summary. The reason it was helpful toward my growth is because it showed me the importance of using a bibliography and enabled me to use better sources subsequently creating better academic writing. The second, major, assignment was called the three-sided assignment, and the meaning behind this title is due to the fact that we were instructed to create a paper with all three sides of the argument to the inquiry question we each had diligently worked to create thus far. This was included because discovering three sides of the argument was crucial in the growth of my academic writing. This was because I believe that all sides must be mentioned in an argumentative piece of writing to fully educate the group of people in your intended audience. If you fail to mention all sides to an argument, it seems as though you are uninformed subsequently leading to a less-believable argument.

What is good writing? Can it even be summarized into something everyone can understand? When asked during a daily free-write what it is to be a good writer, I thought it would be easy to answer. As the assignment progressed, I found out exactly how objective the definition of good writing is due to the various answers from each student. This is included into my portfolio not only because it made me think of my own definition to what good writing is, but also because it gave me different perspectives much like the peer-reviews had helped my writing development. I think this free-write was useful because it taught me that the cookiecutter definition of good writing in high school does not make good academic writing. After this point in the semester, I finally saw a lot of connections and progress being made. Reading was once again used as an assignment to help guide us through our argumentative research essay that we would be creating soon. Our assignment was once again from the book From Inquiry To Academic Writing, and this time the assignment was from page 99 through 110. These pages referred to forming and developing a thesis, and the reason I included this in my portfolio is because I know the importance of a well-formulated, thought-out thesis to academic writing. This assignment taught me the different types of thesis and the steps to formulate a thesis with a certain persuasiveness that will argue your point more efficiently. The third, major, assignment was the research essay that we had been leading up to thus far. After forming several different theses, completing research, and an annotated bibliography, we were finally at the point where our argumentative research essay was ready to be put together. Using all of the previous techniques learned and my own definition of what good writing is, I formed my own research on the prolonged-use of vitamins and have delivered what I think is the best solution to the problem arising in our society. I have included the first

draft and final draft to show the difference not only between the first draft of my Whats It Like To Be Me essay, but also between the first and final draft of this essay. The fourth and final, major, assignment was this essay, and the reason I think that it is included in our assignments and included into the portfolio is to not only help the audience understand the growth process and how to navigate the portfolio, but also to teach each of us how much we really have grown this semester. Because of this assignment, I have realized how much I have grown and it has also made me realize how much easier the process of creating a final essay is now. My academic writing this semester has grown exponentially, and if I were to give myself a grade for this semester, I would award myself with a B plus. The reasoning behind this grade is due to not only my effort inside of class to help the discussions, but also the fact that I was prepared for class by having copies for my group mates when needed and completing the required reading during the assigned periods. I also believe that I deserve this grade because of the progress that you can clearly see through my portfolio. Even though I did not start or finish the semester as the best writer, I am now a stronger, more-confident writer and I believe that it is clearly evident. I have worked extremely hard to make every revision and gain when possible through each assignments purpose and it is evident that I display the ability and techniques to talk about how my growth happened which I believe is the biggest step in growing as an academic writer. I believe that this semester has taught me more than I thought possible due to the fact that it got me engaged in my own learning. I would say that if you could place a grade on my progress this semester I would award myself with a B plus. I can confidently claim this because

I feel as if I have participated and added to discussions to help out during class inquiries, and I think that I have done my part by being prepared and having the materials needed for each class such as copies for all group members and having completed the reading assignments. I also believe that this grade should be recognizable due to this essay that has shown not only you, but also me the progress I have made. You can clearly see the progress and connections that I have needed to make to realize how my growth process has become.