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Romeo
Michael Romeo
Ms. Ingram
Writing 1101
3 December 2014
A.
It would seem that in the short period in which I posed those questions
regarding this class about a month ago, I could now confidently answer all but, one
of them caught my eye. When I asked the question What qualities do you look for
in a good writer, I did not truly understand the depth of this question until recently.
For this question has no simple answer nor does it have a direct one. It would
appear that, at least to me, all the qualities that the writer does not have separates a
good writer from great one. To elaborate on this thought, let me pose a question. Is
there such thing as a perfect writer? You will quickly retort will a simple no. But
why is this? Perfection is something only achieved by a God, or someone who knows
everything. To tie this back in to my original question, the one quality, in my
opinion, that goes in to the creation of a great writer is knowing what he/she does
not understand, and having the ambition and drive to improve on that goal. Over the
coarse of the last month, in this class, I have gained the ability to understand my
weaknesses, and except them for what they are. But knowing is half the battle. I
know am at a period where I am working diligently to correct the mistakes of the
past in my literary career, be it punctuation or spelling.

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B.
When looking at the various key concepts that are important to having a
healthy and active habit of mind, I feel that all of them are important in their own
way. To me, I found that thinking critically could have a huge impact on how these
concepts are implemented and how they can be used collectively as opposed to
individually. Thinking critically is an important concept to practice not just in this
class, but also in ones daily life. Using this skill allows one to obtain the great depth
of knowledge hidden in the world around us. When this skill is not being used, yes
you may think, allowing you to do daily tasks, but you miss out on the intertwining
dimension of thought and reality, something that can only be obtained by looking at
situations critically; where your mind is empowered to wonder and explore. But one
portion of the habit of mind that I still have troubles with today is being able to go
beyond the boundaries of my comfort zone. For I would imagine that a lot of people
encounter difficultly going beyond what they know and exploring the new. This is a
scary feeling to most, including me, but I know that it is necessary to be successful in
not just college, but life. Collectively all the many concepts of the habit of mind can
lead one to a happy and healthy life. The hard part is being able to apply them.
C.
In the journey I have betaken in writing the various assignments in the class,
my writing has undergone a lot of changes some good and some bad. But I believe
that noticing the different views on something is an important skill to have in life.
Take for example, the first paper we were to write for this class depicting our first
literary experience. When I was in the process of writing the first draft, I found

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myself in a vicious cycle of writing and revising. One quote from that paper that I
really like, was when I was concluding my English career through sixth grade. I
wrote To this day, whenever I find myself in a position of confusion when writing a
paper, I think back to that class, and what it has taught me not only as a writer, but a
student in the external classroom of life. This quote symbolizes the change I went
through as a writer in my early stages, and it has a great meaning to me. But in the
final paper I was to hand in for this assignment, I wrote one quote that really, in my
opinion, had great depth to it. In the end of my paper I was to hand in, I wrote this,
For what I had learned transcended the boundaries of writing, and incorporated
itself into my daily life. Talking about the lesson of finding myself in my own
writing, this quote depicts the copious intertwined skillset that is needed in creating
a great piece of writing. Overall, in the various drafts that I have made in this class,
going into the revision process with a diplomatic mindset, has given me great
success. Just being able to understand the different points of view that my fellow
peers had has transformed my paper into something that was good to something
that is great.
D.
I choose Adrea Moores E-Portfolio to rhetorically analyze for the simple
reason that she understands her target audience, in this case students and teachers.
She, the author, understands her audience, and does an amazing job of conveying a
simple-to-understand purpose in her portfolio. She does this by not hiding but
visualizing her growth as a writer, a quality few and far between. All of the writers
choices work, in the sense that she is able to convey the fact that writing is not

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perfect, letting everyone in on her journey as she becomes, in my opinion, a great
writer. In terms of Aristotles appeals, she does an exquisite job of harmonizing
pathos, ethos, and logos. Appealing to the full spectrum of people viewing her work,
it seems that she is able to compose her audience perfectly, intertwining logic,
emotion, and ethics. I view this E-Portfolio as a rollercoaster, in the sense that she
immediately captures my attention, and I take the journey of her personal growth as
writer with her. This journey is made very pleasant by her great ability to
incorporate multi-modality into her writing. Between the wonderful diction,
beautiful visual appeal by the meaningful pictures used, and spacial justice done in
this E-Portfolio, she encapsulates all the important qualities necessary for a writer
to be great. But for the genre of this masterpiece, I would not say it is just an E-
portfolio, but rather self-improvement. This genre makes more sense to me because
she is able to take through the process of her writing improving, something that can
be used by all students struggling in this area. With that being said, I would deem
this E-portfolio as extremely successful. Being able to help someone through your
own work is a true quality of success in my opinion.
E.
As of the midterm, I have a B in this class, and I believe it is rightfully so. In all
honestly I do not think I am currently working at the level of exemplary. For this is
the case for multiple reasons. But foremost I believe it is for my lack of detail and
explanation in my work. This is something I have always had troubles with through
out my literary career, and I continue to work hard at it today. When this course
concludes in a few months I will hopefully be working at an exemplary level rather

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than an above average one. The difference between the two of these levels of
work, to me, will take some polishing up in various areas but I firmly believe it can
be done with hard work and ambition. Overall, I think my current level of work is
good, but it can be great. With that being said I will work diligently to achieve my
goal of an A in this class. And I think that will not be as hard as I am making it out to
be if I do all the assignments and complete all the readings. For Writing has been my
nemesis for far to long, and I am willing to make it a friend.