Colin Jennings Ms.

Ingram English 1103 27 November 2012 Portfolio Essay My first writing class in college has been intriguing and insightful to me as a writer. I have learned many new techniques to writing different types of genres. As a first year student, it is difficult to adapt to the college way of life. Adjusting to new responsibilities is not only hard but also demanding. However, with these challenges came opportunities to expand my knowledge in a higher education. In my writing, I developed more efficient and fluent writing styles. In my opinion my writing style has changed dramatically from the last English class I took. I write with better structure and fluidity. My papers stay on topic and present the idea I want to get across to the audience. Most of these qualities in my writing have been developed over the duration of this semester in my English class. Over the semester, I have worked on multiple types of papers that have expanded my experience as a writer. Though, I can say I have learned many things through writing this semester, how can you truly believe me? Well, I have put together evidence to show my progress throughout the semester. When starting this paper, I wanted to start with my first writing assignments, and then show how I progressed throughout the rest of the semester. The first few weeks spent in class were directed towards the main theme of the class which was What it means to be healthy.

We focused on the quality of what we wrote and not on the quantity. This was very important to me because I always focused on the amount that I wrote and I always forgot about the quality of my work. This kick started my improvement in my writing. When our first paper was assigned, I already had that idea grounded into my head. The paper was called What its like to be you where I had to write about what it was like to be me, obviously. My first draft that I wrote was very good. I used my experiences that I have lived through to explain who I am. After peer editing and teacher revision, I noticed that I had missed the point of the writing assignment. I wrote a great paper about what it was like to be me but I didnt connect my past experiences to who I am today. I included the notes written on my second draft from my teacher explaining what I had done wrong. This was when I realized that my paper had missed answering the prompt completely. My final portfolio includes some of the notes that my peers gave during our revising period. They advised me to add a picture to illustrate how drastic my back surgery was. I took this into consideration and added a before and after picture of my back. I wanted my audience to see this because I wrote a good amount about my back surgery. I wanted people to visualize the impact it had on me. In my final draft I added a few paragraphs at the end that, I feel, really tied my past to my present because my experiences have really shaped who I am today. I didnt notice that when I wrote it at the beginning of the semester because I still didnt have the fundamental writing skills that I have developed over the semester. Our second assignment was an annotated bibliography which was just a list of sources that I had to summarize to use for a research paper. The hardest part about this assignment was actually thinking of an inquiry question to research. To start off, our teacher told us to

write about what inquiry really means. I included this in my portfolio because I thought that understanding what inquiry meant was very important for this research assignment and it helped me all the way to the argumentative essay. I said, Inquiry is when someone asks questions that no one else asks Instead of looking at the surface of a topic, inquirers indulge in deeper, more mature thought. I thought this really explained what inquiry was and explaining it myself helped me create a question to research about. I chose to research about the overuse of antibiotics. This topic was very useful to me because it interested me and it related to my major which helped me understand the topic even more. During this assignment, I learned that effective research can make all difference in writing a great research paper. The first draft of our annotated bibliography only required three annotations but those three annotations were very insightful for me. I learned so much about my topic and had a clearer understanding of what I was going to write about. In my portfolio, I included my cover letter of my first draft because that was when I grasped my topic really well. Not only did I understand my topic thoroughly, my research also showed me the type of work that I would be doing when I graduate from school and enter my career. This assignment showed me the relevance and importance of successful research. After researching our topic, the next assignment was to write about the different point of views that people had towards the topic we chose. It was called a 3 sided assignment and this paper gave me an in-depth look at the academic conversation that was happening around my topic. I found this assignment to be very intriguing because even with the research I did, I never bothered to research what peoples opinions were on my topic. It gave me a new perspective on research papers because not only can you research facts and data but you can

research the ideas people hold on the topic. These opinions can be just as valuable for a research project, especially if you are writing an argumentative essay. The 3 sided essay taught me to look at every side of an argument from every possible point of view as possible because the more understanding of the opposing sides, the better you will understand the topic and its issues. This was the perfect assignment to prepare me for my argumentative essay. The paper that I wrote was well written. It covered all the sides that I could research the most and I explained each one very well. After revising and peer editing most of my peers thought I explained each side extremely well and they could understand my topic without even reading anything about it. However, there were some things I missed. For instance, I gave great feedback on opinions of doctors, scientist, and pharmaceuticals, but I failed to add important facts that could support their arguments. I felt like I needed to add that peer revision into my portfolio because after that I added more facts into my paper which gave the audience both opinions and facts to back up my sources ideas. The addition of these statistics gave my paper more credibility and highlighted the severity of my issue much better than before. The 3 sided essay gave me enormous insight into writing about peoples ideas and opinions. This assignment helped me greatly when I was forming my argumentative essay as well. The last writing assignment we completed was an argumentative essay on the topic we researched. This assignment was the easiest for me to write. I had done so much preparation work for this paper that it seemed to be very easy to write. The only challenge I had with this paper was finishing the conclusion. I wrote a compelling argument but I just couldnt seem to end it. I had a conference with my teacher and she really helped me think of good ideas to finish my paper. In my final draft, my conclusion gives consumers suggestions to keep

themselves healthy and keep antibiotics from becoming resistant because of their misuse of them. I thought this was a great way to end my paper because my audience was the consumers who purchased antibiotics. My argumentative essay was very well written because of the work I put in throughout the semester. As you can see, I have worked extremely hard this semester and I have plenty of evidence to back myself up. I can tell that my writing has improved from the very beginning of the semester up to now just by reading through papers that I wrote earlier. Even with all the work I have accomplished, I still dont think I deserve an A. In some places I have been somewhat lazy, like forgetting to write cover letters for papers. If it were me grading myself, I would give myself a high B because I have put in very good work and I have shown great progress throughout the semester, I just havent put in enough to be an exemplary student. I think some of my papers could have been better if I put more effort into them, but since taking this class I have taken great steps to becoming an even better writer. I hope to continue to grow in my writing and become an excellent writer by the time I graduate.