Alexus Westberry

Ms. Ingram
UWRT 1102-047
April 30, 2015

Final Portfolio Essay

I wanted to have a navigable website that somewhat reflected my style. The home page is
first, as it should be. I inserted two pictures that I were taken of me on a beautiful spring day onto
my page, because my readers need to know who is responsible for the madness they are about to
see right? I digress. After that, I left a very brief introduction. I did not want to say too much,
because I do not think that a long introduction to my e-Portfolio was necessary. I used the five
modes of communication without even realizing that I was when I was creating my website.

Visually, I wanted to find a layout that was simple, yet pretty. As many times as I had to
create a website on Weebly, I had never come across the layout that I chose. At the top of the
layout, there was a chunk of space dedicated to evenly structured, geometric-looking, almost
faded triangles. Of course, my immediate reaction was, Ooh, this is pretty. So I went with it. I
played around with it some trying to see how I could manipulate the image. There was an option
to change the color. It was more so a slight tint coating the already colored triangles. The color
options were a dingier version of yellow, red, blue, and purple. I chose the purple tint. Then,
there was another option to blur the image. I moved the meter all the way to the right and I did
not really like how it looked when it was that blurry. So, I played with it some more and finally

settled on how blurry I wanted the background image to be, and that a tad bit blurry. Fonts and
color are major parts of the design process, so I took into deep consideration what kind of fonts
and I colors I would use that would all come together and look neat. I think it worked.

Linguistically, I tried to keep my sentences succinct, for the most part, and use words
that I know the meaning to. I was not going to look up synonyms for basic words just so my
work would sound moreformal. I want to be reflected in my work. Outstanding words are not
a part of my vocabulary, so I was not going to pretend like they are. Also, by including nice
quotes about writing, I thought that would be a nice opener and something to keep in mind
before and while reading my work. I rarely used the aural mode of communication, because
I just did not think that it would add anything to my work or that it was even necessary in helping
me get my argument across. However, I did capitalize a few important words in my research
paper to hopefully make it seem like you could hear me saying whatever it was in real life. I kind
of wanted the capital letters to mimic my voice. The gestural mode of communication
was rarely used, if at all, during the process of me putting everything together. But come to think
of it, I wish there was a way you could insert iPhone emojis in the text, because they convey
instant messages, and they are just smiley faces and other objects. Lastly, I was aware that I was
considering the spatial mode of communication when doing my website. I do not like
clutter and too many words in one area, so I made sure to keep enough space between the
heading of the page and pictures and text.
When it comes to why I chose certain pierces of writing (or doodling) to include in my ePortfolio, I simply chose them, because in some way, they had some impact on my learning in

this class. I will begin with my blog. Having a blog was beneficial to my learning in more ways
than one. When I think of blogging, I think about someone talking about whatever they choose
to. This blog was something like what I thought, but instead of writing what I wanted to, we
were given prompts that actually contributed to by critical thinking in the class. Some of the
prompts would throw me off, in a way, so that required me to think deeper and ask myself
questions before I consulted with Ms. Ingram. The midterm definitely helped me with grasping
the key concepts and seeing which ones I needed to further look into and which ones I was
feeling confident about. That brings me to one of the key concepts that I enjoyed seeing happen
right before my eyes, which was making connections. When I was working on my annotated
bibliography/three column notes, I was making those connections between my ideas and the
articles that I read left and right. You know when you have an idea in your mind and you think
that you are potentially the only one left in the world with that thought? That was almost me. So,
when I came across these articles, it was revolutionary. In my head, I was like, Yes! That is it!
when I would read something that was exactly how I was feeling, just worded differently. For
example, before working on this research project, I would say all day long that reality TV is fake.
No one can tell me otherwise. When I read one of the final articles that I used for my three
column notes, I could have jumped through the laptop screen. Anna Klassen, the author of the
article I Was on Reality TV: Behind the Scenes Secrets of Faking Real Life, knew what she was
doing when she said this as her closing remark: THERE IS NOTHING REAL ABOUT
REALITY TV. She did not have it all caps, but I just wanted to emphasize that sentence. I felt
like the man of the hour after that. That was just the icing on the cake. I mentioned all of that to
say that making connections between things in this course was not difficult, it just required some
thought and research. Bringing all of my research together to form my traditional research paper

was quite fun. I was so used to just looking at my notes eager to let my argument speak for itself,
and I think it did. With the help of my group mates and their awesome feedback along with
NMs. Ingrams allowed me to mold and create a well- done paper. If giving and receiving
feedback in the class was not mandatory, I do not believe that my paper would be as sharp as it
is. It is always good to get that extra push and that little pat on the back to let you know that what
you have so far is good. My traditional paper and feedback response kind of go hand in hand.
They both helped me learn that I should challenge myself in my writing, because maybe I will
surprise myself and say something that I normally would not and it be perfectly alright to do so.

Processed Work Artifacts: They contributed to my learning, because they helped

generate ideas. When I do not have anything to say or I am out of thoughts, I
usually separate split ends on the ends of my hair shafts and doodle. You could
not see me separating my split ends, but you do get the privilege of seeing my

beautiful doodles.
Feedback Artifacts: Again, feedback was a major factor involving my learning.
The feedback articles that I chose were from my first group members and Ms.
Ingram. I included those instead of two from my group and two from Ms.

Ingram, because I wanted to show how they could be similar or different.

Writers Notebook Artifacts: Including those two pieces of writing into this tab
was a no-brainer. I chose two warm-ups that I thought showed my earliest
confusions and I could account for now. With research, I was able to go back and
answer all of those questions on my own, because that is really all it took to do

so.
Wildcards: The wildcards were definitely that. One was one of my doodles that I
drew when, of course, I was clueless about where to go next, and the second one

was an assignment that I did in my sociology class. The sociology assignment

absolutely had to be included, because when I was working on it in class, I was
thinking, What would Ms. Ingram have us do?, and with that, came answers to
the questions that were asked.
Personally, I think my writing had grown exponentially. I think outside of the box more
than I originally would have and I think more critically. During the middle of the
semester, I said that thinking critically was something that I was struggling with: The

key concepts that have proven to be the most challenging for me are
being able to think critically and providing feedback to my group members. For
my research topic, I would argue that I do not necessarily have to think
critically, because it is so vague. What was I thinking when I said that? It is
OK, though, because that was just a part of the writing and brainstorming process. As
long as I do not still feel that way, I am all good. Referring back to thinking outside the
box, this almost killed me, mainly because I did not want not want to do this out of my
stubbornness, but when I said As I try to put myself in the shoes of the

producers, a plethora of theories and reasons about why these shows

are constantly being produced begin to make sense to me. That was a
challenge for me, because quite frankly, I did not care as to why they do what they do if
they were not showing what I wanted to see. That is a tad bit stubborn. But, when I read
articles that talked about the reasons why, it made sense. I still do not necessarily agree
with everything, but I am not as one-sided towards the matter.

With all of that goodness being said and according to the grade scale, I think my
deserving grade would be a B. I followed the grading scale as best as I could without
becoming repetitive. I quoted from my work, but not enough to receive an A. Other than
that, I did everything that was required to receive a B.