William Webb

November 22, 2015

UWRIT 1103
Suzanne Ingram
Final Portfolio Essay
During my time in this writing class I have encountered multiple obstacles, many
problems I knew that I had impeded my progress in the course while problems I didnt even
know existed revealed themselves to me. Writing has never been easy for me. It is something that
I have had to work at extensively to develop. Four years of high school did little to help this.
Standardized tests were the only reason I decided it was necessary. Constantly receiving failing
grades in Advanced Placement courses made me think it was impossible to ever become a better
writer. After all, I am just one person. I can never become someone else. As such, I cannot truly
understand how others will view my writing. However, this class has helped me develop skills.
Of all of them, the most important skill which was reinforced was the ability to write more than
what I was comfortable with. This portfolio is the essence of the evolution. All of my final work
and the progression of the completed work is included.
Firstly, I will address the largest problem I have had with this class: I cannot understand
how to perfectly improve my writing. Even after the entire course, I have not learned how to
please the entire audience. I just do not know how to craft a form of writing that would appeal to
everyone. From an objective, scientific point of view; there is simply no way to do this. Each
persons mind thinks and perceives in a different way. Everyone has things they like and things
they dont like. People tend to believe they like things that are completely original. However, not

many people at all like things that are completely original. They only like something original if it
appeals to them specifically. Thus, some people hate what others love and vice versa. I cannot
find any way around this. Some peers who have read my papers have told me that they like
certain things about the way I write and others of them didnt like that at all. Logically, the way
to please the largest amount of the audience would be to simply not use the segment of the
disputed writing, but if this is done then part of what makes the paper my own disappears
completely and I might as well credit the audience as much as myself to the production of the
material.
In the veins of what I just said, Ive learned how to use my peers opinions and ideas to
change my own writing to appeal to a wider audience (though I dont know if this qualifies as
making the writing better). They have helped me see errors and areas of improvement that even I
myself agree with. I have learned to balance the opinions and ideas with my own and think
through what needs to remain and what needs to be done away with. I can now pinpoint things I
like in their papers and use them in my own. I have learned how to appeal to the audience on a
smaller scale, which I think may play a roll in learning how to please a large amount of people in
order to use writing as a form of persuasion.
In relation to what my peers think of my own paper, I do believe the developmental
stages have branched. I now think of myself as a more capable reader and critic. I can pick out
certain things about others writing that I wouldnt have noticed before taking this class. Before I
simply would have pointed out the grammatical errors and told them where they left out a word.
Now I can think deeper about what is being communicated to me and determine if it could be
made simpler or more complex. Im all around a more balanced and sequential reader and writer.

Moving away from the progression of the writing process itself, this class has taught me
how to develop essays and papers on topics out of my normal range of thought. One assignment
in particular which I will talk more in depth about later took me forever to figure out what I was
going to write about. This was more of a blessing than a curse due to the fact that while I have
written about subjects which I wasnt familiar with before; I had to decide what meant something
to me and then arrange it into words. This class has given me more freedom with what I wanted
to write than any class I ever took in high school.
I have noticed that when writing means something to you, it is exponentially easier to
write about than something that only concerns you as a grade. Such was the case with the
exploratory essay. I think I wrote the entire first draft in forty minutes. Given that I was writing
about the environment and how it worries me often, the words and thoughts seemed to pour
much quicker onto the paper than it would if I had made something up, which was the case with
most of what I wrote in high school. Being passionate about something generally implies that
you have developed thoughts on it before being assigned to write about it. This makes the
writing process go much faster.
My final writings have been written and rewritten so many times that some of the first
drafts may barely resemble the final. However, I dont consider this to be bad. I just think that
the first draft may have been very broad and not necessarily as focused as possible. The final
products are the results of hours of work and perhaps even days of mental effort deciding what to
keep and throw away. They are as follows:

Bibliography Sources
This was the first time I had ever done notes for a paper in a specific format. It helped me
out later on because all of the information was labeled in a specific place. When I actually started
writing the paper I was astounded how much easier it was. Most of the work was already done; I
just had to make it appealing to read.

Traditional Research Paper (Draft 1)

This was hands down the assignment I was least enthusiastic about. Another boring
research paper. As if I hadnt just spent four years writing nothing but research papers on stuff I
cared nothing about. This is exactly what happened with the first two drafts. I researched stuff I
cared nothing about and had no opinion whatsoever on, and the result was a paper that even I
thought was boring. However, after the conference meeting, I decided to do away completely
with the first two drafts and write what I actually thought about the energy crisis. The final paper
doesnt resemble the first two in any sort of way. Im actually glad about this though. It works
out well with the progression of the portfolio and is an excellent example of how much writing
can change when revised or rewritten altogether.

Bibliography
This is perhaps the most deserving of a spot on this list as any of these writings. This was
a true learning experience for me. Much like the research draft, it was an assignment that I did
incorrectly. Instead of making notes which I would eventually use to write the paper itself; I

wrote the entire paper as I found the information. Nonetheless, the reason I call it a learning
experience is because it further helped me understand what a draft actually is.

Exploratory Essay (1st Draft)

Probably my favorite assignment of the entire class. This was the first paper we were
assigned to draft in this class. It was very difficult to decide what I was passionate about. This
paper was probably the easiest and most difficult paper for me to write depending on how it is
approached. On one hand, I like the subject I was writing about and wanted to make it as
descriptive and understandable as possible. The beginning was probably the best intro paragraph
I have ever written on any assignment, and the following three paragraphs did a good job of
developing what I stated in the first paragraph. On the other hand, the second half of the paper
was hard to write and even harder to correct. I had a problem with making it personal. Part of the
paper involves me talking about evolution and change. Figuring out how to make this personal in
relation to myself and the audience was very difficult.

Exploratory Essay Comments

These probably doesnt need much explaining, but for the sake of the portfolio they were
comments written to me on the back of my exploratory essay. This was when I first started
thinking about how to make my paper more personal. Also it made me think about how obvious
it must have been that the second half of the paper did not reflect me very well since more than
one person saw it.

Sensory Detail assignment

This was a very different experience for me, but it was a very effective one. Actually
sitting down and writing out what I felt while writing the paper landed a more in depth
understanding of what I wanted to accomplish when it was finished.

Warm Ups
While this is not necessarily the most significant piece in the artifacts, completing the
warm ups for the class made me realize how helpful it can be to begin with a much less
demanding task before trying to write something in particular. I often begin with writing out
what I want to accomplish. Once I have in perspective what Im trying to do, the process of
writing becomes much easier.

UCOL Paper
This is my first draft for my final paper in freshman seminar. The person who wrote the
comment is a grad student at the writing center. This sounds rude, but now I know that I will
never go to the writing center. What I really wanted her to do was tell me if the quote in the last
paragraph worked because she said that quotes rarely work in closings. Instead of doing so she
looks at the last paragraph and asks me if I thought it worked. Of course I thought it worked,
otherwise I wouldnt have put it there. She told me other things too. Simpler sentences, check
citations, and dont use cliches were some things she mentioned; but most of that is stuff I have
been taught not to do. Once again, I was faced with lack of direction.

Writing Center comment

This was my first and probably my last experience with the writing center. It did not help
me at all and Im more confused about what to do with this paper now than I was before having
it reviewed by them. From here on out, if it cant be resolved between my professor and myself;
it isnt going to be resolved at all.
(End Artifacts)

Now that we have reached the end of the course; I can honestly say that I do believe the
work presented is worth a score in the 91-100 range. It was a difficult course to get through but
the challenges have made me a better all around writer. In particular I learned how to develop
more personal connections with the readers and make more of an impact at the end of the
writing. Being persuasive was never something I thought I was good at in high school. I dont
feel so uncomfortable with it now. Even though Im not particularly fond of writing; I have
enjoyed the class, the people I have met in it were sincere, and the critiques I received of my
writing was helpful. All of this has helped me to drastically improve my writing.