Amanda Wacker

Stark
ENC 2135
Dear Ms. Stark,
This portfolio displays evidence of my mastery of material taught during this course.
Evidence cited will be drawn from the investigative field essay and its accompanying annotated
bibliography, the rhetorical analysis and the multi-modal project. By showing the invention and
reinvention processes taken and overall content mastery I hope to demonstrate my growth in
understanding how to develop and effective piece of writing, locating and evaluating research
materials for things such as credibility and bias, and using strategies such as interpretation,
synthesis, response, critique and design/redesign- to compose texts that integrate the writers
ideas with those from appropriate sources.
The first assignment that demonstrates my mastery of these goals is the investigative field
essay. This essay was in investigation into what it was like to actually major in biology what
could be expected of me in the upcoming years. To being this investigation, I searched FSUs
library databases for peer-reviewed articles to use as background research. I collected seven
sources that were credible and accurate from these databases. I found supplemental information
from searching the internet blogs for some biological scientists who talked about what their day
to day life in the field was like. Using the information gathered during this process, i wo.
Because I want to conduct research, I decided to interview people who were conducting research
at every level. I interviewed an undergraduate biology major, a graduate biology student, and a
current professor at FSU. I soon discovered that my set of questions were not enough to give a
well rounded feeling of what life in the major of biology was like. I ended up asking questions I
had not planned that were tailored to each person based on certain responses I was given to my
previous questions.
Bringing the information gathered from research and information gathered from
interviews together was not the easiest of tasks. I had never done an essay in this type of format
so I was weary on the type of tone to use and where certain information would fit in the best to
make a cohesive essay. Going through the drafting process, peer reviews and one-on-one reviews
helped clean up any discrepancies in my writing. Peer reviews gave me the most insight into
what needed to be cleared up or expanded on. Using feedback from peer review days, I tweaked

my essay to give it a clearer, stronger message. The difference in the strength of my conclusion
from the second draft to the third draft is noticeable.

Below is the conclusion used in my second draft:

Below is the conclusion from my third draft:

As you can see, I developed my ideas more fully and separated sentences that touched on
different topics into their own respective paragraphs to create a clearer divide of concepts.
The rhetorical analysis essay was an assignment I felt the most confident about. I had
studies rhetoric in high school so I already had some familiarity with the concepts of logos,
pathos, and ethos, that was further developed in this class. The rhetorical analysis gave a new
twist on applying these concepts with in how they function in different genres. Finding genres to

compare is what gave me issues. Originally, I planned to used an article published in a medical
journal and a table found in a different medical journal. When I began doing the T-Chart
comparision invention activity I ran into some problems because they were both arguing the
same thing and were both mostly text based. I decided to keep the article and find a replacement
genre for the table. Considering my topic was cloning, it took a while to find a genre from a
credible source since most things that came up were religious groups demonizing the cloning
process or science-fiction groups theorizing about the process. I came to TIME Magazine cover
from 2001 that made a different argument from the article and gave me more pieces to analyze
for rhetorical appeals.
Through this analysis, I used new my understanding of evaluating research materials and
used my understanding of rhetorical appeals to analyze how the author created an effective
argument. In this excerpt, I analyzed how the speakers credibility was established and used to
strengthen claims she has made in a published peer-reviewed medical journal.

This analysis also allowed me the opportunity to apply concepts of theme and design
concepts of various genres to help understand the purpose and goal of the authors rhetoric, as
shown in this TIME magazine analysis.

The final multi-modal project provided the opportunity to understand how to respond to
different situations and contexts that call for purposeful shifts in formality, design , medium and
structure. During the invention process of this project, I realized that the genre I had chosen

wasnt the best one to deliver an effective argument as shown in Journal 7.

Having complete control to mess with every aspect of the websites design made me
really think about my possible layout options and why I should place a certain piece of
information here rather than a link or take into consideration why I should use this color scheme
versus a brighter color scheme. Understanding the conventions of a certain genre combined with
an understanding of the discourse communities I would be reaching into gave me insight on how
to set tone and design elements through the project to appeal to the people present in both
groups. These projects allowed me to demonstrate my growth as a writer, and my understanding
of topics taught to me as a student. I firmly believe Ive reached all the course objectives
mentioned at the start of this course.