Jenna Murphy

616 7th St. N. #202

Fargo, ND 58102
701-652-5538
jenna.murphy@ndsu.edu
December 6th, 2016
English Department
NDSUDept. 2320
P.O. Box 6050
Fargo, ND 58108
Dear Assessment Committee,
This letter outlines the pieces I have assembled for my English 458: Advanced Writing Workshop
Portfolio. I have included work from the course, specifically, My Ulysses and Me: Little
Things are Big Essay, Footsteps: Life, Literacy, and Change Personal Narrative, Overcoming
that Old Desire to be Helen of Troy: Blarg, Eggshells: Audio Essay, and Malabi with Orange
Brandy Sauce: Digital Writing. In terms of Additional Work, I have included my GSA Writing
Across the Disciplines Poster that I completed for Geology 467: Geoscience Communication in
the Summer of 2016, my Capstone Paper that I completed for English 467: Capstone in the Fall
of 2016, and my Usability Test Report with Instructions that I completed for English 455:
International Technical Writing in the Fall of 2016. I believe that I have been successful in
attaining Departmental Outcomes 1 and 7 as defined by the English department over the course
of my studies at North Dakota State University in my work for Advanced Writing Workshop and
in my Additional Work. Below, these pieces will be discussed in relation to the Departmental
Outcomes.
Outcome 1:
English majors will be able to write and speak effectively for a variety of purposes
My Ulysses and Me: Little Things are Big Essay required me to write and speak effectively for
a purpose I have never considered before. Because I havent written many pieces of a personal,
reflective nature in the past, this piece invited me to create an essay that captured a snapshot of
my life and expand on its meaning for myself and others. I chose to write about when my dad
would read the Iliad and the Odyssey to my brother and I before bed, in addition to reflections on
my mothers mental illness and my abusive childhood. I also touch on my literacy in this piece,
expanding on the Odyssey as a metaphor for people and events in my life. Given the personal
nature of this piece, I believe that it extended my ability to write effectively for a variety of
purposes, including very personal, reflective narratives.
The literacy narrative entitled, Footsteps, exemplifies my ability to write effectively for a
variety of purposes by requiring me to engage in another personal and self-reflective essay that
challenged me to think about my life, extend my understanding of literacy, and provide some

Murphy 2
connection between these elements as impetus for change in the world. I used the motif of
footsteps to lead the reader through the happenings of my life and to explore how my literacy,
in various forms, was developed. Finally, in terms of writing to change the world, I beg the
reader at the close of the piece to disregard the eggshells that prevent them from fully engaging
with life: Do not walk lightly on the eggshells. Do not walk carefully on the eggshells of
expectation and perfectionism. It is an illusion (Murphy 7). In order to reach the call for
change, I was required to interweave personal reflection with an understanding of literacy. This
piece helped me to write with the purpose to change the world.
English majors will be able to write and speak effectively for a variety of audiences
The poster entitled, Benefits of Writing Across the Disciplines Pedagogy in a Mid-Level
Geomorphology Course, demonstrates my ability to write and speak effectively for a variety of
audiences. I presented this poster at the Geological Society of Americas annual national
conference in Denver, CO, and needed to make adaptations to delivery and content that would
enable me to communicate effectively with an audience that consisted predominantly of
Geoscience professionals and students. For example, adapting to my audience required me to
think more about the expectations that Geoscientists would have for data presentation, including
the use of graphic, numerical displays. Figure 1 of the poster, Average Student Scores on
Embedded Writings, was created in line-graph format to provide a quantified visual of the
positive progression of scores over the course of the semester, instead of merely stating that
student scores had improved. Also, Figures 3 and 4 of the poster utilized bar-graphs and piecharts, respectively, to present a visual representation of the data.
The blarg entitled, Overcoming that Old Desire to be Helen of Troy, invited me to write
effectively for a variety of audiences by considering the broader audience of an argumentative
blog post. I have never written a blog post before, so I needed to learn not only how to work with
the interface of my WordPress site, but also what the wants and needs of my (potentially global)
audience could be. Due to the expectations readers of blog posts typically have, I incorporated
various images and a video to break up my text. In addition, I broke up my paragraphs and
thoughts into shorter sections that I would for a different audience.
English majors will be able to write and speak effectively in a variety of genres and media
The Eggshells audio essay displays my ability to write and speak effectively in a variety of
genres and media. I used a selective cutting from my Footsteps narrative in conjunction with
relevant sounds to create an audio composition. The sounds that I used with this cutting included
various sounds of cracking eggshells and the sound of ocean waves on a beach to effectively
convey the mood of the piece in various sections. In addition, variation in vocal inflection and
pauses as I read the text of the cutting contributed to the overall meaning and effectiveness of the
piece. For example, when I read the medical language detailing Borderline Personality Disorder
at the beginning of the piece, my pace gradually quickened as I read the destructive behaviors in
succession: Borderline Personality disorder is defined as marked impulsivity as indicated by
frantic efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment, chronic feelings of emptiness,transient,
stress-related paranoid ideation Then, when I read the criterion of severe dissociative

Murphy 3
symptoms, I slowed my pace to mirror the effects of disassociation on a person. These
adaptations contributed to the effectiveness of my audio composition.
My Malabi with Orange Brandy Sauce: Digital Writing also exemplifies my ability to write
and speak effectively in a variety of genres and media. This piece is my first cooking video and
required me to think creatively about my audience and how to communicate effectively in the
format of a cooking video. I needed to carefully edit and craft my video in this digital medium.
For example, I considered camera angle and lighting when I was creating this video to convey
my message. My creation of this video required an awareness of the expectations for the genre
of the cooking video.
Outcome 7:
English majors will develop professionalism exhibited in such qualities as self-direction,
cooperation, civility, and reliability
The completion of my Capstone paper and research demonstrates my ability to develop
professionalism exhibited in such qualities as self-direction, cooperation, civility, and reliability.
Throughout my Capstone course, I was required to take the initiative in completing the IRB
paperwork for my research, including initiating contact and gathering information through email
and phone calls with personnel there. I have also needed to be reliable in several ways, including
attending regular meetings and completing necessary tasks, such as revisions to my project
proposal and paper draft. In addition, I needed to be civil and cooperative with my mentor by
receiving constructive criticism and making modifications to my research approach. Overall,
during this semester I needed to approach my mentor relationship with maturity. A project of the
type that I was undertaking required me to behave in a professional manner.
English majors will develop professionalism exhibited in such qualities as care in editing and
presenting a final product
My Usability Test Report and Instructions required me to develop professionalism exhibited in
such qualities as care in editing and presenting a final product. The Usability Test Report
required me to very carefully conduct a usability test, then analyze the data from that test, and
finally, produce an IMRAD report outlining my findings. Because the IMRAD format was new
to me, I needed to make careful revisions to this draft that were informed by several meetings
with Dr. Maylath. One of the changes I made because of these meetings was the addition of
various charts and graphs that better communicated my data in terms of a specific method. Dr.
Maylath suggested using a Likert scale to present my test subjects ratings of the quality of the
final product. Because of this suggestion, I created Figure 6 in my report to visually represent
this specific data. I also needed to be very careful in presenting each section of the report, due to
tis rigid nature. For example, I needed to keep my results, which were objective in nature,
separate from my conclusions, which allowed me to infer and correlate problems with potential
solutions. These considerations impacted the presentation of the final product as I strove to
promote the overall navigability of the document in terms of document design.

Murphy 4
Process:
My process has been greatly impacted by Advanced Writing Workshop. The process of drafting
and receiving feedback in small groups, from the instructor, and during authors chair has been
very helpful to me. I have always enjoyed getting feedback on my work, but in this course, I
have been reminded of just how valuable I find that feedback to be. Sometimes, my group
members encouraged me to pursue a theme or aspect of a piece that I was questioning. At other
times, my group members have helped me to see that what makes sense to me in my writing may
not make sense to others. Overall, in all the forms of feedback I have received, I have been
impressed by the fact that when one person makes a particular comment, usually a similar
comment will be voiced by others as well. I have found that sometimes it is just best to accept
the comment instead of trying to explain or justify what the comment refers to. As they say in
law, convergence leads to confidence. I have learned that the same holds true for feedback and
revisions in writing: If one person finds something problematic or inspiring, others likely will
too.
Admittedly, I have also found the digital writing process to be more taxing than drafting for the
other (non-digital) pieces. If I were to be fully honest, my lack of digital skills and previous
negative experiences with such assignments has probably impacted my perspective on digital
writing in general, so my comments here might be more reflective of my experience than that of
other students. I have never created an audio file or video for coursework before, so I did
appreciate all the assistance I received at the Quentin Burdick Building and from the instructor.
Without this help, learning how to use various programs necessary for completion of my
assignments would have been overwhelming. At the same time, I think it is important that I
mention I am very happy with the final products I created for digital writing in this course.
Strengths:
One of the strengths of my writing is the thoughtfulness I bring to the drafting process. I try to
think about what a reader would want to know or what they might be thinking as they read my
work. A few years ago, I developed the motto that writing well means being nice to your
audience. In other words, this motto applies not only to giving the reader what they need or
want to know but also writing in a way that leads the reader through the content of a piece.
Personally, I have experienced some writing that feels more like an assault on the reader than
kindness. I strive to give my readers the latter in my writing.
Another strength I perceive in my writing is my ability to subtly interweave various elements or
motifs to create deeper meaning in a piece. As I have worked on pieces for Advanced Writing
Workshop, I have become more aware of my desire for the reader to leave the piece with
material for reflection and deeper consideration. For example, both in my Eggshells Audio
Essay and in Footsteps, which was its source text, I combined readers ordinary experience of
eggshells or footsteps to ask the readers to consider deeper questions about societal expectations
and mental health.

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What I Want to Work on:
Sometimes, however, these strengths can also lead to some of the aspects of my writing that I
would like to work on. I would like to continue to work on keeping my writing more succinct. I
often struggle with length. Although I think this struggle is common among writers, I, too, find
that I would much rather write a longer than a shorter piece. The struggle to work within a
prescribed length has presented a unique challenge to me this semester, but I also believe that I
have worked to overcome this difficulty by more thoughtfully crafting and refining my ideas.
The Summary assignments helped me with this struggle by causing me to condense substantial
amounts of material into 5-7 sentences.
In addition, I would also like to work on allowing myself more creative space as I draft. One of
the greatest gifts of this course was feeling that I had flexibility to experiment with my writing
instead of feeling pressured to intuit what the instructors expectations were. Because we had
opportunities to draft and revise, I felt more freedom to be authentic and try new approaches in
my writing. With my Footsteps piece, for example, I experimented with different endings and
adapted some of my language choices regarding literacy so that my composition became a more
natural and real expression of what I was trying to convey. Also, when creating my cooking
video, Malabi with Orange Brandy Sauce, I felt that I had the freedom to experiment even if
the video was not as polished as I wanted it to be. It was difficult for me to let go of my
concerns that my compositions wouldnt measure up to instructor expectations, but the course
and grading format helped me to explore a different kind of drafting process.
The following link leads to my online portfolio: www.jennamurphyblog.wordpress.com
All my Advanced Writing Workshop Portfolio Pieces can be found under the menu item on the
homepage of the site that reads, English 458: Advanced Writing Workshop.
Thank you so much. Its been a great semester.
Sincerely,

Jenna Murphy