Project 4: Electronic Portfolio

    I have learned far more than I thought I would in this English course. I entered this class thinking that as long as my purpose was clear, my sources were cited, and my essay was structured I could produce “good writing”. I was just touching the surface of writing and can now reflect on how little I knew. Writing is complex to say the least.  In the past 6 weeks I have developed critical thinking skills I didn’t think I was capable of. The apprehension I demonstrate no longer leaves me questioning why I am completing these time consuming assignments or why it is necessary to integrate certain abstractions within my writing. I now understand the variety of things that need to be considered when creating a piece of writing. The audience of who you are writing to sets the scene for so many factors; what type of rhetoric would be effective and to what extent, the medium and mode of which to deliver information, and even the style of vocabulary that should be incorporated. I took my knowledge further upon topics I felt I already had a strong grasp on such as rhetorical strategies and supporting claims with evidence. I knew the difference between pathos, logos, and ethos, but wasn’t exactly sure when to rely on one more than the other. I also knew to give credit to the creator of a piece when using additional sources for support in a paper, but I had never thought to rely primarily on my voice over the facts. I was just focused on meeting the source requirement. In the time being, I also gained an understanding of discourse communities and how they function, as well as a new definition of genre I had never been exposed to before. I had never heard of a discourse community until this class and quite honestly I did not understand it whatsoever in the beginning. I now know a discourse community is simply an unofficial group of people that shares something in common such as a field of work, interest, team, or a class. These groups communicate information among one another about their goals, interests, findings, achievements, and more in the appropriate manner of their community. There are countless discourse communities within society that work together to accomplish something. If someone had asked me six weeks ago what I thought genre was I would have first asked whether we were talking about a book where I would have answered fiction or nonfiction, or a paper where I would have said  persuasive or informative, both having subcategories. I did not know genre could be defined as being related by subject or category. I had never thought of the distributing form of information as a genre. Furthermore, I am now able to strongly distinguish between a summary and analysis in accordance to all that each has to offer. A summary tells what is happening while an analysis touches on why and how. Analysis demonstrates much more critical thinking than summarizing does. All of these topics have allowed me to drastically improve the quality of my writing as I am now able to demonstrate a greater comprehension of what it is I am trying to accomplish and how I plan to do it. I am also able to explain why I made these choices in the construction of my writing. 

    While revising my project one I took the feedback Ms. Brooks provided into consideration to get me started on the process. I had received an A so there wasn’t a ton to be done to the piece, but there was definitely room for improvement. I first edited sentences that had left the reader questioning whether they understood what was being said. I reworded things to make the point covered more obvious. I also moved some sentences around as a more thorough analysis was available for some things in different sections of the essay. If there didn’t appear to be a better spot for the sentence that I wanted to include I provided more analysis on the matter.  While editing my paper I made sure to discard information I felt was repeated continuously through the paper too. Lastly, the biggest thing I changed was the interview account paragraph. The section had originally been a question and answer type scenario which did not allow for the best analysis. The interviewees were also addressed by their names which is far too informal for a research paper. So I instead decided to summarize the questions and answers in a more deliveratory way. This was done by thoughtful reorganization and the disregarding of unfocused discussion. The interviewees were also only recognized by their profession which is much more appropriate for this type of writing. Overall I feel the revisions I made make the points mentioned in the paper more central and effective in the way they are presented. 

    The reflections, revisions, and activities I have done demonstrate what I have learned in this class based on the fact I have maintained a high A the entire semester and frequently receive positive feedback on my work. I go into great detail of my understanding of things and apply my new knowledge to assignments I complete following. The selections, artifacts, I have included in my ePortfolio support these claims because I received praise for my understanding and application of the concepts. This is evident in the sections that were highlighted by Ms. Brooks on my "From Summary to Analysis" and "Supporting Claims with Evidence" activities. As mentioned earlier I gained a much stronger understanding of these two topics and became aware of the most efficient way to apply them. One one assignment she commented, “I’ve highlighted parts of your analysis that are particularly solid” and on the other she said, “I highlighted the parts of your response that I thought were especially insightful:)”. Both accounts indicate I was grasping the concept at hand.