Portfolio Reflection Essay

Regarding the writing program goals, the portfolio of pieces that I’ve produced this semester have allowed me to work on every single one. In Unit 2, I worked on my pre-writing process the most as we had to create a chart of sources and analyze them as preparation for the paper. Through this, I learned about selecting sources and understanding if they would fit the criteria as well as provide a substantial basis of analysis. As such I chose my 5 sources across the media bias spectrum and developed a staple of my pre-writing process.

My actual writing in the process included many goals of the writing goals, namely 1,2,3,8,9. In both unit 1 and 2, I was able to learn about a topic and communicate what I’ve learned on it. In Unit 2 for example, this goal manifested itself in my expression of conveying bias in the media through learning about bias and my communication of the techniques used by media. My analysis in the following sentence about bias in headers is an example of this: “Fox News on the other hand uses the header to quickly shift attention from the celebration to the disgust at Bill de Blasio with ad hominem quotes, which shows their reluctance to talk about the day’s Indigenous Peoples’ Day festivities.” I also learned to balance out the language and content of my essay to fit my writing style as well as the criteria for a good grade expected by the audience. In Unit 1, I learned to confidently asserted my stance on an argument and put into practice defending it; “The concept of achievement culture has been plaguing America more and more for the past decades and it is now that we are seeing the ramifications.” was my argument I was making. Goal 8 was hard to tackle due to the nature of the evidence required for each unit however I did use a combination of websites, research papers and online newspapers to gather evidence in units 1 and 2 as can be seen in my works cited for them. My critical reading skills were especially tested in Unit 2 to ascertain bias strategies used and analyze them. I used my critical reading and analysis skills in “In addition, with the NYT, the use of quotes and order of information pushed the idea of a celebration of Indigenous Peoples’ instead of protesting Columbus day.”

I learned that peer revision was a necessary step in upgrading from the first and second drafts to the final drafts for me, a new addition to my process than in high school. In Unit 3, I learned the most from peer review as I had to upgrade my piece to sound more angry and emotionally tense when I thought that I had already done a good job of that. Fresh sets of eyes revealed that that wasn’t the case. Thus through working on dramatizing the essay, I received a higher grade because of it. I believe I actively participated and listened in class discussions as well as through conversation about my paper topics with my peers. The following sentence was formed because of anecdotal evidence gathered from a conversation in class: “From anecdotal evidence, gone are the days when one was asked “Are you going to college?”...” To improve our papers, I’m grateful to have practiced the Bishop peer review method as I understood how to improve others’ papers in a specific way which helped my own. This paper as well as the weekly journals and by-paper reflection papers have helped me to consistently self-assess my strengths and weaknesses as a writer.

To finalize my paper, I made sure to cite everything properly as well as write a reflection paper on it to assess my improvement and shortcomings as a writer in that paper. To meet goal 6, I worked on MLA citing my sources in units 1 and 2 as it was necessary for academic honesty and conveying results of research and quotes from articles. I learned about citations’ necessity in properly conveying the evidence for my claims in both units 1 and 2. Lastly, by paper reflection papers have helped me to self-assess myself as a writer constantly which helped me to grow.

Since the start of the semester, my writing abilities have grown and I’ve become more confident in developing an argument as well as writing personal essays. At first, I was only used to academic writing and looking at writing through the lense of literary techniques and structured papers but Unit 3 was a refreshing step into the personal realm of writing. I think that my strengths as a writer lay in argumentative pieces as well as through descriptive and narrative writing and poetry. I had the most fun doing those units, I did Model United Nations and debate in high school and I already wrote poetry. I plan to continue with writing poetry and argumentative/policy works in the future of my college career as well as read pieces in these genres. Through the sessions of peer review, I realized that I have to work on accurately portraying critique into improvement in my papers as well as being concise with my words and analysis. I think that having direct and impactful writing is an important life skill to learn as it correlates to more powerful oral communication. Revision has been an integral part of my writing process as I’ve taken a multitude of corrections from my peers and professor and turned it into a final process. I’ve strengthened my idea of my writing voice and balanced that with my corrections to still achieve maximum marks.

In the future, due to the nature of my field, I would strengthen my writing through presentations and graphics to help conform to the understanding of the audience as well as make the information easier to digest. Exploring the modes of communication other than writing would be an interesting addition to the class discussions, considering the diversity of majors in ENGW-1111. I met the writing goals for myself through discovering my writing process and developing my voice as a writer. I gained an idea of how to do each paper through discussion and questions to peers and my professor as well as active listening in class. Then I wrote a rough draft and developed my paper to its final product through peer revision and corrections, working on balancing my writing voice with the goals for each paper throughout. Throughout this semester I experienced growth in my writing process and in the future, I plan to solidify my process and get a writing partner to keep improving on my writing in the future.