McGann 1 Kerri McGann Marni Troop English 101 Tuesday, December 10, 2013 Portfolio Reflection Over the

course of the semester, there has been a spotlight placed on my academic writing skill. I began the semester strong, hard, and fast. I learned the importance of understanding an assignment fully and finding fuel and drive in order to complete your best work. Much like writing speeches, it is important to choose a topic or, if provided with a prompt, to explore the subject in depth and correlate it to personal interest. One thing I really enjoyed about this course was the step-by-step process that the assignments built for our benefit as students. While many of the assignments were ungraded and less formal then what would normally be expected, they contributed heavily to the overall quality of the work that I was able to develop. I would never have thought to create questions as brought up in the Whats at Stake assignment that forced me to consider the interest of my audience and who outside of myself takes interest in the question I was asking. This information will help me in the future as I continue to improve my writing skills as I will be able to be more thorough in my responses. Because of this, I will devote more time to smaller scale assignments that I now know how to draft into my process and apply to the final product. Understanding the amount of revisions it takes and how to find a credible source has become extremely clear to me. This aspect has already begun to assist in the quality of work I provide for classes outside of English 101. For instance, I took this course last semester, and as I wrote my portfolio reflection felt that I had not so much as made a dent in the improvement that I needed to be enduring within my writing and comprehension of research skills. Finishing this course, with its improvements to the curricula and the assistance of the professor, I feel confident

McGann 2 in my work. I would take another course with Professor Troop and will recommend the course further due to her influence in building strong scholars. As a writer I have been able to recognize some of my weaknesses for what they are rather than what I have idealized them as. For instance, at this point in my last course I would have denoted that I have difficulty with grammatical correctness and comma use; I now recognize that, while I still need to improve in that area that I have grown as a writer. Instead of the basics, I now see writing not for the word choice, grammar content, or other small areas, but instead as a collective unit. I have noticed that when friends and colleagues ask for my critique or a read through that I am more effective in assisting their writing then I was in the past because grammatical errors have become more obvious as to the manner in which they take away from the overall piece and distract from the quality of the work. When reading articles of scholars and in papers, I have also noticed the same things as well as the level of interest and how the author has proven himself credible and interesting or on the other hand, where that is lacking and how it can be improved. This also ties into critical thinking. At the beginning of the semester I categorized myself as a creative thinker, who could think critically, but would rather tie it into creativity rather than dry research. I have managed to find a happy medium and begun my endeavor in successful utilizing creativity with research execution, and critical thinking tied into opinion. While it is not demonstrated in this reflection, I have become much more comfortable writing outside of the first person viewpoint. Recognizing a public view and being able to step outside of oneself is critical for high quality and operational writing. My writing expansion during the course of semester has allowed for personal critique based on how I view the world. I have found that I am beginning to step into the actual world instead of seeing it through rose colored glasses.

McGann 3 Some of the more difficult portions I encountered within my processes this semester were that motivation I mentioned in number one. When conducting my research I ended up having to change my entire concept which was discouraging, but coping with the complications was a necessary evil. I was able to overcome these difficulties simply by making minor shifts and continuing to talk to my peer scholars on what I could do to incorporate the passion I share with this topic and morph it into a newly similar concept. Working alongside of my peers and being evaluated was extremely beneficial to my work. Although it was often brief, seeing the work of others and noticing their weaknesses helped to highlight my own strengths and keep me motivated even when receiving strong feedback on my own work. As a peer reviewer, I felt that I had a little bit of an upper hand having taken the course before, but I tried to be as helpful and positive as possible because I know how disheartening it can be to have a paper that was constructed meticulously picked apart piece by piece. If I could subtract anything about this course it would probably be the due dates. Yes, this is an unrealistic statement, but hey, Im a college student and I feel as though if the expectation was to have all the assignments due at the end of the semester, students would be more inclined to do their work as they have time. As a hybrid course it would be interesting to see how this aspect would go over. I feel this way more for research purposes than anything else. If I am being honest with myself, I would most likely turn everything in within the last two weeks of the course, but it would be a learning experience over procrastination.