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Michael Faulkner
Ms. Ingram
English 1101
October 1, 2014
Midterm

Relating back to the first blog post on the 20th of August, we were directed to ask any
questions we had in relation to this course. Out of the ten questions that I asked, most of them
were already answered for me in the classroom course outline/syllabus. One of the questions
that I asked was: What are the main key concepts of this class. These can be found on the first
page in our syllabus, right underneath the course description, which also talks about the
importance of the class. My next question was: What is the importance of ePortifolios and how
are they more beneficial than hard copied portfolios. I knew the answer to this question when I
first began creating my weebly site. These sites are not only very user-friendly, but they are also
unique and creative ways for us as writers to showcase our literacy. One last question I asked
was: What are the goals set for each individual in this class, and how will these goals make us
better writers? I think as individuals we all have different goals as readers and writers; some of
us want to become better at analyzing work and reflecting on it, while others are focusing on
how to expand their vocabulary and develop their own sense of writing. Overall, I believe as
UWRIT-1101 students, we are trying to discover our own literacy and grow as new readers and
writers in the world to better ourselves in our work of study.

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Listed on the first page of the classroom syllabus are 9 key concepts set for this class. (1)
Critical thinking (2) Independent inquiry (3) Responsibility for your own learning (4) Curiosity
(5) Getting out of your comfort zone (6) The writing process and revision (7) Providing and
receiving feedback (8) Making connections (9) Intellectual growth and maturity. Just from the
first month and a half, I believe that I have grown in all areas of these key concepts, especially in
the responsibly of my own learning. This UWRIT-1101 class has somewhat opened a door in
my world of literacy and has allowed me to discover new ideas of reading and writing. Some
areas I believe I need to work on are the concepts of: escaping my comfort zone and providing
feedback during peer workshopping. I have always been kind of to myself when Im learning,
but as I began high school and moved on into college it has been easier for me to get out of my
comfort zone. As a writer, I never really understood the correct way to workshop another paper,
but I hope to grasp this new learning curve and apply it to all of the pieces of writing that I write.

Writing the Literacy Narrative was somewhat challenging for me. I never really had to
think about who I really was as a writer and what defined my literacy, most of my literacy had
been covered up by research papers and analyzing pieces of literature. I began my first draft
explaining how I first learned to read and write and how school, religion, and how the people in
my life affected my literacy. This draft was sort of sporadic in the way I worded my sentences,
and I felt that it was too draw out over a period of time; really I needed like fifteen pages if I was
going to write it this way. For example, I wrote: In this narrative I will examine myself as a
reader and a writer and answer these questions that rationalize ways I have become
literate today: When did I first learn to read and write? Who or what defines me as a
reader and a writer? How have I matured throughout the process of learning to read and

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write? This style was just so clich and overused by my academic writings; I had to make
a difference. Before I began the second draft, Ms. Ingram had us visualize a time in our life that
has greatly influenced our literacy; something that has affected us greatly in all ways of life, and
at that time it clicked in my head what I was going to write about. This second draft was going to
be about my experience at a church camp and how Jesus Christ has changed my life. I definitely
enjoyed writing this draft because it had a lot of meaning behind its words, and I believe that my
faith is something that will always be with me. In my attempt to make this draft more interesting
and engaging, I sort of wrote in a conversational style and added some extra punctuation: It
was the last day of camp, and I woke up that morning feeling so excited and energetic, and I
was enthusiastic to get to work for the last day! I felt changed! Then in the third draft, I
used much more conversational writing and I tried to allow the readers to visualize the great
experience that had affected my life, and because of this conversational style, I was able to draw
in the readers attention and thoughts. In writing the final draft I hope to possibly include some of
my first draft back into the writing and talk more about literacy.

The sample ePortfolio I chose to analyze was sample number seven. The first thing I
thought in my mind was wow! This portfolio was really organized and it was very attractive to
the reader! In relation to the rhetorical triad, this portfolio was a great representation of the
connection between author, reader, purpose, and context. Lindsey, publisher of sample
ePortfolio #7, uses detailed structure and explanation of how she has grown as a writer; showing
all of her work in embedded files. She organizes her drafts into separate tabs, which creates
somewhat of a separation and uniqueness between each piece instead of entitling one tab under
Writings. On a more negative note, I believe that she could have included a little more about

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herself and her accomplishments on the home page. I think that the overall purpose was to show
and highlight her work over the past year and draw out the importance of the things she had
learned in UWRIT-1101.
This writer used many modes of communications throughout her website and in her
designing and publishing. One important mode of communication she used was the Spatial
Mode the arrangement was very nice and the organization of her writing made her portfolio
very navigable and creative. She also used the Linguistic Mode in many of her pages, making
the information more attention-grabbing and creative in the way it was written out. Her
website was also very visible in its design and purpose. This allowed the reader to examine how
the author progressed over time in her drafts and what suggestions were made to her that helped
her figure out some ideas to better her paper. She used other modes of communication like
pictures and personal interest, which was illustrated on the first page when the author was
describing her interest in photography.
As I try to figure out the overall genre of this piece, I try to see what the overall
context/purpose of this draft was. In my opinion, I think the genre was overall an informative
and reflective exemplification of what the student had learned in UWRIT-1101 and how they
have grown in general in their literacy. As for rules of this genre, I think that the assignment was
more of a free-hand publication, or somewhat of a way for each of us to create a unique way to
show off our work and the skills we learned. Some limitations were: completing the tasks listed
in the weebly site assignments and blogs (which were really easy), and being careful in including
derogatory information (which no one had a problem with). Overall, in summarization, I believe
that this sample weebly site was a great example of a successful ePortfolio, because it not only

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shows the uniqueness of the author in her work, but it also explains the ideas and skills she had
learned in class and how she had applied it to her works of writing.

My grade in the class I believe to be at least an A or B. I believe that I have exemplified

a great portfolio so far, and I hope to continue to create a more completed and well-informed
portfolio as the next semester continues. I think that I need to work on publishing each of my
drafts into the portfolio to show my growth in my writing, and I also would like to return back to
some of the blog posts and maybe elaborate more on my responses. I might play around in
editing the design of my website and try to figure out better ways to organized the portfolio.
Overall, I consider my portfolio unique and creative, and I have confidence that I can make it a
successful portfolio by the end of the year!