Holfield 1 Clay Holfield Ms.

Ingram ENGL-1103-036 11/20/12 The Final Portfolio

In the back of a small class of college scholars sat a first semester freshman waiting anxiously to find out how his first English course in college would begin. In this class were some of those who were already successful enough in their previous studies to have the opportunity to combine two English courses into one. Among those students there was at least one person who was not confident enough in his writing to think he would be able to keep up the pace of his peers and the requirements of his teacher. With the semester coming to end, this student no longer feels the same as his did on the first day. This classmate used assignments and new writing techniques to grasp confidence in his writing and, accepted the challenge to attempt writing in ways he never had to before. Through the works I have completed throughout the year I plan to show you how I, the formal student with no confidence in their writing, have grown into a more educated and skillful writer over the semester. There were two papers this year that stand out to me as the most beneficial to my writing progression this semester, One of those being the What its like to be you assignment, which was one of the first challenges given to our class to complete. Discovering our first topic was one I knew better than anyone else, I felt a little more at ease about what would become my first impression on our professor as a writer. As I began to write this paper I would soon see that even though I knew everything involved with the subject, it would take me testing out new styles of writing to efficiently explain what its truly like to be me. When writing my first draft I struggled to have detail and more contexts the readers could better understand and relate to this

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essay. After discussing this with our professor, Ms. Ingram, she suggested the use of internal dialog which was something I have not worked with too much in the past. I thought to myself how I would go about internal dialog and how could Incorporate it into my essay, then I realized it would take opening up to peers and become more willing to share on the reality that is my life. I began to add details I normally wouldnt to improve the paper and grasp the attention of my readers. I also took into account that I should use situations my audience could relate to; something I have never thought about before, but quickly learned this is a good technique to guarantee that your readers can understand you. I found inspiration for adding some flavor to my papers while reading Peace, Butter, and Jelly by David Seidel. In this book Mr. Seidel would be very detailed in his explanations of things, such as the food he cherished, and the places he lived. He was also very good with using in-text quotations to add a different voice to his book, I was able to feed off this while writing this paper, and would keep in the back of my mind the different ways I could add spices to a plain dish, just how Mr. Seidel would. After being informed through the peer work shopping in class that my argumentative essay was lacking detail and examples my readers could relate to. I began to find examples from past situations and stories told to me by friends to help better explain the viewpoints I was attempting to make. Adding detail has always been something I have struggled with. A combination of both detailing this essay along with my what its like to you paper I was able to practice how to add color to the black and white papers I am used to writing. I have become more confident in stretching out my papers with useful information and not something to only help fill space and not add anything beneficial to my work. Along with adding stories to my argumentative essay, I also needed to include facts that I had to research. To add this research to my papers I would need to be able to cite my sources for

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the data I had collected. In-text citations were something I have not worked with enough until this point to fully feel confident in their placement and formatting. After creating an annotated bibliography for this paper and going over MLA format and also in detail over In-text citations I was able to cite my sources for both my Argumentative essay and 3-sided essay with more confidence than I had before with past papers. After these works I have a much better grasp on Citations and how they work. This Argumentative essay is the second essay I believe was most beneficial as I mentioned earlier. I included two of my rough drafts for this essay to show the progression I went through with the editing and revising to this paper to bring it to its final edition, one I could be proud of. One paper I feel could still need more work is my 3-sided essay. This was the most difficult one for me to write, I struggled with being able to find adequate information to give both sides a level playing ground since the object was not a promote one hypothesis over the other. I also found it difficult to find a clear third side to my issue leading me. This paper was my least favorite of the semester, and the only paper I am not satisfied with my final draft. After collecting all my final work for this portfolio, and looking through all my drafts I could see major improvement from the first, to the final. Work shopping was helpful to my writing giving me a chance to hear from multiple readers where my papers needed more work. As I wrote in my midterm evaluation I felt as if I was getting better with my papers, but I still need more practice. Now that it is the end of the year I have a much better grasp on tools that are crucial for incorporating more information and more examples into my papers. I have also began to make skeletons for my papers, keeping me on task and my information in order so I dont lose my readers due to bouncing back and forth from ideas which was a common thing among some of my older papers Ive written.

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Through this semester we have been making advances towards putting together this final portfolio together, and give an assessment of our work over the past months. If I had to give myself a grade I would say I am deserving of a B overall. My revisions for all my papers were adequate and very noticeable if you look at the typed copies of my first drafts that I have included in this portfolio. Also I am confident in the final product of all my works, I feels as if I took the necessary steps to have them as good as I am capable of writing. My portfolio as a whole has all the main points I would want it to, but I was having difficulty loading some handwritten works I would have liked to include to show more of the effort I put in. With my class participation I feel I wasnt as engaged at the beginning of the year as I was at the end, I felt like I asked more questions and was able to give better revisions for my peers in our workshops. For my quizzes I feel I did above average especially all of the ones on Peace, Butter, and Jelly we took during the beginning of the year. At this point it is no longer what I can tell you as a salesman, but rather time to let my product speak for itself, I feel confident about this portfolio, and know I have gained useful knowledge of how to become a more proficient writer giving me good ground for the next four years of college, and even the rest of my life.