Rachel Nakshian

Mrs.Kusinitz

Writing 104

22 January 2018

Summative Portfolio Reflection

This course has been a wonderful learning experience and has really helped me to perfect my writing

style. In this class I have been able to explore different types of writing and learn how to critic and be criticized.

Now that the course is at it’s end, I have produced three substancial, coherent, and organized writing projects. I

feel as though I have made great improvement upon all the URI learning outcomes throughout this course. The

first being my understanding of the rhetorical situation and utilizing feedback in my writing. The second being

my exploration of new styles of writing and ability to conduct and use research. The third being my revison and

editing to meet the English standards of each assignment. Lastly, my understanding of the readers needs for

each genre of writing and use of citation. Overall, I feel as though I have improved greatly in all aspects of this

course.

The initial struggle I faced in Writing 104 was with our first assignment, the memoir. Unfortunately, my

memoir was in fact not a memoir and did not fulfill the rhetorical needs of the assignment. While my writing

was neat and cohesive, it was lacking key elements. During our critic, many of my peers pointed out that I

should try “using more emotion” or “incorporate sensory details.” After re-reading my writing I realized they

were right. A memoir is supposed to focus in on one moment and the reader is supposed to be able to see and

feel everything the author saw and felt in that moment. I aided this by enhancing the part of my memoir that

described my Christmas concert performance. I added sentences such as, “As I looked upon the enormous

crowd, I felt cold beads of sweat form and rise to the surface of my skin. My sight soon became hindered by the

tears beginning to well in my unbelieving eyes.” and “I felt my raging nerves begin to retire, as my teary eyes

cleared back to their usual warm hue of chestnut.” By adding sentences containing sensory details, I was able to

satisfy the rhetorical needs of a memoir. I showed my physical reactions in the moment and gave readers a taste

of what I was feeling in that moment. Additionally, during discussion, another student pointed out how my
“memoir” lacked focus and spanned over the course of many months, when it was really supposed to focus in

on one moment. In order to fulfill this rhetorical requirement, I ended up restructuring my memoir entirely.

Instead of telling the story of the moments leading up to the Christmas Concert, I focused in directly on the

moment of the performance and flashed back to these prior moments instead. This made my piece into less of

an essay and more into an actual memoir. This showed an exact moment, while still showing how I got there

and why I felt the way I did. Restructuring and adding the sensory details that my peers recommended, helped

my to form a strong, descriptive piece of writing that fulfilled the rhetorical requirements of a memoir.

Being someone who had never written a profile before, this assignment came as both a challenge and an

enriching learning experience. I learned a great deal about gathering research, analyzing it, and synthesizing it

throughout a piece of writing. At first, I found this assignment to be a struggle. I had no idea how I was going to

write an in depth description of a girl I had never formally met. I was not entirely sure how to perform research

and my first interview lacked direction. After analyzing many different profiles in class and seeing how well

renowned authors conducted and utilized research, I began to grasp the concept. I noticed how the interviews

we read in class focused on a particular facet of their subject’s life and most authors observed the subject first

hand to gain perspective. Following these guidelines, I was able to conduct a number of focused interviews,

while still leaving the questions open ended. I decided to focus on my subject’s passion for both art and science

and how the role each plays in her life. By asking questions like “Where and what do you see yourself doing in

ten years?” and “How do you balance your interests so well?”, I was able to capture my subject’s multifaceted

personality and gain insight to the parts of her personality that most would not know about her. I used the

examples provided in class as a guide of how to incorporate evidence. This helped me to expertly synthesize

evidence into my piece and seamlessly blend quotes from my subject. My teacher, Mrs.Kusinitz, confirmed

this: “I think you strike a good balance here and use your research thoughtfully to make your point.”

Additionally, I learned a great deal about the importance of observation. I didn’t understand the significance of

observation before, but this project opened my eyes to how much it can enhance your writing. During my

observation I was able to gain insight on how my subject acts around people she's comfortable with and observe

her art first hand. Just by listening to the conversations between her and her peers, I was able to write an
engaging introduction, that served as a perfect transition into the main theme of my profile. Through this

assignment I had the opportunity to explore a new style of writing and learned how to skillfully collect and

incorporate research into my writing.

The revision and editing of work has been a prevelant aspect of this course. The emphasis on revsion has

given me a chance to see how helpful this learning outcome truly is when producing a piece of writing. In

english courses I have taken in the past, assignments were usually done at home, without any in class revison. A

really helpful aspectof this course was the oppourtunity we were given to collaborate with other students and

recieve feedback from multiple people before handing in the final copy of an assignment. In particular, when

writing the memoir, we workshopped every single persons paper as a class. Not only was I given the

oppourtunity to recieve feedback on my work, but also to help others edit and revise theirs. Before class we

would prepare by reading each paper at home and leaving comments and editing out any mistakes. Then, the

next day in class we would discuss our comments for each paper with the entire class. Additonally, when

writing the profile and the investigative report we edited our papers in small groups, which also allowed for us

to recive feedback from our classmates. This not only gave me a foundation on editing and revising peer’s

work, but it gave me a chance to learn how to fully utilize contructive critisim. After having these workshops in

class, I would often have to rewrite my paper entirely to make it meet the conventions of standard englishes.

Whether it be rearanging paragraphs or sentences, or just editing out grammar or spelling mistakes, their was

always a significant amount of revision done before handing in the finished product of each writing piece.

Overall, I think this course taught me a great deal about the importance of editing and revision amd provided me

with skills I can utilize throughout the rest of my academic career.

One of the best parts of this course was the variety of genres and styles we explored and the different

conventions and citations that came along with each style. Most of these assignments explored topics and styles

I had never written in before. Each assignment gave us an in depth look on reader expectations for three

different genres. A prime example of this is the investigative report. Before this class I had written research

papers, but never a true investigative report. Writing this paper introduced me to a new genre with an intricate

set of conventions. When writing this paper I learned a great deal about citation. We did both secondary and
primary research, which required me to learn how to cite a multitude of different sources. For our primary

research we conducted interviews with school officials and an internet survey for students. For our secondary

research we mostly pulled from online news sources and informational websites. I had never cited a survey,

interview, or online news paper before, so from writing this paper I gained a skill set in the conventions

necessary to write a true research paper. We did both in-text citations and bibliography in MLA and APA. I

learned how to do in-text citations and how to write a works-cited in APA, which were both things I have had

very little experience doing. Overall, writing the investigative report gave me a chance to learn the conventions

and citations necessary to write a well informed investigative report.

This course has helped me to create a solid foundation with each of the URI learner outcomes. Overall, I

feel as though I have a good understanding of the rhetorical situation and have taken a lot out of the peer editing

sessions held in class. Additionally, I have had the opportunity to explore a wide variety of writing styles and

have learned new ways to gather and utilize information. Not only that, but I have learned the importance of

editing and revision when producing a piece of writing. Futhermore, I learned a great deal about a variety of

citations and how to correctly utilize evidence in my writing. I have gotten a lot out of my semester in Writing

104 and am excited to use the skills I obtained from this course in future writing assignments.