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Question
Purpose
The final portfolio gives you an opportunity to reflect on everything you’ve learned so far this term. Your performance on this task will determine the biggest portion of your grade for the course.
Audience
Your audience for this project is me. It’s often helpful to think of your whole portfolio as a persuasive text. Your thesis is that you are a better writer than you were when you began this class. You’ll need to use all you’ve learned about rhetoric, writing, description, finding information, and analyzing to show me how much you’ve mastered.
Organization & Format
Your project should be double-spaced and typed in 12 point, Times New Roman font. Please include your last name and the page number in the top righthand corner of each page. Include this heading on your cover page and ONLY the cover page:
Your name
Instructor Name
Course and section
Final Portfolio
Due date
***Following the cover page, please include your work in this order:
Reflection Memo
Project #1 – Narrative
Project #2 – Profile
Project #3 – Rhetorical Analysis
Project #4 – Research Paper
Your portfolio should include approximately 25 pages of polished writing (3-4 pages for the reflection memo; 4-5 for the narrative, profile, and rhetorical analysis projects; 5-6 pages for the research paper). The profile, rhetorical analysis, and research paper must each have a Works Cited page.
Assessment
The portfolio is worth 70% of your overall grade. I will be using rubrics on page 2 and on the back cover of your Work in Progress book for evaluation. Be sure to consult these rubrics as you work on your reflection memos and revisions.
Failure to turn in the portfolio on time will result in an F. There will be a zero-tolerance policy for issues like incorrect/inaccessible file formats, uploading the wrong file, and things of that nature. You must plan ahead. Failure to turn in all four of the major assignments or the reflection memo in the portfolio will also result in an F.
Please be sure to upload your file in an accessible format (.doc or .docx or .pdf; preferably a Google Doc). Also, please name your file using the following conventions: lastname-FinalPortfolio.
Answer
My course in English 101 has helped me to improve my listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills in English significantly. The course has made me to be more prepared for my encounter in college because it has enhanced my meta-awareness on contexts, audiences, and different genres in the college. The course has also helped me to be more aware of the culture in the college through improving my critical thinking skills. I feel that I am now more reflective in my thinking processes compared to when I joined the college. The collaborations and discussions with my classmates as well as instructor have helped me to develop my writing skills in different areas of writing that include term papers, rhetorical analysis, narratives, research papers, as well as profiles.
I enjoyed the exercises that we were put through when we were learning how to write narratives. Working in groups to investigate the various aspects of narrative writing helped me to improve my creative skills. I initially viewed narratives as simple writing stories. However, the course has enabled me to learn that narratives are not merely accounts of our everyday experiences but also an expression of creativity in the use of language. Narratives have to be written in a moving way so that the audience’s attention is maintained. Besides, one should write based on a point of view. Having a point of view will restrict the writer to a particular topic as opposed to wandering through different themes. The feedback that I have received from my instructor and fellow classmates on my narrative assignments have helped to further build my knowledge and writing skills. I have learnt that it is important to establish the purpose of writing a narrative because it helps to restrict the writer to a specific point of view.
In my initial narratives, my instructor insisted on the need to be more specific with my views. I realized that I was general in my narratives because of lack of organization. In the course, we have learnt various ways of organizing narrative essays. One must have a clear purpose and point of view. The purpose of the narrative forms the thesis statement at the end of the introduction paragraph. From the purpose, one can develop arguments that helps in exemplifying their points. Being a narrative writing, one has to use language that has been carefully chosen and artful. I reinforced the aspects of narrative writing through constant practice. I would write different types of narratives and get my classmates to review them for me. That has helped me to internalize the various aspects of narrative writing that we have been taught in class. I feel that I can now handle any type of narrative writing comfortably.
I have also gained significantly from the profile writing exercises that we have had in class. In my initial exercises, I could not comfortably pick the important information on a person, place, or thing. To me, every information was essential and I thus ended up having a long profile feature. Writing a profile feature has been a problematic area to me since I always drift and write a lot of general information on the person being featured. However, I have through constant feedback from the instructor that writing a good profile entails filtering out the most important information about the person being featured. For example, if one is writing about a footballer, much of the information in the profile should be related to their career in football. Other aspects of the footballer’s life should be mentioned only if they exemplify the information on his/her career. To master the aspect of picking out important details form a person, place, or thing, I will have to engage in further exercises. I also learnt that conducting an interview is an important part of profile writing. Through interviews, a writer can request for specific information that they desire from the person being featured. Profiles are mainly used by journalists.
Writing rhetorical analysis essays was also a problematic area for me. Most of the exercises that I did were not up to standard because on what the authors of the story wrote rather than how they wrote the story. I learnt that the key to writing a good rhetorical analysis is focusing on how the author puts across their story. I learnt that most authors attempt to draw the audience to identify with their arguments by creating an appeal in their stories. The same tactic is employed when creating commercial videos, films, and advertisements. In rhetorical analysis, one of the major tasks was to identify how the author appealed to their audience by investigating the strategies that they used in their writing. I learnt that in writing a rhetorical analysis, one also has to build their essay by first having a thesis statement and the identifying the main points of appeal to build up on the thesis statement. The rhetorical analysis has to be supported by secondary sources to gain academic credibility. In one of my rhetorical analysis assignments, I drifted from discussing the strategies used in the commercial to relay the message to discussing the secondary sources that were meant to supplement the main arguments in the essay. I am putting in a lot of effort to improve more in writing rhetorical analysis essays. However, the knowledge that I have gained from the exercises have helped in further enhancing my skills and knowledge in writing.
The English course has helped to significantly improve my knowledge and skills in research paper writing. This is an important area because answering other assignments in other courses requires the knowledge and skills in research paper writing. The instructor has engaged us in numerous activities that have helped in strengthening my knowledge in doing research and reporting through writing. Just like in narrative writing, I learnt that research paper writing must also have a purpose. The whole research paper revolves around the thesis that has been developed. Apart from the thesis statement, I learnt that every paragraph has to start with a topic sentence that is in support of the thesis statement. The topic sentence is then validated by a secondary source reference and examples. I also learnt that a research paper should include a counterargument just before the conclusion. It gives a chance to the audience to get an alternative view regarding the argument.
The English course has helped me significantly to improve in my writing, speaking, reading, and listening skills. I have particularly made tremendous progress in writing narrative essays, rhetorical analysis, profile features, and research papers. My instructor and fellow classmates were an important part of my learning process.
