Marshall 1 Nicholas Marshall English 1102-051 Prof.

Ingram 30 January 2013 Portfolio Essay After completing English 1101 my first semester of college, I went into English 1102 with a negative mindset about English classes. My first English class at UNC Charlotte left me not wanting to take another English class because of how boring it was but to my surprise I actually enjoyed most of my English 1102 class. With the specific thematic question of what does it mean to be healthy? this increased my interest in the class because I am concerned with living a healthy lifestyle. This question allowed me to use one of my interests and apply it to my work throughout the year. Some of my work included the WILTBY essay, midterm reflection, an annotated bibliography, and an argumentative research essay.

One of the major aspects of my portfolio was how I decided to organize my work on my Weebly page. First, on my home page I placed my completed portfolio essay. On my following page I used the W hats it like to be me essay, starting with my drafts, and finally ending with my final draft. Next I will have a section for the research assignment that will include the outline for my argumentative research essay, following

Marshall 2 the rough drafts, and then the final draft. After, I will have the annotated bibliography for the research paper. The next assignment that I will have a page for is the midterm reflection; this section will begin respectively with the outline, rough drafts, and the final draft. After the research section will be a page for writing works that I chose to include such as journal entries, and other assignments that show my growth and improvement as a writer throughout the semester. Lastly, will be a section for my weekly blog entries. The organization of my portfolio will clearly show the progress I have made with my writing skills.

From the numerous assignments I have finished like things from weekly blog posts to the argumentative research essay, class activities such as workshops greatly helped better my writing. The workshops and essay conferences were the most successful in improving my writing process and editing my work. They allowed me to get my peers opinions and gave me information what I needed to work on for my next draft. The wide range of opinions helped me analyze and break down my essays to develop a better draft each time.

Each time I strived to improve a draft of an essay, I focused on the eight key concepts we learned in class. These concepts include the following: critical thinking, independent inquiry, responsibility for one's own learning, curiosity, risk-taking, the writing process and revision, providing and receiving feedback, and intellectual growth

Marshall 3 and maturity. During my revisions of the WILTBY essay, I mainly expressed the independent inquiry, critical thinking, and providing and receiving feedback concepts . This critical thinking concept was displayed during the body paragraph where I discussed the mental aspect of my life. I go into detail about my personality and how I think in certain situations, this is best shown when I state, My personality can be polar opposites; I can be outgoing and sociable but sometimes I will be observational and even anti-social at times. This was great explanation of my personality and how I react in social situations with others. Some of the key concepts of the class were also evidently demonstrated during my argumentative research essay called, The Truth about Dining Hall Food: Healthy or Unhealthy. In this essay I clearly showed use of providing and receiving feedback along with a responsibility for my own learning. When I was being giving feedback in a group conference, I was advised to add more personal experiences with UNC Charlottes dining hall food. One of the experiences I added was when I was eating lunch at the RDH dining hall on campus and I chose to eat a grilled chicken and rice concoction. I went further into detail when I tasted it and could tell that the food choice that seemed to be healthy was overwhelmingly greasy and salty. This personal experience helped back up my thesis statement that dining hall food was not healthy.

Marshall 4 Looking at my writing from the beginning of the semester to the end obviously shows what my strengths are in writing and how I improved my weaknesses . From the start I was always great at explaining things in detail and providing examples to back up my thesis statement but I lacked in having a great introduction and conclusion. My strength to give examples to assist my thesis statement was best displayed in my argumentative research essay. I supported a statement about a high sodium turkey sandwich by adding that a consumer nearly eats half of their daily sodium intake in one single sandwich. An additional strength that I exhibited is staying on topic when writing. My focus with an essay is presented during my WILTBY essay especially in my paragraph explaining the physical aspect of my life. I stay on topic with the paragraph because I begin writing about myself and my family, then transitioned into what I did in high school; finally I conversed about my college life. This paragraph was on topic because all the features that consist in my physical life encompass that aspect .

My weaknesses in my writing were improved when I gradually began having better introductions and conclusions with each draft and essay I completed . During my Midterm letter, I created a fake scenario to begin a conversation about my experiences in English 1102. I chatted about how my younger brothers last high school years were going. I smoothly transitioned the introduction to a more informational tone suggesting that I was going to advise him what I have been learning in college and what mistakes not to make during these times. As I improved my weaknesses, I successfully

Marshall 5 attempted to move towards my goal of having more of an attention grabbing introduction. Also I made an effort to wrap up my essays with a conclusion that stressed my ideas and opinions that I put forth throughout an assignment . My efforts to succeed in these writing goals were visible when I summed up my life in my WILTBY. I used a descriptive explanation of how my life could be at any given moment by saying, My life can be stressful, hectic, crazy, fun, and many others but I would not change it for anything. This statement precisely answered the question of what my life consisted of on a daily basis and ultimately answered the main inquiry question of whats it like to be me.

Overall, the semester I spent in English 1102 was a great learning experience that has undoubtedly prepared me for future writing assignments and notably my major in business. Writing and the ability to communicate ideas and opinions to others plays a key role for my future career in the business field. The effort and progress that I have exemplified in my work is the reason why I believe I deserve the final grade of an A for the class. Also I have achieved in expressing the courses main concepts in my all of my work because I always kept in mind what the concepts were and I used them in all of my essays. Additionally, I kept a constant concern in the thematic question that is, what does it meant to be healthy. Not only did I acknowledge the importance of this question for the entirety of my assignments but the question also made my writing better than usual because of my interest in the subject. The grade that I should certainly

Marshall 6 receive is an A primarily because I adhered to the core concepts of the syllabus and most significantly demonstrated growth in my writing through the duration of the semester.