Takuya Kobayashi

Ms. Ingram
English 1101-074
October 1, 2014
Midterm Assignment
A. This is my first semester taking college class and I did not know anything about an English
course when the semester started in August. Everything we did was new to me, and I really
relied on my group members. At that point, I did not know how to organize a paper and my
grammar was horrible. When we did a peer review and one of my members suggested me to
put quotation marks on my paper, honestly I had no idea when I can use it appropriately. I
had never used it before in my paper, so it confused me a bit. However, at this point in the
semester, I can freely use quotation marks in my papers. Honestly, I did not really like peer
reviews because it is not common in Japan, and I did not want anyone to see my paper so my
thoughts were along the lines of: why do we do this? But by participating peer reviews, I
realized that peer reviews are more straightforward than teachers, so I could know my weak
point and worked on it even more. I also like when I can see my classmates paper and know
how American students write their paper so I could steal some of their techniques. Now, I
know why we do peer reviews and it helps my writing to improve even more.
B. I think that I am doing well with curiosity because this is my first semester taking college
class, so I learn a lot of new concepts every day. Before every class, I have great curiosity
and passion for what I learn in class so it motivated me to keep focus in class. Especially
when it comes to peer group working, my curiosity increases even more, and I am really

fascinated by my group members opinion and what they write on their paper. In contrast, to
provide feedback is challenging me. Since I am an international student, I do make mistakes
and do not know all of the fact about the English language; it is very hard for me to provide
feedback for my group members. Every time I provide feedback, I am nervous and revise
what I write and make sure if its correct or not. I am trying hard to provide my best feedback
every time and if my peer says yea this is make sense or yea I agree I feel relieved when
I hear those kind of words. I think my English is getting better, so I hope I will have
confident and give my peer group a great feedback by end of this semester.
C. I still remember the day I join the soccer club practice for the first time. I woke up earlier
than usual and I cherished delusions how I play well in practice. I was nervous but also
highly motivated. I got to school and I saw my coach and other teammates were already at
the ground. I exchanged greetings politely and I introduced myself with my frightened voice.
They all looked at me with serious face which also made me scared. My first impression
when I met my coach for the first time was like oh I dont like him. This is actually my
favorite revision from literacy narrative essay. This reflects what I was exactly told by my
group members and I wrote a story specifically and used quotation mark in it. I actually
wrote this paragraph with reference to one of my group members essay. When I read his
essay, I was highly impressed and I tried to use his techniques. I could write this paragraph
more specifically. The way I wrote was similar to my peers paper, used quotation mark, I
put all the suggestions from group members together in this paragraph.
D. I chose to analyze sample 5. The author of this portfolio is Lauren Gruber. The portfolio is
about the writer and shows her progress in UWRT 1102. The purpose of this is to improve
her English writing in that class. The intended audience was Ms. Ingram and her classmates.

The context of this portfolio is composed of blog posts, drafts, midterm paper and final
papers. There is a picture of her so we can know how she looks like and can know what she
wants to study and do by her profile. Ms. Gruber uses two types of communication; linguistic
and visual. Linguistic was used for her blog post and essay. She mentioned that she likes to
sing, she wants to transfer to transfer to a music school to pursue her goal. This makes reader
to get to know her better. Visual is because she used her own picture. The genre of this
portfolio. She put her notebook as a picture and I found it unique. This portfolio is
successful. She followed all the directions and I really like the color use which makes reader
want to see. This is my ideal portfolio. I want to have a well-organized portfolio that gets
readers attention. I will use some of her techniques so I can make a better portfolio.
E. I believe in myself that I have learned great things through this course. I put an effort and did
my homework on time and tried to use what I learned in this class. I should have at least 80%
in this course, and my goal is end up this semester with an A which is more than 90%. I
know this is going to be tough for me but I will work hard as much as I can and try to
impress professor and classmates. I am so excited to learn more things and improve my
writing skills. I am pretty confident that I will do my work well but I am worried about my
lack of vocabulary and grammar mistakes at the same time. I need to improve those
weaknesses so I can catch up with my classmates and be a better writer. The most exciting
thing is that I will meet new group members and do peer workshop so I can learn lots of
things from them and get to know how they write their paper and know their techniques.