Mark Stevenson

11/16/2014
UWRT 1101

How it came to be:

My e-portfolio had to be organized because almost everything in my life is put in
a specific place or order, all because of my OCD. The way I decided to design my eportfolio was to use the website builder Weebly. With no prior knowledge to the website
I had to learn how to operate and create my website by playing around with the different
tools. Once I got the hang of how to really design what I like I added in the organization
part to the website. I decided to have the website open up with a home page of my name
and explaining what the purpose of the website was. At the top there are different tabs for
the different papers that we did throughout the class in order in which we did them. The
last tab I decided was contact information for any reader to contact me for further
information about my e-portfolio.
Using various modes of communication to convey my point throughout my essay
was essential. With looking back at the five modes of communication I was able to use
the following modes: linguistic, visual, and spatial. With the Linguistic mode I used clear
defining words for the headings of each page within the website. Visual mode was used
with the specific text type, color, layout, and the style of the website. How the reader will
view the website and their perspective on the website determines this mode of
communication. The most used mode was the spatial mode, with the organization of the
whole website determining the other modes proper use.

Mark Stevenson
11/16/2014
UWRT 1101

Development of a writer:
By reading over the pieces of work that I wrote throughout this class you can see
how I developed as a writer. The most significant development I could see was how I
decided to start my papers. In the beginning I was starting out papers with the same
boring dictionary quote of what this meant and then developing my thesis and main ideas
around that, but this type of intro was often boring and wouldnt spark the readers
attention. (See Literacy Narrative slideshow picture 8 about the intro being too clich)
By the end of the class I was developing better intro paragraphs that would further spark
the readers interest and make them want to read the paper.
The best way to see how I developed as a writer is through the blog page, on this
page you are able to see how I developed from a not so confident writer to a developed
writer that further understands how to write but to write more accurately with more of a
purpose. The blog page is where we would write down out thoughts and ideas, this is also
where we would have weekly or every other week assignments that would engage us as
the writer to talk about pieces of writings as well as our writings. We would also be
assigned to comment on fellow classmates blog sites to give them feedback about their
writings, thoughts, and ideas; this benefited the whole class because we could see how
other classmates are approaching an assignment.
I like to think that the midterm was a very important paper that we did in class.
This paper was able to give you an assessment on how you were doing in the class and
what you should further develop on with the upcoming assignments. The midterm also
set forth what the remainder of the class would be like with the main focus being this

Mark Stevenson
11/16/2014
UWRT 1101
final e-portfolio assignment, it really put the emphasis on how important this assignment
is because it gives details into what we have accomplished throughout this course.
The greatest thing that helped me learn and develop as a writer through this class
was the peer editing. Without the peer editing and the assistance from my peers I would
have stayed the same type of writer that I was, basic and using filler information just to
get the job done. But my peers helped me get through this obstacle and challenged me to
engage more in m writing; by doing so I was able to develop my wirings better. As you
can see in the Literacy Narrative and the Portrait of a Writer essay slideshows my peers
and professor made several comments on my drafts, which I took into consideration when
further developing my writings.

Key Concepts:
In the syllabus nine key concepts were listed off that would be used throughout
this course. From those nine I found that Critical thinking and The writing process &
revision were the ones that I used most. With every paper that I would write in class the
key concept of critical thinking was used, with thinking about the writing prompt and
how I could develop and express my ideas through my writing to answer the prompt.
Using the critical thinking key concept I was able to do this and make my papers the best
that I could.
The other key concept that I used the most throughout this course was the
writing process & revision this key concept could also be tied in with the providing and
receiving feedback concept. These two together define what our peer edits in class were,

Mark Stevenson
11/16/2014
UWRT 1101
reading over fellow students papers and understanding their thoughts about the prompt
benefited me by seeing how others took on the task. Responding and getting others input
about my paper was important to see my mistakes from grammatical mistakes to perhaps
rewording a strange sentence, all of which I might not have otherwise picked up on my
own. The writing process is what I would use to develop each one of my papers to
ensure that they were well built and answered exactly what the writing prompt was
asking for.

Blog Posts:
The Blog posts page was a great way to write down my thoughts about pieces of readings
that we did as well as other assignments. Most of the blog posts were assigned about
every other week and we were always encouraged to comment on other classmates blogs
so that we could give and receive feedback which would help us with our writing process.
The blog posts helped me store ideas for late as well as stay fresh with writing skills so
that I was writing every week to keep improving.

Literacy Narrative:
The literacy narrative was a great way to start off this class; it opened up all of us to what
literacy really is. By telling our own personal story we were able to come up with a
personal definition of what literacy is. I had started out this paper originally with a
Websters dictionary quote of what literacy is, but that was just too basic and didnt really

Mark Stevenson
11/16/2014
UWRT 1101
catch the readers attention. After getting a peer edit as well as the professors I made
some changes and ended up with a strong paper on what my personal definition of
literacy is, To me literacy means the ability to read and write but this can mean different
Things to different people. I was able to form this definition of literacy by fining out
how I was able to read, write, and do basic math; once I got this definition I was able to
use it throughout all the papers that we did through this class. This paper was great to get
us out of our shy state and interact with one another, which also effected our definition of
what literacy is.

Midterm:
The midterm paper was used to assess how we were doing in the course at the half
waypoint. At this point I had began to understand the flow of how this class would
operate and how all of our papers would come together to form a e-portfolio at the end of
the semester. This paper was great to reflect back on what we had done up to this point
and was also used to voice and concerns or questions that we might have with the rest of
the semester coming up. The midterm was used to really gage how well you were doing
in the class in weather you needed to work harder or keep up what you were doing. It was
important to the class to understand this so that we could see how well we would end up
doing come the end of the year.

Portrait of a Writer:

Mark Stevenson
11/16/2014
UWRT 1101
The portrait of a writer essay made me as a writer understand who I am as a writer and a
reader. Reflecting back on the Literacy Narrative and understanding my definition of
literacy I was able to further develop who I was truly as a writer. The best part about this
paper was how I was able to develop and go further into detail throughout the drafts. On
the Portrait of a Writer page on my weebly website you are able to see the drafts that I
went through to get to the final draft. After getting through these drafts and doing some
editing I was able to come up with my final draft, which I am pretty happy with. It
discusses who I am as a writer and how I became to be that type of writer. My favorite
part of this paper was that I was able to go back through some of my older writings and
see how I developed from junior year in high school all the way up to present day. Even
throughout the years I stayed with the basic rule of a beginning, middle, and end to a
paper and it has yet to let me down.

Final Portfolio Essay:

This being the final portfolio essay it is here to make the reader understand what the
purpose of the e-portfolio is. It also acts as a navigational tool through the e-portfolio
website pages. This essay being the last essay I have to write for this class makes it kind
of bitter sweet but also a relief knowing that I made it through the course. I will be
excited to go into UWRT 1102 next semester and hope that it is the same as UWRT
1101. This final essay should sum up what I have learned and accomplished throughout
the semester through this class as well as showing a few pieces of work from other
classes that also benefited my learning through writing. This class was the best class that

Mark Stevenson
11/16/2014
UWRT 1101
I have taken for learning how to write including what I like to write about. It was
important to me that I took it in the first semester of college so that I would be prepared
and know how to write throughout my time here at UNCC.

What Grade do I Deserve?

As for the grade I deserve for this final portfolio and essay I would argue to say at least a
B. I have put a lot of time and effort into creating this weebly site making it as detailed,
organized, and navigable as possible. I believe that my final essay and the other papers
included in the e-portfolio have shown my progress throughout the semester and how I
have progressed as a writer. I have stuck to the requirements of the rubric and have made
it my own piece of writing in the process.