Robert Federle

Professor Suzanne Ingram

UWRT 1101-022
Final Portfolio Essay
Growing up I always felt like I was always shadowing my sisters when it ever came to
success. With my oldest sister Adrian who is 30 years of age still going to school trying to get
her doctorate in teaching and my sister Vivian who is 21 and who is about to graduate from
North Carolina State University in medical nutrition. I always ask myself if I will ever be as
successful as them. But when I came into college my whole perspective changed. When I
stepped into my first class on August 18, I realized that I shouldnt compare myself to them.
Rather, I should focus on becoming the best that I could be.
One of my main concerns about college was how my English class would be and if I
could handle the work load. The reason this was one of my main concerns coming into college
was because of my lack of confidence in my writing. My writing background prior to college was
very miniscule and unimpressive. A main reason for this was because I was so used to taking
honors leveled high school English classes that I was not really challenged intellectually when it
came to writing papers. So when I stepped in my first writing class on that Wednesday I was
intimidated to see what the rest of my semester had in store for me. But after the first couple of
weeks in Ms. Ingrams class I definitely found myself being very comfortable. For the first time, I
had an English class where students had an opinion. Where students read each others papers
and gave their thoughts about how to improve it. This was one of the biggest changes for me
coming in to college.
The main reason for this whole essay is to review and show every spot through my eportfolio. This essay should help anyone that reads it find all my essays I wrote through the

semester and every piece of work I thought was useful along the way. Another goal this essay is
supposed to achieve is to show my readers how much I have transitioned from a lazy high
school writer to an independent opinionated college writer. The way I showed this change was
by giving examples of past assignments and comparing them to assignments closer towards the
end of the semester. For example, in some of my assignments I listed the change in my
grammar and punctuation.
My developments in writing have helped me to achieve clarity. As I have grown and
matured, my writing has become clearer, more detailed, and more concise. In order for any
reader to observe my e- portfolio, I will include an organized method for locating the required
artifacts and writers choice artifacts.
Blogs
My blogs are located on the second tab on the top of the page titled Blog. Each of my
blogs has been inspired by the act of learning more about me. Every blog I have completed has
given me areas to improve upon so that my next essay will be better formatted to suit the needs
of my reader. My blogs have contained things such as questions, (about everything), how my
previous writing experiences have influenced my pieces today, and the importance of language.
For the first blog I discussed the questions and concerns I had after reading the class syllabus.
This was also the first assignment that Ms. Ingram had given to the class. Which I found
interesting because I have not been accustomed to writing based off of my opinions on a
particular topic. Right off the bat I could see that the class would be centered on individual
improvement.
My second blog post taught me the importance of constructive criticism. For my first peer
evaluation, I was overly intimidated and nervous about having somebody read anything that I
have written. My group consisted of two other male students whom I had never spoken to prior
to this assignment. Both guys were very friendly and it became easier to share things with them

for tips. This assignment also showed me just how unique each writing style is. I appreciate that
Ms. Ingram has taught the importance of individualism through our assignments. This is what
has promoted most of my writing growths. Instead of promoting bland conformity, I have found
that my writing style has a sense of rugged individualism. Now I have become more confident in
my writing abilities as well as more encouraged to continue writing.
My favorite blog that I have written was our third. This covered code-switching which is
simply the reason behind people using various types of languages when conversing with
different people. For example, my language would be more formal when delivering an essay in
contrast to if I was playing video games with my friends. Another thing that has influenced my
speech is dialect. In my third blog I described the difference between the forms of the Catholic
denomination. Dialect is heavily influential to Catholics because it varies so greatly between
each cultural branch. For instance, Europeans celebrate Catholicism as a society rather than
individually, like in America. My third blog has provided me with a monumental form of growth in
my writing. It has shown me how things such as culture, religion, race, gender, and experience
can influence a writer.
After my third blog post you will find my midterm. This assignment is based off a series
of question listed on the class weebly site. This assignment at first was very intimidating to me
because this was my first ever English midterm in college. After scanning over each of those
five questions multiple times, I finally calmed my nerves and started to type. Some of the
questions on the midterm pertained to the first blog post, the key concepts on the course
syllabus, and what I thought my overall grade would have been at that time in the semester. The
final questions of the midterm were to analyze the literacy narrative and a choice of one out the
8 e-portfolio examples posted on moodle. The purpose of analyzing these assignments was to
help students practice and prepare their analysis of their own e-portfolio for the final portfolio
essay.

For my fourth blog post, I discussed points on The Case of Conversational Writing.
Included in my blog I quoted, How many of our best nonfiction writers, the ones who are widely
read and have a genuine impact, write in an academic prose? I followed this quote up using my
opinion that there are in fact, none. There are no writers who successfully write using an
academic viewpoint. The best writers are inspired and learn to use inspiration so that they may
gather appropriate information on any given topic. Writing in a conversational form is definitely
more opinion based, but also more interesting. Throughout school we are taught to write without
individuality and to focus on the accuracy of grammar. Conversational writing is an extremely
controversial topic and it has taught me that I must learn to flex my writing style according to the
class type. For instance, writing for UWRT-1101 is extremely opinion based. This class
emphasizes the finding your own unique style and learning how to improve upon it. Whenever I
have to take a course in public speaking, I will have to use the techniques from this blog post to
flex my abilities into a more professional prose.
In Portfolio Keeping by Nedra Reynolds and Rich Rice, I learned how to compile
previous assignments in order to create an efficient e-portfolio. In the text I found wonderful
organizational methods that will allow my portfolio to appear both neat and professional. The
illustrations appealed to me because of my difficulty in creative thinking. The boxes helped me
to gain an effective organizational approach towards creative writing. The chapter included
examples on how to properly begin the writing process. This included tips using bubble maps,
freewriting, and box-form starters. Overall, the chapter influenced the organization of this essay
so that my information comes out both clear and concise for my reader.
On my final blog post I gained a better understanding on how to set up my e-portfolio.
For example I wrote, A great source that I have been utilizing to help me out with starting my eportfolio are the examples of past student portfolios on Moodle. When I read other students
papers I learned multiple approaches to the same questions. By using my resources I can make

my reader understand my desired effect. The whole purpose of creating my portfolio is to show
my readers who I am and the accomplishments I have achieved throughout the course.
Literacy Narrative
My favorite piece of writing that I did in this class was my literacy narrative. This
assignment can be found on the second tab of the finial essays page. My literacy narrative was
about how I got in a huge argument with an old English teacher who in one instant changed my
whole understanding of English. The reason this paper was my favorite to write was because I
thought I put a lot of personal emotions into it. For this was the first time in my life I enjoyed
writing something, and that something was about me. However, the first draft of the literacy
narrative was nowhere closely related to the final draft that I turned in. After receiving different
tactics to improve my paper by Ms. Ingram and my peers, I focused a four page paper on one
moment. This was by far the most I had written about one moment in my life.
Regardless of what I wrote, I can explain that in planning this essay I figured out a lot of
things about who I am as a writer. After turning my paper in to Ms. Jones, my old English
teacher she immediately began reading the first paragraph of my paper. Once she finished, she
ripped my paper completely in half. After doing this she babbles on about how my thesis was
not clear which made my entire paper irrelevant. When I received such harsh criticism, I had no
choice but to stand up for myself which resulted in making a huge scene in front of my class. As
quoted from the narrative to show the detrimental blow to my ego I received that day, Her
words punctured through me like a thousand fatal stab wounds. After she continued to make
me feel like an idiot over a thesis I had not been taught to write prior, I began taking blows to her
ego as well by saying, Your style of teaching is ignorant and your ideas of constructive criticism
are bullshit. As the arguing continued I was escorted out of the room by the school resource
officer. Immediately following the incident with Ms. Jones, I was placed into a new English class.

My new teacher, Ms. Fowler helped me to realize that everyone has their own form of writing,
and she made me write a letter to Ms. Jones to tell her how I felt about the whole situation.
The point Im trying to convey is that because of that one dramatic moment, I had a
paradigm shift in my writing. So, following up on why I enjoyed writing this essay the most, in
comparison to all of the other papers I have completed, this was the most influential to my
current writing style. For me to put so much emotion into a paper, and also creating that
emotional connection shows that this class has definitely made a positive impact on my writing.
Also, on this page I included two separate scans of my literacy narrative. The first scan
two the left titled, Draft 1 Page 1, was the first page of the first draft I ever wrote for this
assignment. To the right of this artifact is the first page of the final draft titled, Draft 3 Page 1.
The reason I put these in as an addition to the final draft was to show how much my paper had
changed from the first time I had written it. In the first draft of the literacy narrative you can see
that I am unclear of what I am exactly writing about and the sentence structure does not flow.
But in the final draft you can see how I have a great introduction; I clearly understand the
prompt of the assignment, and sentences flow with ease. Another reference I used to help me
with this assignment was the reading and writing territories. This artifact can be found just
clicking on the final essays tab.
Portrait of a Writer Essay
The portrait of a writer assignment helped me to create new writing rituals. It allowed me
to learn more about my personal preferences when beginning an assignment such as stated in
the assignment, Before I begin to write I enjoy sitting alone and sipping on a cold Mountain
Dew to get my creative juices flowing. The essay was based off of the eleven central inquiry
questions included in the syllabus. The questions were focused primarily on what kind of writer I
was, and what kind I hope to develop into. In high school, I never considered myself much of a
writer due to my lack of interest and experience. I never thought I would be able to get out of

my usual writing comfort zone when I came to college. Now that I have reached college level
writing, I was afraid that I would be far behind my peers. In fact, I was not behind because the
class is based off of individual growth rather than an entire class growth. In college, writing has
become tremendously easier because of my new organizational tactics, pre-planning strategies,
and better sense of self. This assignment can be found on the second tab under the final essays
page titled, Portrait of a writer.
Make-up Work
In the process of wanting to live out my dream in becoming an engineer, the transition of
doing high school work to college work has been tremendously difficult! I just dont have the
time like I used to have back in high school. I learned this in the first couple days of my college
classes when receiving ten assignments for five different classes. This caused me to prioritize
my time around work for specific classes and forgetting about the work I had been assigned for
other classes. For this class, I have not missed any big assignments such as my Required
Artifacts; but I mistakenly forgot to do a couple of readers response letters. The RRLs that I
had forgotten to turn in were RRLs 2, 3, and 4. These assignments can be located on the tab
titled, Make-up Work, under the final essays tab. This tab is to show my readers that even
though I did not turn these assignments on their required due dates, I made the effort to go back
and do those assignments. This shows that I am responsible for my own learning and if I
miss an assignment I must try twice as hard to catch back up in the class.
More: Helpful Artifacts
For this section in my e-portfolio I am to address some artifacts that I have done
throughout the semester and list how they have benefited me as a writer. This section can be
found under the More tab titled, Helpful Artifacts. The first artifact that is listed is titled
Reflection for FPE. These contain a couple notes that helped me write this essay, such as
Quoting- supporting what you say, discuss your experiences- how youve changed as a

writer, what you learned, must be realistic and honest, and I even put a list of requirements
needed for this paper.
The artifact I placed in sequence after the Reflection for FPE was titled, content I wrote
up for my literacy narrative. This helped me establish a brand new paper that was more
articulate for readers, and also it accomplished the requirements of the given rubric. The
influences this little section had on my paper was positively tremendous. I went from having a
boring paper that established what books I liked to writing a paper on a past experience that
was dramatic and informative. From this artifact I stated, I want to add a story about an old
English teacher that made me understand how people have their own style of language. This
was the turning point in the process of writing the paper. This is where I decided to rewrite my
entire literacy narrative based on that one moment.
The next Artifact is titled, Writers Choice Artifacts. This artifact is actually the
description and process of how I set up this entire section. The reason I decided to use this was
because I was so confused on what to include for this section I decided to write it down to see if
it would help. It ended up being one of the most productive lists I created when writing this
essay. The Writers Choice Artifacts lists every single artifact I thought that was most helpful to
me during the semester. This list helped me establish a starting point for this section of the eportfolio, as well as an organized process that helped me include every required artifact.
The next artifact that I included preceding the Writers Choice Artifacts list was Ms.
Ingrams comment on my Readers Response Letter 5. RRL 5 discussed spelling and the
characteristics of bad spellers. In this RRL I discussed how my bad spelling and writing is
accounted for by a couple of learning disabilities I was diagnosed with as a child. The feedback
Ms. Ingram wrote on the right side of the paper states, If you hadnt shared this with me, I never
would have suspected. Your writing always seems good to me. After reading this I got one of
the biggest confidence boosters ever. I had always thought I struggled with my writing and did

not always feel comfortable when trying to write. But after receiving this tiny comment, I have
been more open with my writing and less scared when turning in an assignment.
Under my reviewed RRL 5 artifact you will see a paragraph written by another student
who I was in peer workshop with. What is written is a personal translated introduction of my
Portrait of a Writer essay. The reason this translated writing is important to me is that I can fully
understand it. If I handed something to you and I said, Hey! Translate this in your own words
and give it back to me, and that same person comes back to you with absolutely no clue what
to say, what would you think? The answer is that your introduction does not make since at all.
For me to receive a translated introduction of my essay from a peer means that I have
accomplished my goal in establishing an understandable introduction of my paper.
The last two artifacts on this page are writers notebook artifacts. The first artifact that is
listed is a simple paragraph analysis of my portrait of a writer essay. This artifact was created in
class pertaining to focus questions given to the class by Ms. Ingram. This artifact is listed
because it taught me how to correctly analyze a paragraph. In this analysis I stated, The
purpose of this paragraph is to explain my perspective of writing, and what I need to improve for
my writing to be acceptable. This gave me another basis for my paper, and helped me
understand the importance of organized paragraphs.
The last artifact on this page that helped me learn and grow as a writer was my first
assignment ever. It was a very simple assignment; write a little about yourself, what kind of
writing you did in high school, what was your favorite book, etc.. When I started writing I did not
know if I was going to be harshly graded on it. I stated, I took all honors English classes in high
school, and never really had an outstanding English teacher. I wanted this to show Ms. Ingram
that I was still very spectacle about taking my first college level English class. But when I
received my grade not as a number grade but as a check plus, I was glad to see that i no longer
needed to feel uncomfortable in an English class again. This helped me establish a great sense

of satisfaction knowing I did not have to worry about a teacher murdering my paper with
ridiculous comments and ink. However, I would see opinions and suggestions to help make my
paper better.
More: Wild Cards
For this section I am to elaborate the wild cards of my work. Wild cards are just the work
I did through the semester whether it was in this class or any other class that helped with my
growth as a writer. This section can be found as the second tab under the More page titled,
Wild Cards. For this section I included two artifacts. The first artifact listed is a series of notes I
took while taking UWRT 1101. The subject of the notes are Pathos, Ethos, and Logos. The
reason I found this helpful to me because I use these tools not just only in this class. These
notes establish how the composer appeals to his/her writing. I used these three tools quiet
frequently in my essays. I used pathos to show my emotions in my literacy narrative when
arguing with my old English teacher. I used logos in my portrait of a writer essay to show my
appeal of logic during the process of writing a paper. And I used ethos in my literacy narrative to
show suspense leading up to the argument with my teacher.
For my last wild card I used my revision from Ms. Ingram on my Literacy Narrative. This
artifact was very helpful for me through the entire semester. This is because this was my first
final draft that was graded and turned. The comments for this revision are directly related to the
importance. Things like, I had to read this twice. As a reader Id love a more through description
so that I can envision her. Needs proofing, helped me throughout the semester work on little
details I needed to improve to better my later papers.