Zotti 1

Matt Zotti
Nancy Roche
Writing 1010-018
11 December 2014
Portfolio Analysis and Self-Reflection
Looking back on this semester, I am throughly surprised about the amount of
skills Ive acquired within this course. It goes without saying that I have become significantly more proficient in my craft of writing, but more importantly, Ive learned to become a wordsmith; one whos expanse of vocabulary and ways of thinking gives birth to
unlimited potential. Ive come to the realization that there are a million different ways to
say what you are thinking, but if you are not concise and not willing to exercise cognition, you will never get your point across as you intended it to be. Another major skill
that Ive gained is the ability to actively read an article, whole-heartedly understand it,
then write my reaction to it, rather than hastily skim through and give a summary. When
we wrote our first argument summary, I had a difficult time taking in all of the information
within the article. I had never been challenged to know how to fully understand the bigger picture of an article with such depth, and at times, it was infuriating. I had to come to
grips with the fact that if I wanted to receive my ideal grade, I would have to put every
sentence in the article in my own words, consciously react and be involved with the text.
Even though this took hours on end to accomplish, I began to grasp the concept of receiving and reacting to information, rather than passively pretend to know what Im talking about. By the time we were assigned to write our second summary, I had trained my
brain to treat reading as if it were a discussion; the author gives his/her point of view, I

Zotti 2
must take in the information and acknowledge the essence of the authors perspective of
the subject. I took my time with both reading and writing, avoided using the authors ideas and mistaking them for my own, and did my best to understand the reasoning of the
authors argument. Because of this, I received the highest grade on any paper I had written all year, which made me exceptionally proud. With learning how to consciously read
and give back information came my ability to become a better communicator. If theres
one thing that I can say Ive learned from this class, its that you never are clear with
your words as you think you are. Everyone has different ways of thinking and interpretations, and if your thought process is too caught up in thinking that your way of getting
your point across is right, then you will never be understood. It is the writers duty to take
regard to the third partys perspective, because if you are not undoubtedly clear with
your wording, the readers mind is an unpredictable field of interpretations that can lead
to them getting the wrong idea of what you intended. Being more concise with whatever
it may be that you are stating will make your points more logical, persuasive, and will
give a third-party a deeper comprehension of what you mean. With all of these skills Ive
picked up on and exercised, Ive not only expanded my intellect, but have learned to
love writing.
I know that the skills Ive gained in this class will continue to help me in my future
studies. Learning how to write isnt just about knowing how to compose essays or knowing how to properly cite. In this course, I have learned how to weave my way out of different discourses with ease, use my words as a mechanism to defend my argument,
and have overall become a better communicator, advancing my social skills on a more
sophisticated level. With these skills, I will be able to take on any course that comes my

Zotti 3
way, especially those that revolve around written literacies. If I need to email a professor
in a professional manner, defend an argument in a debate incisively, or even refraining
from mistaking to use an authors idea as my own in a research paper to avoid plagiarism, I know that the information Ive obtained in this course will help me in all areas of
life. The way Ive learned to utilize written language has had, and will continue to, have
an impact on what I say and how I say it. Because this course has challenged me to articulate my words in new ways, I can now process my thoughts with ease, and what I
have to say will come across in a more logical, clear manner; a key characteristic in exposing your ideas in a more profound, sophisticated fashion. My prowess in writing has
had a positive effect on the way I view knowledge, and I believe that with what Ive
learned in this course, I can take concepts such as improved communication, ability to
hold dense conversations with a variety of people, expanding my vocabulary, and apply
them in various areas of education.
If there is one skill I would like to improve on, it would be to learn how to structure
my essays with seamless transitions. Tying paragraphs together has always been difficult for me because it requires knowing what you're going to include in every paragraph
before you write it. It also demands you to structure your paragraphs in logical order,
which can be somewhat foreign and awkward to my thought process. In order to do this,
I must train myself to know exactly what I will say ahead of time and maintain a conscious effort to formulate my ideas in a rational order, rather than writing without structure. With time, I know that the more I practice my writing that this will come naturally to
me.