Final Portfolio essay

Dane Mann
11/30/15
UWRT 1103-009

Since I enrolled in the class UWRT 1103 I have been making small amounts of progress
towards being a better writer. This is because UWRT 1103 has a variety of assignments that
stress the importance of different concepts of writing including multi-modality, several key
concepts, and the understanding of ethos, logos, and pathos. Some of the assignments I have
done that stressed these ideas are my e-portfolio that you are currently on, an inquiry essay,
and an exploratory essay. These assignments have allowed me to grow as a writer. How much I
have grown will be up to you. As you read this paper you have to know the type of writer I was
before entering UWRT 1103 in order to gauge my growth so we shall begin there.
When I began my education at UNCC this year I had only written argumentative papers
and essays of that nature. These papers would typically be written once a year and seldom be
seen by another individual other than my teacher. With this being said my first assignment in
this class was an exploratory essay about passions. Since my prior experiences in writing dealt
with subjects that were not centered around me, my first draft felt mechanical and inhuman.
The two people in my peer review group were quick to pick up on this. On my first drafts they
wrote I described what I did for my passion rather than how I felt about my passion. One of the
quotes from my first draft of my exploratory essay read add more feelings and emotion and
another said Theres information that isnt needed such as the sentences about Zulus. While
reviewing the papers of the other members I remembered to adhere to the list of dos and
donts we made that day. You can see this list in the writers notebook artifacts on the progress
page. I took a while to think about this before the next essay was due. I had decided to add
more emotion into my paper and less information. I was able to cut my paper down a few
pages by removing a plethora of useless information and able to add in how I felt by adding

sentences like I felt my anxiety increasing as the days drew closer to the first track meet1. I
then implemented a technique we used in class to gain information about how we felt in a
specific time when my passion was being applied. This exercise can be seen in the Writers
Notebook Artifact in the progress section. The result of this technique is the addition of the
following paragraphs to my exploratory essay.
It was the evening of the first track meet. The spring air was still very cool and
the sun was still out at the beginning of the warm ups. The entire track team lined up.
They were all wearing warm sports clothing. I was in charge of leading the track teams
warm ups that year so I yelled back what warm up we were doing then we did it. This
went on until the warm ups were finished which took about ten minutes. I promptly
walked to the throwing circle to see all the throwers gathering about.
The throwers came in all different shapes and sizes although most were tall and
large. In front of the throwing circle was a field littered with holes caused by shot puts.
After a while the cold weather made my friends huddle up for warmth. I had some time
before we actually had to begin the meet so I practiced my throw. I picked up a shot put
covered in mud and very cold and moved into the circle. At this moment I felt very
anxious about the whole situation. I thought to myself did I do enough during the
practice throw. The practice throw put my mind at ease though as it was a good throw.
The meet finally began and I was ever so excited. I threw my three throws and got
my distances, which were pretty good. I was able to beat most of the people there and this
made me even more excited. I saw what my efforts had accomplished and I loved it. I
wanted to do this more and I did.

I also addressed a comment on my second to last draft that stated The part about video games
seem to have come out of nowhere maybe you should warm the audience up before adding it. I
addressed this mainly by removing the paragraph completely due to its irrelevance. I also
removed the parts about history as they had just been filler to get the page count up and is
generally useless when talking about my passion. For reference you can see it below.
Another thing I am passionate about is learning about the past. My favorite
topics in history are the births of empires and Wars. I believe that they are two the most
important events that can shape history. Take for example the Second Punic Wars. This
large conflict determined the entire course of history leading up to the modern era we live
in. The effects of this war are still seen today in our government and languages. This is
not only because Rome won but also because it made Rome the largest power on the
earth at that time. Past this the war was very interesting as the Romans were losing until
the very end when they finally pushed into Carthage and won the war. The fact that many
people dont know about some of the wars like this boggles my mind. I feel as if the
public school system is not doing enough to teach us about history as we often need to
see things through a more relevant picture. History tells us why our society values certain
morals and has traditions. Many people can learn a lot from history and I feel the more I
look into it the more fulfilling certain experiences are. I also wish that there was more for
us to learn about cultures that hadnt developed a proper writing system before Europeans
met them. I feel as if modern tactics can learn a lot from Shaka of the Zulus as he quickly
built a small empire out of a village. The only reason we cant have the knowledge of
what exactly went on with his ascension to power is because the Zulus hadnt kept any
records. This creates a lot of confusion with historians as they have to rely on second or

third hand stories that can be unreliable and/or biased. I also feel I can learn a lot ancient
civilizations too as they had a more simpler way of life back when all you had spears and
arrows to worry about. People back in their time did not have the fear of terrorism or
nuclear war hanging over their heads like we do now. However, they did not have any of
the modern conveniences that we have like indoor plumbing and videogames. I often
what it would be like to be a Shepard in the biblical time with nothing to worry about
besides my sheep getting eaten. It would take me away from the anxiety of modern life
and worrying if I got a good grade on the test or if I can get my engineering homework
done in time and have free time. Its a simple place to put your mind if youre under
stress worrying about something. Pretty much like video games but a little less immersive
but more personal. Kind of like therapy for your mind where all you need is a history
book and a specific time you want to go to.
This allowed me to use the key concept of getting out of my comfort zone. To talk
about my emotions and to an extent myself was very hard for me to do. I say this because I
seldom like to talk about myself as I feel I am coming off haughty and prideful. I also was very
inexperienced in talking about myself as I stated above. So suffice to say that the exploratory
essay was the assignment I learned the most from. Since the last time the exploratory essay has
been seen I have removed the part about video games as it seemed to have no place.
After my exploratory essay was finished I worked on a couple of blog posts before
starting my midterm. This midterm was, in essence, a way of gauging my progress thus far in
the semester and was to use the key concept of critical reflection. Knowing this my prime target
of evaluation was my exploratory essay. I mentioned much of what is above this paragraph in it

and you can view it in my progression section of the website as it will be an invaluable resource
when reading this paper. Moving on we then began work on our inquiry project. I had been
very excited for this project as I had been covering a topic I so very much loved. My topic was
the fall of Rome and how it relates to the US today. Starting the project I was very ecstatic due
to my love of history and my general fascination with Rome. This project went better from the
start than the exploratory essay due to it being a format that for much of my life I was used to.
The research for this project was very easy too due to it being a historical topic rather than a
current issue. So I did not have to look very hard for good sources. However, the book Who says
to Document Everything.1 I did this in my annotated bibliography which can be found in the
writings page. The only issues that my peer review group found were small spelling errors and
some awkward sentences. They said that my information was very good and I was making good
points in my essay. When I had to get my paper evaluated in a conference it was well received
with most of the complaints being about formatting and the need for sub headings. Since the
inquiry essay was last seen I have added subheadings and fixed up the grammar. The inquiry
essay helped me use the key concept of independent inquiry and curiosity and critical reading
as I had to be actively curious about the fall of Rome as it is considered a boring topic for most
people (I dont see why). I also had to read through a large amount of information from books
about Rome in order to find out what I wanted to know in order to convey my topic better.
With my inquiry, exploratory, and midterm essay done I started on my e-portfolio and final
portfolio essay which is what you are reading write now.
Since we have discussed how I have progressed through the semester, now I can tell you
how I have my e portfolio laid out so that you can quickly find the artifacts you are looking for.

My midterm essay and all the drafts I have done are in the progression part of the e portfolio. I
put my Process Work Artifacts, Feedback Artifacts, Wild Card Artifact, Midterm Essay, and my
Writers Notebook artifacts. This is to show my personal growth both through my eyes as well
as yours. My midterm essay is a way I gauged my progress through the semester and is how
you will see how I interpreted my progress. The Process Work Artifacts are there to show the
progress I was making during my assignments. These Process Work Artifacts are composed of
three blog post drafts and a mock website I used to examine the tools available to me in
weebly. I need to make blog post drafts in order to see word length and spell check. This helped
me make more professional looking blog posts. The Writers notebooks artifacts are there so
that you may see my utilization of tools I have learned in UWRT 1103 like the dos and donts of
peer work shopping. The Wild Card Artifacts are of two papers I have written in other classes
the first being the Who Life Concepts Project. The Who Life Concepts Project allowed me to use
things I had learned in UWRT but most importantly it allowed me use the key concept of critical
reflection. This paper allowed me to grow as a writer because it exposed me to strict criteria to
adhere to. The other wild card was my Chemistry lab report. This allowed me to grow in the
ability to better write Technical reports. Before This year I had never written a lab report so I
was happy to see how much I improved by writing this report. Last but not least are my
feedback artifacts. These artifacts have allowed me to gain perspective that is not mine. I have
learned a lot from these as they have taught me to not be so mechanical and inhuman. These
resources will ultimately allow you to see my progress through UWRT 1103.
The next section I would like to talk about is the Writings section. These are the final
drafts of my assignments (excluding my midterm and FPE). I wanted to include all of the

completed works on the same page in order to have an area that was different than the
progress section in ways that it shows the final product. In many ways the progress section of
my e portfolio is the factory where the product gets put together and I wanted the writings
section to be like a car dealership. You only see the final product of the hard work rather than
the production of the product. This makes it seem like all of the papers I have written appear
effortless and elegant. It hides the messiness of the hard work I did and creates a great sense of
a finish and finalized product.
The second to last part of my portfolio is the blog. You can read about different topics I
have written about and get a good understanding on how I think. The last part of the e portfolio
is the sites introduction and the thing you are reading now, the FPE. The FPE, or Final Portfolio
Essay, details how I put the site together, why it is put together in the way it is, how I have
progressed through the semester as a writer and how I think I should be graded. I figured that
this would be the best place for the FPE as it addresses how I have grown as an individual and
how my site is laid out. This will allow you better understand the site. Its the best place for the
FPE seeing as how you need to know where all my papers are and have an understanding of
who I am. While peer work shopping this paper one of my partners commented Your paper is
good and I want to read it more. This allowed me to feel much better about talking about
myself.
I believe I deserve an A on the FPE because I have talked about each Artifact type,
where it is placed and how it has affected my learning. I have also described more than 3 key
concepts that I was engaged in. These Key concepts are marked in yellow and teal in my paper

for your ease which is in essence using multi-modality to convey a message that these
sentences are things that you should be looking at. I have also displayed my composing process
by talking about peer workshopping, the use of other softwares to make my blog look more
professional, and how I have addressed others criticism of my work. To find the comments and
criticism given to me more easily I have colored them green. I have also spent a great sum of
time working on assignments and their research. I should also not be penalized for missing any
days because as it stands I have perfect attendance. I have also worked quite hard to get all
assignments done on time and have what was expected of me done.

References
1: Deborah Holdstein and Danielle Aquiline, Who Says? (New York: Oxford University Press,
2014), 69