John Kulikowski

Final Portfolio Essay

My e-portfolio is organized semi-chronologically. The first two pieces are the FPE and
Writer Artifacts. These two pieces are out of chronological order because the FPE is supposed to
be the first thing and the writer artifacts are the basis of other assignments. I think anyone
looking at my e-portfolio needs to see the artifacts before they look at my finished work so they
can get an idea of what I had changed and where everything grew from. After the writer artifacts
I go into the exploratory essay because out of the assignments we needed to include this was the
first that we did chronologically. The rest follow a chronological order as well. I chose to arrange
these pages chronologically because it shows my growth through the semester.
The design of my e-portfolio is very straight forward. Every page is right on the
home page and each page is set up the same. There is a title and on a few pages there is a
subtitle. Under the title there is the content. Most pages included documents while one outlier
contains blog posts. The font throughout my e-portfolio is the same so that it is not so chaotic
and jarring looking at a lot of different fonts. The design of my e-portfolio was made so that the
information could be given easily and effectively without having to go to a lot of different subpages.
Even though most of my pages are very simple; I am still using various modes of
communication. On each page I have both linguistic, visual, and spacial modes. Each page has a
title and a post or document. These are linguistic modes that cause the viewer of my e-portfolio
to engage in reading the document. Each page has a heading picture at the top of the page. This
is a visual mode to add some added points of focus. The spacial part of each page is the use of

blank space surrounding the documents. Instead of filling this with a background I chose to keep
it white so the extra space didnt cause distractions.
The first paper I wrote in this class was the exploratory essay. What made this document
unique was the fact that I could write about almost anything I wanted. The assignment was
What are you so passionate about that you cant ignore? This was so open that it pushed me to
narrow my thinking and dive into a topic I was passionate about. The next assignment was the
midterm. The midterm made me focus on what concepts I was actually engaging in and what
concepts I needed to engage in. For example, I said Because I am so used to detailed directions
I never know where to start with these assignments. I was talking about the composing process
concept, and after determining what concepts I needed to engage in it made me focus on trying to
do a better job with them. The next final draft was the bibliography. This piece of my portfolio
contributed to my learning by making me learn more about a topic I was pursuing for the
research assignment. This made me gain more knowledge about my topic. It also made me look
for information in places that I would not normally use. For example, I conducted an interview
with questions about my topic. One question was How has lacrosse impacted you/changed you
as a person? This let me gain information directly related to my topic instead of making
connections to articles. Creating interview questions was something new and something I had to
learn. The next final draft was the multi-genre project. This was probably my favorite final draft.
For one, I think it is a great representation of my writing skills and brings to light an issue in
lacrosse that is very rarely talked about. It contributed to my experience in the course by giving
me an outlet to create a two piece project that expresses my ideas on an issue in lacrosse. Overall
it showed how I progressed as a writer and that is what makes it so interesting to me.

The final drafts are finished products showing what I can do, while the writers choice
artifacts show what I have changed and what early un-corrected papers look like. The first
process work artifact is my first draft of my exploratory essay. In this essay I wrote One thing I
noticed when I started playing was that it was very hard to watch college lacrosse games and it
was even harder to watch professional games. This quote is perfect for showing how rough the
first draft was. This quote was originally in the first paragraph. I had no set up for the issue I was
talking about and went straight into it in the first paragraph. I included this draft because many
parts of it are night and day from following drafts. The next process work artifact is the
exploratory essay second draft. This draft shows drastic changes from the first draft and even the
final draft. For example, in the first paragraph I say I started playing in the 10th grade and since
then I have loved and promoted the sport as much as possible. This is a very different sentence
from the sentence I used in the first draft. It was much better at setting up my background in the
sport and telling why I was passionate about the sport. The next process work artifact is a
paragraph I drafted during a discussion. I had a great idea when listening to a discussion and had
to write it down. This idea turned into a paragraph that would be perfect for my multi-genre
project. In the paragraph I say They can only learn these from coaches who have played in these
southern atmospheres. This quote is the basis of my multi-genre project. Southern atmospheres
is something that my whole project wraps around and this artifact shows the genesis of the idea.
The next process work artifact is a revised version of the previous paragraph. I included this
revision as an artifact because it is the most important paragraph I created all semester. It was
describing the whole issue with southern lacrosse atmospheres, but the most important thing
about it was that it still was not perfect. When I wrote this paragraph I thought it was as good as
it gets, but it is very different from its version in the final draft. I say People who coach lacrosse

in the south often learned to play in the northern states and this is very bad for region. This
quote shows the issue with this paragraph. It came off as mean or hurtful to northern coaches. I
wanted to make sure this draft of the paragraph was included because it shows something that I
overlooked that could have changed the tone of my paper in a way I would not have wanted.
The next artifacts are the feedback artifacts. The first artifact is the feedback from
Southern Lacrosse: The Coaching Issues first draft. The feedback on this artifact included
grammar errors, but most importantly it includes the issue I overlooked in the paragraph about
southern atmospheres and coaching. This is very important because I learned that even though it
sounded right in my head, the reader may not understand what I am trying to say so I would have
to reword it to sound less hurtful. The second feedback artifact is the feedback from the
exploratory essays second draft. This highlighted issues in my draft such as no title, forgetting
to take out sentences while revising, and basic grammar issues. For example, I say There were
some problems I noticed while looking at the professional leagues. This is a sentence that I just
forgot to delete while revising the first paragraph. These are things I often overlook because I
like do my essays fast and be done with them. This feedback made me think about taking my
time and reviewing the documents I type before turning them in.
The next artifacts are from my writers notebook. The first is the Dos & Donts of Peer
Workshopping. This artifact was important in my learning because it taught me what about what
to do and what not to do while workshopping. These were important for the entirety of the
semester. The next artifact is the 3 column notes warm-up explaining where the document was
located and stating the questions I had about it. The question I had about it was if the visual
formatting is helpful. This was something I was unsure about because I wanted to use the visual
mode, but did not know if doing it this was correct. From this I learned that it is most important

if it helps me. This was very important because it helped me understand that some modes are
more helpful to not only the audience but can be used to help the creator.
The last two artifacts are the wildcards. The first wildcard is an interview I used in my
bibliography. I included this because I referenced this interview in my multi-genre project
reflection. I wanted to include this wildcard so that the reader know I did not take the quote I
used in the reflection out of context. The last artifact is possibly the post important. This artifact
is a poem that we discussed in class. The poem showed me how to use the spacial mode. This
mode is very interesting as it is just blank space that can be used to help emphasize writing. I
thought this was a very unique way of using blank space. It ultimately taught me about the
spacial mode and that is why I included this piece.
My writing has grown in the fact that it has become more complete. Before coming to
this class I would write a paper and that would be the final draft. Now, I have written a paper and
then reworked parts of it to become more complete. My favorite example is from the paragprah
about southern lacrosse atmospheres in Southern Lacrosse: The Coaching Issue. This
paragraph started as a quickly written paragraph on a scratch piece of paper. Then I typed up and
polished this draft. I said In the South lacrosse can only grow with coaches. This senetence
changed to People who coach lacrosse in the south often learned to play in the northern states
and this is very bad for region. This change was to show the problem instead of the solution.
This change ultimately resulted in coming off as taking a dig at Northern coaches. I then added a
sentence in my final draft that said Its not that these northern coaches are bad overall, its just
that they havent adjusted to the lacrosse atmosphere in the south. This sentence shows how I
changed my writing to come off with a better tone.

Every draft had changed from the one before it, not just this one. My exploratory essay
possibly changed one of the most. In my first draft the beginning paragraph jumped right in to
the issue I wanted to discuss. This pulled the reader away from why I was passionate about the
sport. I added the sentence I only played for three years in high school, but lacrosse became one
of the biggest parts of my life during that time. This sentence shows how I changed the first
paragraph to show the reader my background and why this sport is important to me.
Additionally, I fixed grammatical errors. The next draft was the bibliography assignment. For
this the first major change was the addition of sources. After adding sources I went and added
formatting that is a visual for the reader and for me to get key points about each piece I used. The
final draft I have included is the multi-genre project. This includes three parts; the website,
personal anecdote, and reflection. The website started out with six pages and then after some
thought I took out a page about the economic impact of the sport. I did this because showing the
economic impact would not add anything to the point I was trying to make about coaching. Next,
I added captions for the pictures. These captions helped connect the pictures to the text where it
previously did not. Other than the paragraph I have discussed previously in this document, the
personal anecdote received grammatical changes to fix comma splices and other bad grammar.
Over the year I have engaged with many key concepts. The first one I strongly engaged
with is the composing process. For example, in the multi-genre project I moved step by step
with my work. First, I researched the topic and collected many sources from which I gathered
information. Then, I created the website page by page. After that, I wrote the personal anecdote
and created several drafts. After that I polished the website and personal anecdote to create final
drafts. Lastly, I created a reflection about the project as a whole. Going step-by-step was my
composing process for this assignment and the composing process I used was important in

keeping me organized. The next concept I engaged with this semester is multi-modality of print
and digital texts. One example of how I engaged with this concept is in my multi-genre project.
I used visual modes by adding pictures on each page, I used linguistic modes through the text I
wrote on each page, and gestural modes when I used color to connect caption to pictures. This
shows how my work was multi-modal. Another concept I engaged with is responsibility for
your own learning. When I think about this concept I think about how writing is what I consider
my weakness. In the past my English teachers often didnt have very high praises for my writing.
In order for me to become a better writer I knew I had to take responsibility and make this course
my number one priority this semester. By doing this I took responsibility for my own learning
and became a better writer throughout the semester.
Looking back on this semester I see that I have written texts that I am actually proud of
and would want people to read. This pushes me to think that I deserve an A in the course. I have
also worked hard not only to have every paper on time, but to finalize every paper to be the best
they can be. Based on the grading scale for the e-portfolio I have followed every point that leads
to an A. My e-portfolio is arranged in a way that lets anyone follow through the pages easily. I
have quoted thoroughly in the FPE and addressed my engagement with three concepts. And, to
my knowledge I think no questions should be left unanswered for my reader. Due to my growth
as a writer, the hard work I have put in to my pieces, and because of my FPE following the
grading scale for an A, I think that I deserve to get an A in this course.