1

Russell Marion
Ms. Ingram
UWRT 1103
November 23, 2015
FPE
In my UWRT 1103 experience I have learned how important it is to understand your
audience in order to send the right message. The reader should be able to understand what the
writing is saying and then be able to formulate their own opinion. These qualities are important
to keep the reader engaged so you can send the right message. Through all my writings this
semester, I tried to keep improving at sending the correct message while implementing new
thoughts to my writing process.
Blog
When first starting to write the blogs, it was a guide to help us brainstorm for topics to
research. The questions that I thought would be my research question ended up not being my
final essay question. The first topic I thought I was going to research was about golf and why it
wasnt as popular as other sports, but I soon realized there wasnt much regarding this topic and I
had already written about golf in my exploratory essay. Another topic that did appear in my first
blog post was video games. Video games and their violence became my final research question
because I thought it was something that I had been exposed to in my childhood and wanted to
learn more about. Later in the semester, the blog prompts began to ask more questions about the
research and how you could expand that research and approach it at different angles. I found that
blog post #5 regarding the round table helped me to think about what kind of questions different
types of people would ask me. This helped me in thinking about the audience I was focusing on:

2
parents. The blog post helped me to think about questions they would ask and want to know
regarding this issue. By looking at how others would ask questions and thinking about the
questions they would ask, I think I address one key concept and that is making connections. I
was making connections between the topic and how parents would think about this and the
concerns they would have regarding their children. This is where I started my research from and
based my paper around. One blog post that helped me advance as a writer was blog post number
two. In this blog post, I referred to the our book which in the ways of destroying your ethos
section said that if you rely too heavily on source materials, also called patchwriting, it can
make the reader think you dont fully understand the material This section encouraged me to
have a good balance of cited information and then my own thoughts and arguments which would
be supported by those sources.
Exploratory Essay
In my exploratory essay I talked about my passion for golf. In my first draft I opened up
talking about what a passion was and what it does to you. A passion should bring out your
emotions and so I proceeded to go into detail about how I felt at the golf course. I used sensory
detail to help my reader feel what I was experiencing and the emotions that overcame me.
Sensory detail is one aspect of this work I feel I did well with, but I the organization in this work
is what I struggled with. I ended up writing about my past experiences first and going into detail
about that first because I wanted to put my reader into my shoes and what I was feeling right
away. The workshop we did with this work helped me while finish up the writing and gave me
the feedback I needed to finish. Alfie was reinforced my sensory detail saying Great use of
sensory and figurative language to make the readers use their imagination and draw images in
their heads and by saying the way you described the greens and the images in detail, its as if

3
Im reading a novel which really reinforced my self confidence in my writing. One suggestion
he gave me was that I could start off by describing the scenes and images in the beginning on a
smaller scale and then write about how those feelings you get when youre on the greens make
you a passionate golf player which is the kind of organization I based my final draft off of. I felt
like this was the best way to organize this work so I could reach my reader and convey my
passion for the game. So, I put the sensory detail and what I felt at the start of my essay and then
expanded upon that and at the end I try to explain what golf is like to new people and convey that
message that golf is my passion.
Midterm
In my midterm, I focus on key concepts that I have implemented into my writing. The
key concepts that I have felt like I was strongly engaging with in the course is getting out of my
comfort zone and making connections. Some examples of this are in my research essay. In my
research essay, I feel like I was making connections well with the research I was presenting and
the conclusions I made. For example, I stated that its important for the player to feel they have
mastered it more than anything, so when a player feels the game has beaten them then they can
end up feeling aggressive which is one connection I make. I then go on to relate this to my own
experience to say that I have felt the same way. While establishing this connection, I am also
establishing my ethos because I am informing the reader that I have experience with this topic. In
telling the reader this, I am making myself credible and therefore I am a writer they can trust on
this topic.
3 Column Notes
In my three column notes, I was able to get many sources that were credible. One source
was Professor Anderson from the University of Iowa whose work on the effects of video games

4
on humans behaviour. In the notes I state different statistics on video games and how much
violence is in the games. In the three column notes, I strongly engage with the key concept of
taking responsibility for my own learning. I had to research this topic on my own and so I could
get a better understanding of the issue. I found many studies and experts in the field of
psychology who were able to give me more insight and then I was able to come to my own
conclusions about how parents should look at games for their kids.
Research Essay
I feel like I wrote a very strong essay and was able to send the right message across to my
audience. For this essay, I began by putting the facts and quotes onto the page and then organize
the order in which I wanted to present those quotes and facts. Then I began working on the body
paragraphs were I was beginning to put together thoughts and making connections between
different paragraphs. For example, between the second and third paragraphs, I said a large
majority of children play video games, so what is on these games becomes an even more
important question for parents to ask because a majority of video games have violent content. I
then wanted to make a connection to a real life change in behaviour after playing video games so
I introduced the study about the hot sauce. This study was important for me to connect violent
gameplay to aggressive behavior and also how playing a non violent game doesnt encourage a
more aggressive mentality. The parents should know that violent content is on the games and that
it can impact their child and this was a point I was trying to send to parents over the course of
this paper because it is an issue that shouldnt go unnoticed.
Throughout my portfolio, I have tried in my efforts to explore new techniques and ideas
in my writing. I have thought about and improved on some key concepts that have improved my
writing. Though I have yet to put together a perfect paper for any assignment, which is a task that

5
is almost impossible yet I strive to improve my writing in any way I can. Through all the drafts
and workshops I tried to improve my work each time and I believe that this class has helped me
become more rhetorically aware. I also think that my work in this class is worthy of C. I have not
put the most effort I could have in this class, there were many times I didnt complete my work
on time. This portfolio does incorporate the required amounts of quoting, key concepts, and
meaningful reflection that I believe is worthy of that grade.