McNeill 1 Lee McNeill English 1103 Ms.

Ingram

The Journey of My Writing

During this semester in English 1103 I feel as if I have grown tremendously as a writer. Going into this class I knew I was a pretty decent writer but there were many areas in which I struggled. Over the course of this semester I feel as if I have not only strengthened these areas but I have also progressed as a reader and a critical thinker. I have organized my portfolio into several different categories: Portfolio Essay, Home, Required Work, Processed Work, Responses, Daily Entries, Artifacts and Midterm. By organizing my work this way it first shows my finished products and then moves into showing how each of these pieces were developed. The categories after Required Work contain the pieces of work that I feel have had the most influence on my writing this semester. When thinking about my development and how I have improved no piece of work sticks out more to me than my What Its Like to Be You? essay. When I first began that assignment I had a very hard time remaining on topic. Along with this problem I felt like my essay wasnt flowing as well as it should and it would not keep the reader interested. For instance many of my key points I was trying to get across sounded very repetitive and I was struggling to find other elements to include. These problems were quickly fixed after our class met with David Seidel. I believe the short time David spoke to us about meditation was the turning point for my writing this semester. Prior to this class I had always had trouble with the content

McNeill 2 portions of my essays. I could develop a good introduction and conclusion but I was really lacking in the content areas. A lot of this had to do with not thinking about my writing before I started. This resulted in my essays having no structure and not flowing well. Meditation solved this problem for me, it allowed me to forget about technology and the outside world for a brief moment in time and really focus on my thoughts. I decided to include the paper that I wrote on the first time I ever meditated in my portfolio. In about five minutes I was able to develop a really solid poem, which is something I had never been able to do. This piece of work, which is included in my What Its Like to Be You? Essay, really shows what was going through my mind that day all thanks to meditation. Throughout the rest of the semester I used meditation on all of my other works even for other classes. I feel like from where I started in August to where I am now has been a drastic improvement which is large impart due to me taking a little time before I write to really relax and ponder on different thoughts and ideas. My final drafts now have structure and they all have a well-developed beginning, middle, and end. In this class I have learned to become more of a risk taker when it comes to my writing. Reading Peace, Butter & Jelly, at the beginning of the semester taught me that there is no set way to write an essay and creativity can be very beneficial. I decided to first try this out when writing my What Its Like to Be You? essay. After reading all the poems in the book and learning about meditation I decided to incorporate a poem into my own writing. At first I thought it would not have much significance in my essay but after reading it in my essay and having my classmates read it as well it was evident that not only did it have significance but it greatly improved the point I was trying to get across.

McNeill 3 This poem gave me confidence to continue to take risks in my writing and I feel like I have really improved as a writer by doing this. Another important piece of writing that I have included in my portfolio is my Argumentative Research Essay. For me this was the most challenging assignment that I had all semester. I decided to do my research on acupuncture and its benefits to athletes. This was a topic that I knew relatively nothing about so I was forced to do a lot of research. When I first began writing this essay it seemed like I was very repetitive and my argument was not very strong. After talking with Ms. Ingram I realized that this could easily be fixed by reorganizing the placement of my paragraphs. By doing this my essay had a drastic improvement and my argument was concise and looked at all viewpoints. Although this might not be the best piece of work I have done all semester it is one that I am most proud of. I spent a lot of time shaping and rewording things to make it flow well and the improvement from my first draft to my final draft is remarkable. While in this class I learned how important providing and receiving feedback could be. Prior to this class when my teacher told the class to edit each others papers I took it as almost an easy day in which I would put very little effort into doing so. I was a person who would write one-word comments on papers and thats often times what I would receive. Receiving feedback from my group members as well as Ms. Ingram benefited my writing greatly. Often times I will write an essay and read it over and over again and still miss key mistakes. One instance was in my Argumentative Research Essay. I went through the entire essay without addressing what acupuncture is and how it is preformed. Another example was in my Annotated Bibliography when I forgot to

McNeill 4 address how reliable each source was. I feel like working in my writing group this semester greatly benefited my writing. By taking advice and learning from my classmates on what they do well and what they dont do well I was able to really progress as a writer. Under my Daily Entries category I included the Draw a Fish assignment. This activity really opened my eyes to a lot of things as far as writing and being creative. At first when we began the assignment I had no idea as to why we were drawing a fish but once we all finished Ms. Ingram asked us to compare them. Of course none of the fish looked the same and that was the goal of the assignment. Ms. Ingram explained to us that the fish were a representation of our writing, none of it is the same but that doesnt make it any better or any worse. This really motivated me to be creative with my writing and to not be afraid to break the traditional mold that is often taught in middle and high schools. I also included the first assignment that we were given in this category, which was to write a letter to Ms. Ingram. We were supposed to include a little bit about ourselves as well as what our strengths and weaknesses were as a writer. I included how I have always had problems with the content portions of my essays. This is something I worked very hard on this semester and feel like my final drafts are clear evidence on how much I have improved on that problem. In my Responses category I decided to include my 3 Sided Assignment, Annotated Bibliography, and Argumentative Research Essay. I felt like these three assignments were the ones in which I received the most beneficial feedback from whether it be from a classmate, Ms. Ingram, or myself. All of these assignments were challenging

McNeill 5 in their own way. The Annotated Bibliography gave me problems because of the citations. Prior to this class I had used MLA format but it was still something that I wasnt completely comfortable with. Having my peer-editing group helped me clean up the little mistakes I had made. These three essays were the ones that I received the best feedback from and it is really clear to see how much improvement was made from the draft in this category to the one in my Required Work category. I have improved on many different aspects of writing by being in this class. I have learned that writing is a process and that there is more to it than just sitting down and writing everything at once. By taking the time to slow down an really think about what I am going to write before I do it I feel like I have generated some very good pieces of work in this class that I am proud of. For this class I feel like I deserve an A. I have had perfect attendance this semester and been prepared for each class. I have participated in each class session and have been ready to discuss any topics that have come up. Not only did I put the effort in inside of class but I did outside as well. I spent countless hours trying to perfect my papers and other assignments as well as reading the assigned work to try to improve as a writer. My portfolio displays the journey my writing has taken over the past few months and how much I have improved in just a short amount of time. By participating and being open minded about the different topics and ideas discussed in this class I have really improved as a writer, reader and a thinker. This is evident in works I have done for other classes and especially this class. I feel like I have worked extremely hard in this class and done every assignment to the best of my ability.

McNeill 6 My progression as a writer from the beginning of the semester to now is evident in my portfolio and clear reason why I deserve an A for this course.