Saypharath, Isaac Ingram ENGL 1101-003 7/26/13 Seeing as how it is the end of the semester, it is appropriate that final

portfolios are due. I have my portfolio organized in a way that shows progression on each individual essay, as well as showing progression throughout the course itself. For example, the first draft of my High School Literacy Narrative will be posted (to show my lack of experience with the narrative genre) and then immediately followed by the final draft of the High School Literacy Narrative. This pattern will continue throughout for the essays included (High School Literacy Narrative, Genre Study Assignment, and the Midterm Essay). Besides the drafts and final copies of the essays that were to be turned in for class, included are: a list of items I wanted to include in this portfolio, the half sheet of questions given by the instructor to give the students a platform for the literacy narrative, blog posts that were assigned for the class to do, and the compilation of essays that helped form my writing to what it is now at the end of the semester. Also in this portfolio are two items from my writers notebook (notes taken from the first day of class about academic writing and a warm up from 3/7/13 listing ideas for the High School Literacy Narrative) that helped form the first draft of my High School Literacy Narrative. The feedback artifacts that are included in this portfolio are the first and second drafts of both the High School Literacy Narrative and the Genre Study Paper. These drafts were

imperative to helping me form the final papers because they gave much needed tips on what to improve on both papers, as well as where I was proficient in. As a result, in my later papers, I took the constructive criticism from my peers and instructor, and thus improved my writing in future assignments (such as the midterm papers, and this portfolio essay). Each part of this portfolio was integral to the learning I experienced in this course. For instance, the first draft of my High School Literacy Narrative showed how much learning I needed to accomplish before I would be able to write a coherent paper worthy of being graded well in university. With those drafts reviewed by my peers as well as the instructor, I have applied the revisions stated by them into my final draft of the High School Literacy Narrative. The same statement should be applied to every draft that is in this portfolio, with harsh review from my peers, the papers I submit in the future will need to meet the high standard I have set for myself as well as the instructor has set. One of the first assignments given to the class by the instructor were a series of blog posts. These blog posts helped me track my progress through the class. The first blog post listed questions I had about the class, and why I was taking it in the first place. At the beginning, I thought that I was an adequate enough writer, and that ENGL 1101 would be an easy class for me to take. After the opening thirty or so minutes, I had decided that ENGL1101 would be a much more difficult class than I had first thought. In the first blog post, I state that ENGL 1101 is a class with directive, and that it was a "creative writing class." However, now that my spell in ENGL 1101 has come to a close, I see that it is not a creative writing class, but a class that teaches students how to write for college, as well as how to survive university English classes. This class (as well as these blog posts) has completely changed my view on English, and what I thought classes would be like in university.

The list of items to be used in the portfolio I produced was used as a sort of "brainstorming" session in which I listed all the assignments completed in this course and were chosen in order of importance to my learning and experience in ENGL 1101. To me, brainstorming is one of the most important steps in the writing process. Here the writer simply throws ideas that he/she would like to write about on to paper. With all of these ideas on paper, the writer has a lot of selection to choose from instead of just concentrating on one item. This can be accurately compared to using a net to fish rather than a rod and reel. When using a net to fish, the number of fish caught is significantly higher than that of the fisherman with a rod and reel (who will only catch one fish at a time). In my high school literacy narrative, I learned that my writing can always be improved upon. I also learned that I should expand and take interest into writing that is not just informative as well as very professional, but delve into writing different genres and make my writing more understandable to my peers. This is important because the overall low quality of the first draft of my High School Literacy Narrative and the constructive criticism that was provided by both my peers as well as my instructors showed that I should expand my vocabulary to make it sound more relatable instead of purely professional. The first draft of the High School Literacy Narrative made me learn that not only should writing be relatable, I must also learn how to write for a specific audience. The language I normally use may only be understood by one audience, while another that reads my writing may not completely grasp the message that I am attempting to convey to them. The next assignment that was assigned to us by the instructor was the Genre Study Assignment. This assignment consisted of picking a piece of writing found in both college and high school, and then analyzing those pieces. The pieces I chose were a book report that I wrote

in high school on the book On Killing by Lieutenant Colonel. This book report centered on why soldiers kill, the effects of killing on a soldier (divided by distances), and how soldiers are conditioned to kill the enemy. I analyzed the book report on how the author (me) wrote about killing, and what points he talked about the most. The reason that this piece is included, is because it is my first exposure to learning (and writing) about different genres outside of nonfiction professional sounding statements. After completing the genre study exam, the class was assigned a Midterm paper. The makeup of the midterm paper was a set of questions created by the instructor to assess the progress of the class itself, as well as its opinions of the class. This Midterm Paper is important to my portfolio because it helped assess my learning half way through the course.

The Genre Study Assignment is the next part of the portfolio. This assignment consisted of the analysis of two writing pieces, one from high school and one from a university level class. I chose a book report I wrote in my senior year of high school, as well as an essay written by Joe Antinarella. This Genre Study Assignment taught me that genres differ in high school and university. And to write about each effectively, I would have to adapt my writing to each genre assigned to me. In order to produce adequate drafts, I needed to change my writing styles from

simply informative, to more analytical in order to express my opinion of why the author of the two writing pieces wrote what they wrote. The feedback artifacts included in this portfolio are my first and second drafts of both the High School Literacy Narrative as well as the Genre Study Assignment. These drafts have been reviewed by my peers and their input has been implemented into the final drafts of this portfolio

paper. I find that these feedback artifacts are important because they highlight aspects of my writing that I could improve on as well as elaborate on. As a result of these peer reviews, I like to think that my writing has improved, even in the short time that we were in class (five weeks to be exact). For instance, I was commended on my use of diction and syntax, however, I was told by my instructor (as well as some of my peers) that my papers should also contain some quotes so that it gives the reader a better understanding of what I, the writer, was going through at the time. Through out the five weeks of ENGL 1101, I have learned a great amount from myself, my instructor, and my classmates as well. I learned how to write narratives and about different genres that I would encounter during my time at university . Through the compilation of essays that we had to read for in class discussion, I learned about tips to survive in my university English classes. Overall, the grade that I think is appropriate for me to receive in this class is a low to high B. I think this grade is appropriate because the quality of work that I submitted could have been better overall. If I was given more time in the class (longer than the 5 weeks), then I may have been able to improve on this quality of work and make my college writing for university more refined and more coherent submitted assignments. Other than those two complaints, I feel like I have submitted adequate work that is worthy of a B grade.