Reflection

I write to express my thoughts and feelings. I write about good stuff in my life. I write

about tragedies. I write and become vulnerable. I write because Im scared. I write because

written words are easier than verbal ones. I write to get good grades. I write to find peace in my

heart. I write to ramble. I write to rant. I write to express love. I write in times when words speak

louder than actions. I write where no one can read. I write in secret. I write for anxiety. I write

despite what others think. In my life, a pen touches paper, or fingers press down on keys, to

uniquely express myself and become fearless.

Logistics:

Its ironic to me that I am sitting here writing a reflection because I feel as if my entire

portfolio would be described as a reflection. My portfolio is purely me. When I am given free

rein in writing, I think more introspectively than normal. Within my e-portfolio, I become

vulnerable. I tell stories very few know, and I express feelings that eat me alive. No one is

perfect, and in my portfolio, I explain that in great detail. Growing up in the suburb of Atlanta,

everyone had this perception that bad things do not happen to our neighbors. Little did they

know how wrong they were. I lost my faith, I lost my self-esteem, and I almost lost my dad.

Scary events have happened in my life that hurt too much to speak, so I write them. Many of the

topics in my e-portfolio I have written about before. These topics come easy to me because they

are important. I chose the topics I did to show passion in my writing. My mom is one of the most

important people in my life. I lost my faith when I was in middle school, and I have never been

more confused. In middle school, I found myself drowning in the thought that I might not ever

see my dad again. I let the act of running take every ounce of anything out of my body. I hate

having the stigma of being a sorority girl accompany me in most public settings I go. My
essays in my e-portfolio all have a meaning. They all serve a purpose to express myself through a

different medium than most would.

Reflection on Learning:

On the first day of class in August, I was highly intimidated by the thought of an e-

portfolio. My first thought was that I would be all on my own to draft, edit, and revise all my

papers. While I am above average overall in school, I would say English is not my strong suit.

Once I got to writing about things heavy on my heart, it all became easy. Although I did not

incorporate anything specifically from the Encounters we did in my portfolio, the prompts that

were given to us by the different groups opened my eyes to a broader spectrum when

brainstorming topics.

Like I mentioned earlier, English has never been my best subject. I believe it all stemmed

from elementary school when I never grasped the topic of grammar. I hate to admit the fact that

it took me until high school to fully understand the difference between a verb, adverb, and

adjective; I am not exaggerating. The grammar lessens we did in class helped me tremendously,

especially the commas. I was always taught, by my mom and some teachers, that a comma goes

where there is a natural pause in the sentence or the thought. Little did I know how much

attention commas need. Through the grammar lessens, I could go back through and apply the

different rules to my papers. I started to use the rules with Dont Go, Daddy, so saying that

piece is the best example of the applications of the comma rules is a fair statement.

Reverse revising became my best friend during the editing process. I often get caught up

in what I am saying and not how I am saying it. I used the reverse revising technique on each

essay I wrote, even my ten-page rhetorical analysis . This technique has definitely changed the

way I go about editing and revising my work. I caught far too many mistakes, especially
grammatical ones, that slipped by me when skimming over the paper. Reverse revising required

my brain to think a little harder, so I spread out editing over many days to catch most mistakes I

made. Through reverse revising, I also found a good bit of information included in my original

drafts that was not needed after all. If you were to compare my last draft to my final essay, you

would see a significant difference in the length of essays. I know essays need detail, but too

much can be confusing for a reader.

My favorite thing we did in class as far as editing and revising goes was peer response.

Although peer response was not something the instructor gave lessons on or done in class, it

helped me tremendously in my revising/editing process. As a writer, we often become bias and

believe our work is good enough, even when it might not be. Getting feedback from my

professor and my peers throughout the entire writing process made a huge impact on what to add

into my writings. The biggest difference peer response made in my writings were the scenes.

Before entering English 1101, I had no idea how important scenes were when writing. After

completing all my drafts, The Marathon, Suzie-Q, and CROSSing Paths Again did not have

scenes. All those pieces evoke deep feelings where the readers should be able to imagine

themselves in the moment, but couldnt. Without the guidance of my peers and professor, those

pieces would still be missing such a key element.

Philosophy:

Before entering English 1101, I had this thought that all argument stems from a

persuasive paper. Lunsford stood up, slapped me in the face, and proved me wrong. Within the

first week of class, we all sat in a circle and debated about what our classroom was arguing. Im

not going to lie, that was the strangest 18 minutes I experienced in a while. Lunsfords

philosophy is that, Everything is an argument, while mine is, Arguments are everywhere.
My philosophy stems from what I mentioned earlier that all argument stems from a persuasive

paper, but arguments are everywhere. Arguments are in every room you step foot in, every

conversation you engage in, and every environment you place yourself in. Rhetoric and

argument stem from thinking and engaging of the mind. English 1101 refreshed my brain on

what rhetoric was from high school, but it also opened up a new mindset to consider in everyday

life.