Dear Portfolio Committee,
When I first started this English class I wasn’t very confident in my own writing capabilities. I found myself dreading the assignments before I even started because of my lack of experience. But, with very good leadership provided by my professor I realized I had more to be confident about then I initially thought. I noticed I had a keen strength in gathering information on the subject that I’m writing about. The issue that came with this was that I didn’t always know what I wanted to talk about. Which was something I was able to overcome when I picked an environmental theme for my future assignments. Even with this added help of direction I still struggled from lack of experience as many new types of essays were introduced to me throughout this course. I had difficulties with figuring out how to start working on the assignment as well as focusing on the main idea. I was able to overcome these obstacles by applying the feedback I received on my assignments, by constantly revising my work, and looking into different ways to approach the assignment. I also found that working on areas I do know first help me work more proficiently. These specific strategies really helped me grow and become a more confident writer. The three pieces I have selected for my portfolio are ones that I am very proud of and really display my growth as a writer.
My 1st piece that I have selected is the Text Wrestling Essay. It was the first response paper I have done and I found it to be very overwhelming. The topic for this piece was the article “Rethinking Extinction” by James Boyce. Throughout this assignment I really enjoyed being able to further my knowledge about extinction and rediscovering a reason as to why its such an important topic in today’s society. Although I enjoyed that aspect there were other parts I was not fond of. This is where I found myself struggling with developing my response. Since I was insecure with my writing I felt I had no place giving constructive feedback. After revising my paper with my professor they suggested I look through the article again and pay attention to the main points. Once I realized what needed to be fixed and where I was actually struggling, I made the proper adjustments. This action made my response fit my narrative and result in an overall better flow through the paper.
My 2nd Piece was an argumentative essay. Now this one came a little easier to me since there’s a lot of controversial subjects that have to do with nature/environment. When researching about this subject I found the concept of genetic engineering, specifically the topic of GMOs. In my essay, I argue the standpoint of how gmos are negatively impacting the environment. While writing this paper I found that I struggled with narrowing down the information and selecting what was worth further discussing. After some revising and individual paragraph rework I was able to include everything I wanted. Throughout this piece you will see how I was able to implement my research skills as well as my organizational skills to create a proper and well put together argument in regards to genetic engineering.
My 3rd and final piece is my photo essay, I feel this piece was my greatest challenge and my greatest accomplishment throughout this course. I think this really applied pressure to my research skills since this was a project solely based on research alone. It also challenged my citings abilities which I am still not entirely confident in. Since this was my first photo essay I’ve written I found many things interesting as well as hard. One major problem I had was finding the right photos and synchronizing them with information. I struggled with finding a good flow as well as providing relevant information. I was eventually able to get through it as I started focusing on writing individually then moved on to creating a cohesive piece. I learned so much throughout this course and I feel this piece truly shows my development as a writer.
This course has helped improve my confidence as a writer overall. Each piece speaks upon a topic I’m passionate about as well as showcases the new techniques and essay types I’ve learned throughout my writing experience. I hope you enjoy reading through my portfolio as much as I enjoyed writing and working on it.