Writing Portfolio

Cover Letter:

            For the fourth quarter in English 1, we are revisiting the writing we have done this year through revision, transformation, and selection. We also are reflecting on our choices, accomplishments, growth, and remaining areas for work. Our projects include an essay revision, a writing remix, a list of two of our hits and misses, and this cover letter.

            The paper I chose to revise was the first piece of writing I did this year. The Literacy Narrative. One reason I chose this paper was because I have changed through my writing this year and wanted to improve my writing, having become a better writer. I feel like even though I got the best grade on this paper, I could add more and more detail to my writing. The two traits I chose to focus on while revising my paper are word choice and voice. For word choice, I wanted like to add meaningful, engaging, and effective words that really bring my paper to life, instead of just a story being told. I chose the other trait, voice, because I felt I could really work more on my voice to make my story clearer. I wanted to make my story unique and exciting for readers to read.

For the transformation piece of this project, I picked my research paper. Since this paper was so formal and proper, I really wanted to transform it into something more exciting and easier to understand. That is why I chose to do a feature article from a magazine about sugar, and change my audience to people less formal, like kids or younger people. I wanted to make this piece very fun and stimulating to the eye, so I added pictures, fun facts, and a game to play about sugar. I think that this remix is truly a different form from what it started out as.

For my two “hits” this year, both were blog posts. My first hit is from way back in first semester to the free post we had right after the week of no school in September. My blog post is titled Hurricane Isaac. In this blog post, I thought my best quality was detail and word choice. I explained the emotions and my surroundings well in this post. I really enjoyed writing this post because we had just started blogging and I was excited to write a free post. For my second hit, I chose the blog post, even though it was quite recent, where we got to write our own poem but had to use three of our poetry techniques. I had fun writing this post because we could write about anything we wanted. Even though it was hard for me to pick a subject, I felt really confident with this poem. It was interesting to see this side of my writing because it is so different from what we have been doing all year. I also thought that the use of my poetry techniques was correct and useful to the meaning of my poem.

For my two “misses” this year I thought my first was one of my first blog posts this year. I was confused by what we were supposed to write, and what was in my head did not sound as good as I thought it would. This miss is the post where we were supposed to write about “In defense of ___: A ____’s manifesto.” I chose to write about chocolate, because it was the first thing that popped into my head. In this post, I didn’t really convey the point of the post, and didn’t defend my position well. My next miss would be the literacy analysis paper we wrote about short stories. In this paper, I don’t think my transitions and my analyses were well written. I think that paper was definitely one of my worst writing assignments this year.

            I haven’t really learned much of anything about myself as a writer this year. I learned that writing doesn’t always have to be serious, and my pieces always seem to have a bit of fun in them. I have also learned to always be confident with my writing, because you can fix whatever is wrong. I have made many improvements on m writing this year. These things include correcting grammatical errors, learning proper headings and citations, and how to express my own voice through my pieces of writing.

My strengths in writing include conventions, sentence fluency, organization, and ideas. I believe I am exceptional in conventions because I rarely get points off a paper for convention errors. My papers always have fluent transitions throughout them, but sometimes I feel they could be even better. I think my organization and ideas go together, because I am organizing my ideas. I feel that my choice of ordering my ideas fits my papers well.

Some areas I still need work on include citing, whether to underline of use quotations on titles, and to improve my transitions. I think that I just need to memorize the first two things I wrote, because I am always forgetting how to cite and how to correctly mark titles. I think that my transitions are mediocre, but could be better. I think to improve my transitions, I should focus mainly on that when writing a draft for any paper. I am sure there are several other things I need to improve, but I think these are the most important to make better and stronger.

            I think that this year of English has taught me many things, not just about reading and writing, but about myself. I have found my strengths, what I need help with, and how to use my writing positively. 

Analysis of Rhetorical Situation:

            The audience I chose for my writing remix is a younger one. I chose this because I wanted to change my piece from being so formal to more entertaining. I changed this project from my original audience to my new audience by editing the word choice and the way the information is presented. My audience doesn’t need to know anything to understand my material. I am communicating with my audience so that they can become informed, but have fun while learning. I hope the outcome is positive and helpful to the new audience reading my remix. I think the purpose has changed from having a defined argument and stance in my research paper to a more relaxed and pleasurable way to learn about my topic.

             My attitude or approach to my topic is more laid back and fun. I convey this by inserting pictures and adding more simple words. I have not changed my argument form my original piece of writing, but I feel I am writing differently about the context of my topic in people’s lives. I use genre and medium to accomplish my purpose by conveying my thoughts about my topic. The features and strategies of the genre I chose include cause and effect, comparing and contrasting, antitheses, colloquialism, and denotation. The design elements I chose were to have the background a light and bright color to make it seem happier, and I chose to add pictures to make the article more interesting. I don’t think my genre and medium have changed that much, but my design has changed dramatically, because there wasn’t any colors on my research paper, but there are many colors now. 

Hits and Misses:

For my two “hits” this year, both were blog posts. My first hit is from way back in first semester to the free post we had right after the week of no school in September. My blog post is titled Hurricane Isaac. In this blog post, I thought my best quality was detail and word choice. I explained the emotions and my surroundings well in this post. I really enjoyed writing this post because we had just started blogging and I was excited to write a free post. For my second hit, I chose the blog post, even though it was quite recent, where we got to write our own poem but had to use three of our poetry techniques. I had fun writing this post because we could write about anything we wanted. Even though it was hard for me to pick a subject, I felt really confident with this poem. It was interesting to see this side of my writing because it is so different from what we have been doing all year. I also thought that the use of my poetry techniques was correct and useful to the meaning of my poem.

For my two “misses” this year I thought my first was one of my first blog posts this year. I was confused by what we were supposed to write, and what was in my head did not sound as good as I thought it would. This miss is the post where we were supposed to write about “In defense of ___: A ____’s manifesto.” I chose to write about chocolate, because it was the first thing that popped into my head. In this post, I didn’t really convey the point of the post, and didn’t defend my position well. My next miss would be the literacy analysis paper we wrote about short stories. In this paper, I don’t think my transitions and my analyses were well written. I think that paper was definitely one of my worst writing assignments this year.

Writing Remix:
My writing remix is in the form of a newspaper article, so some of my pictures and background cannot be seen. 

        Sugar is contained in certain kinds of food, or it is added to give a sweet taste. Sugar is extracted from certain plants, such as sugarcane or sugar beets. But is it okay to take in a lot of sugar? Large amounts of sugar can be harmful to your body. Is there another way to eat sugar, but without all the health risks? There is. It is called artificial sweeteners or sugar substitutes. These sugars are chemically made, and make food taste sweeter without all the calories of regular sugar.  It is made to taste like sugar or corn syrup. Usually it has a much lower energy value than sugar. But these fake sugars can sometimes be harmful to the body. Certain people with diseases need to stay away from fake sugars because it could cause them to experience the symptoms of their disease. Even though people like dentists recommend eating artificial sugar in items like gum and candy, it is best to check for diseases that can be affected by them first.

Writing Center Evaluation/Approach to Improving Essay/Changes Made:
       I think my visit to the Writing Center was very helpful. I received feedback on my thoughts for my paper and how to revise my paper. First, I read my paper allowed and then asked how I thought about it. I then got feedback on my two areas I am focusing on from my writing fellow. I am glad we were made to go to the Writing Center, because I would never have gone without the requirement. I used most of what I was talked to about, like how to determine what details are needed and what to think about. I think that my paper is better now that I went to the Writing Center.
       My approach to improving my essay was simple. First I read my paper. Automatically I saw some errors from when I had last looked at my paper. That was my first step. Then I went to the Writing Center, where I received help. Next I focused on what voice and word choice really meant to a paper and how I could improve mine. Finally, I made some decisions about my paper and which parts of my paper to edit. 
        I was surprised by not how many changes I made. But I feel that these few changes dramatically impacted my paper, with voice and word choice. I changed sections in my paper where I felt an explanation was needed, places where more description was needed, and places that felt uncertain to me. For voice I edited places where it seemed my input on the situation was needed and positions where I changed the point of view I needed to edit. 

Essay Revision: 

Picture Books

            I remember the year of first grade like it was yesterday. On the first day of school, my sisters and I woke up early and got our uniforms on, put all of our brand new school supplies in our new backpacks, which had also been recently bought, and rushed out the door to the car. I recall my mom always saying to slow down because we would be so early that not even our teachers would be there. But, our excitement prevailed and sure enough, we were the some first kids there. I think that first grade was my favorite year in lower school because my teacher was a so nice. She was the best of the best and the coolest of the cool. I was so excited to finally be in her class, because my sister was in her class the previous year and told so many great stories about her class. I couldn’t wait to be part of these enticing stories. 

            So the first day when I strolled into Mrs. Claus’ classroom, I knew the year was going to be fantastic. She told us all to sit down in our newly assigned seats and share our names and one experience we had over the summer with everyone. One by one, we all stood up, said our names and spoke about our summer memories, then sat back down. Over the next few weeks, we read books, watched movies, and even did a project on our favorite famous person. Writing was an everyday part of our educational lives, from our journal to homework assignments, and I really loved it. So one day when Mrs. Claus announced we would be composing our own picture book with any topic we wanted to write about, I was absolutely thrilled. But soon after, my excitement faded. I then realized that there were only so many things a first grader could write about that Mrs. Claus hadn’t already previously read about before.

The next school day, I sluggishly came in to class, sure that we would have to start our first draft. So I sat down at my desk, pulled out my pencil and a fresh piece of loose-leaf paper, waiting patiently. Mrs. Claus then began class by having everyone compose their own idea chart for our topic. I was horrified when she asked a few of us to present our organizers in front of the class. With my heart beating as loud as a drum, I prayed that she wouldn’t pick me. It appeared as if time slowed down when she called out the five students. I felt my heart return to its normal pace when she called the list without my name. I fell back into my seat and relaxed while listening to my peer’s topics. A couple of ideas were about family or pets, and the others about schoolwork or extracurricular activities. My mind was soon overflowing with extraordinary ideas. That feeling of anxiety quickly faded and brought a feeling of exhilaration.

For class the next few days I cautiously created the pictures and words that filled my pages with delight. Finally, we received our clean, perfectly made, white hardback books Mrs. Claus had ordered for us\. Everyone scripted and colored their own storybook neatly for the next week or so.

The day our book was due, I felt ready to present. I knew I had written and drawn everything perfectly and it was the best book in the class. I was not able to hold in my excitement. When I practically ran into the classroom, I pulled out my book just to make sure it was as great as I thought, even though I already knew it would be. As I started to read the first page about myself, I realized I had spelled almost every single word on the page wrong. I also realized my grass was purple and not green. I started hyperventilating and felt like I was about to run screaming out of the class. I thought for sure my life was over.

“Okay class, time for your presentations,” Mrs. Claus said. “Who wants to go first?”

The person next to me raised their hand with such enthusiasm I felt like I wanted to hide in a shell because I was so embarrassed. Person after person read their book. When it was down to the last four or five people, Mrs. Claus walked towards me briskly and said, “Caroline, it is your turn to read your book.”

I shakily walked up to the front of the classroom and opened my book. I read each page so fast that I thought I wasn’t even saying the words. With breath after breath and word after word I reached a higher level of confidence and eventually slowed down my reading. After I finished, my class clapped and cheered for me and I recognized that my book was not as bad as I had imagined. Even though my book had a few misspellings and discolorations, I finally realized it was okay if I made a few mistakes. I was only a first grader. I was still learning and trying out my writing. From then on, every time I start my first draft of a paper, I think to myself that it’s okay to just scratch down your ideas because you can always perfect them later. Writing my picture book in first grade really helped me enjoy my writing and have fun with it. I still have my book and have fun reading over my first grade thoughts. It seems forever ago that I was still learning how to style my writing. I think that this experience positively affected my writing choices and me.