ELA Portfolio Analysis

Throughout this semester I have learned many valuable resources, and tools. The big thing you taught us was how to write and argument paper. Also I have learned different tools on summarizing, how to better my skills for peer reviews, new library skills, and MLA format. Most of these I already knew, but you taught us them more in depth, and you gave me better understandings of them.

Everyone on the planet has a goal set in life, but only a handful attempt to improve to obtain their goal by studying the subject their goal is in. In my English class, English 101 this quarter I was astonished by how much I had progressed as a writer sharpening my writing skills and also learned a lot about writing that I hadn’t learned before. In my writing portfolio for this quarter I had to write an autobiography essay, a research essay, and this reflection essay to develop my writing skills better. The writing assignments were fun to do because it challenged me to work on essays of different styles that were new to me. The essay assignments helped me grow as a better writer that gave me the self-confidence and skills to take on the world on my own.

From writing thoughtful poems to research papers, I have experienced composing a diverse portfolio of literary analysis and criticisms throughout the school year. I started out the year writing minimally. By the end of the year, I noticed I was able to express my ideas and thoughts in a more clear and concise way on paper. Ultimately, each composition allowed me to widen my horizons as a writer and see how I could improve as a writer.

This year I have learned a lot from College Writing, this class has taught me a lot about my own writing and what makes a good essay. I have learned a lot about myself as a writer and as a person throughout the course. In this reflection of the past semester I will be going through my past papers and talk about what I liked and how I could’ve made them better. I will also be going through the activities that have shaped my writing the most. Hopefully, I will be representing how I have grown as a writer throughout the year because of this class. Before taking this class I was already relatively confident in my writing abilities and was excited to take the class. Now that the course is completed I am even more confident in my writing because of all the new techniques and helpful tips I learned.

While reading “Shitty First Drafts” by Anne Lamott and “Journey as a Writer” by Yvonne Sui-Runyan I came to a discovery. Writing is terribly difficult for everyone, not just us college kids. I found that composing any sort of writing challenging for all of us and it is never just sugars and rainbows. This however, can be stressful for those of us who enjoy those things in our daily lives. Being said, after expecting to be thrown straight into a fire after reading these, I came to a suppressing conclusion. I was “okay” with my status as a writer. Not because of the crude humor in Lamott’s writing or the easy to understand structure in Sui-Runyan’s but, because it felt great to know that there are other people out there who are struggling to

The assignment i’ve chose for my portfolio is “The Memoir of Leilani Vance’ essay.The memoir was about my father Chris Vance , he was in the army and died in the line of duty . I chose to write about my father for the memoir because he was a great father, brother, and uncle , and i will always love & miss him. This was challenging because it's hard to talk about him , i barely even knew my father .

Themes for Writers, edited by Lynn Z. Bloom and Louise Z. Smith, Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2014, pp. 63-65.

Throughout the course of freshmen year I have developed different skills and opinions on writing. I feel I have created a more mature style of writing and a better understanding of literature. I have changed my view of writing over this semester and acquired a strong liking for it. The importance of writing has become more visible throughout the past few months. Writing is crucial in many aspects of a person’s life. I have grown to be a more powerful and well built writer throughout this course.

The main theme of the analysis essay that I wrote surrounding the Brave New World focused on the idea that when a society relies too much on stability, the society could derail it's people’s individuality and freedom. I really enjoyed the book Brave New World and found writing the analytical essay very interesting and challenging. I felt it was important to include this essay in my portfolio because I thought, even after several revisions, it could still use another round of editing which would have made it a better and more complete piece. Ultimately, after all of the edits, I am pleased with the final version and I wanted to display this piece in my portfolio. This essay is much different from the others in my portfolio considering it is not a creative writing piece, but rather an analytical essay.

Throughout my many years of taking English courses I have learned great things. With this, I have had great writing experiences and developed strength in writing. Though I have learned many new skills on writing, I still strive to be a better writer. In this essay, I will discuss how my education, prior writing experiences, writing strengths, and writing weaknesses factor into my choice.

The piece of work that I have chosen to place in my portfolio is a long essay that I wrote my junior year for Ms. Stillwell’s AP U.S. History class. The assignment was timed, I was given thirty-five minutes to complete it. The goal of the assignment was to evaluate the impact of the Declaration of Independence and to analyze how it marked a turning point in American history. This was to be answered in the form of an essay. This type of essay tests a skill known as periodization, which focuses on analyzing how time periods are distinguished and the turning points that separate them.

Prompt 7. Share an essay on any topic of your choice. It can be one you've already written, one that responds to a different prompt, or one of your own design

In this portfolio I have included three essays, my personal belief of my worst, my most improved and then my best. My hardest essay to write would have been the more personal one. I decided to write my first essay on American Sign Language (ASL). I believe this to be one of my weakest essays due to not have writing many personal ones. Usually when people think of essays they think of book reports or

Now that I have completed the Johns Hopkins University Center for Talented Youth course Crafting the Essay, I feel I have tremendously grown as a writer. Even after submitting the first assignment, I looked back at a position paper I wrote for school that I received an A+ on, yet I saw several flaws I wished I had changed.

This first semester at the University of Akron has flown by. I learned many new writing concepts that helped me become a better writer. English composition was a required class that I had to take in order to get my degree. Although this class was required I still wanted to take this class to become more knowledgeable about writing. Coming into English Composition I was worried about all of the papers and the workload that I would have to complete. I knew that I was going to have to write a lot more than I previously had in highschool, but I was unsure of just how much. The works that I decided to include in my portfolio comprise of my Literacy Narrative, Image Analysis Paper, and essay titled Mayas Hardships based on Maya’s experiences in I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings. I selected these works because I felt that they are the ones that require the most improvement to them. The papers i've chosen show how far I’ve came In English Composition.