My English Composition Portfolio

The papers that I chose to include in the “Best Works” section of my writing portfolio I believe best featured my writing strengths.

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In this portfolio it will show a range of work that was completed in English 111. You will find a table of contents so you can locate each piece of work easily. There will be a sample of a writing from my religion class that I have previously taken. This writing is a research paper. The reason I chose this sample of writing is because research papers is not one of my strongest papers that I can complete but, this was an easier research paper because of the topic that it was on and I could use any source I wanted to as long as it was not Wikipedia. Also, you will find samples of each writing assignment that was completed in this course: Narration Essay, Comparison/Contrast Essay, and Argumentative Research Essay, along with some revisions

Welcome to my 8th grade portfolio and I am going to talk about how I have grown from 7th grade to 8th grade in math. In math we work on a website called Digits filled with learning based tools and activities that help us master numerous math subjects as homework. We take multiple quizzes and tests always on the current subject we are learning about. Every morning we do warm ups. Warm ups are just practice problems to prepare us for lessons and bigger practices in the upcoming class. My performance in math has improved from weak explanations and work, to detailed, and understandable explanations of math using thorough work. In 7th grade I was in the CC7 class and now I am in CC8. That doesn’t mean I haven’t improved. I am at grade level understanding

Shawn T. Smith’s “The User’s Guide to the Human Mind” shows the way the brain reacts and the reason it reacts to certain events, tendencies, and otherwise work against us in functional pursuits. It helps us to understand why we develop anxiety and depression. He suggests us struggling against unhappy anxious thoughts and make friends with our minds. Smith states “your mind is not supposed to make you happy it’s supposed to help you survive.” The brain has bad habits one is avoiding new experiences two is our brain looks for problems that don’t exist. Smith states that the mind is built in such a way that most of its functions and drives lie outside our control.

The pieces I have chosen to be apart of my portfolio are the Catcher in the Rye essay, the American rebels powerpoint, the Streetcar Named Desire essay and the Catcher In The Rye fishbowl. I chose to include the Catcher in the Rye essay because it showcased my ability to explain in detail quotes from the book and expand on one idea. I also chose this essay because I got an 82% which I believe is a good grade for a hard essay topic such as the symbolism of the ducks. In addition, I chose the Catcher In The Rye fishbowl because it showed my ability to work cooperatively with my peers and actively listen to one another. Overall I earned a 92% on the fishbowl which is an A-. Lastly, I chose the American Rebels project because I did a very good

As I look back on my writing portfolio, I realize in all my first drafts I make numerous mistakes. I would like to believe that my errors became more complex mistakes but I know one of my consistent mistakes is with indefinite and definite articles. With the first couple of letters I had very few definite articles and by the end I had too many. However, I do think that as my writings progressed I tried to write about more complexly. I feel more confident in my writing since I have had to continually practice. Overall, I believe because I tried to write with more complex Arabic grammar, I had more mistakes from my attempts. Yet I am glad I tried to use difficult grammar because it has taught me how to correctly phrase sentences in Arabic.

The final essay of my class being a research paper titled “Power Of Habit” is the fourth essay of my portfolio. My research paper goes over how schools teach nutrition and physical education and how it lacks the habit building to keep those good habits in the future. It also shows what has been changed in attempts to improve the schools and lower obesity but I add my own personal theory that is backed up by information that is gone over. It was a great way to research information about a topic I find interesting while, able to connect it to what I was learning during comp.

The syllabus for Freshmen Composition was articulate and reasonable. A sentence that caught my eye was “This portfolio should present your best work and should also portray the process you went through during the semester to produce that work.” A portfolio will be an excellent assignment to work on because going back and looking through older work along with the newer will be a huge learning experience. It will allow the students to see the improvements they have made over the course of a semester. This is an extensive leap into creating better essays for college. By doing this assignment students will not only learn from previous mistakes, they will be able to create a collage of their absolute best

I didn't have much to choose from to include, so I went with the pieces that were best, and used some from Whittier. I included pieces from Whittier for a few reasons. I think the pieces i wrote at Whittier have more of my personal voice showing through. I picked the topic for the persuasive essay, and I picked the topic for the history essay, which means that the topics that I wrote about were something I was passionate about. The persuasive essay is about homeschooling, a topic that I have known about, been interested in, and been involved with for a few years. I made a conscious effort to make sure that I was not straying away fromt the outline I had made and I asked my teacher to read and edit my paper. This meant that any overused words, spelling errors or off topic thoughts were eliminated. This lead to a concise paper and one that helped me progress towards my first semester goal. For this essay, I found the teacher feedback extremely helpful, and I am very happy with the way that this paper turned out and with the grade I received. I also submitted a paper from my history class. History is a class I am passionate about, and this paper was the easiest to write out of all of the ones in my portfolio. This essay has lots of information in it, and although I did not receive teacher feedback prior to submitting, I had one of my peers read it over. I find that peer editing, while it can be helpful, is not nearly as helpful

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.

In preparation for his initial meeting with Tyler, Weaver prepared a list of basic issues

In examining my feedback, the first main concern identified was in reference to structure. The marker refers to my ‘input’ being “all over the place”, suggesting a lack of organisation and comprehensive structure to my argumentation which is also insinuated by the recommendation to ‘label’ points more explicitly. Consequently, it became difficult to develop a compelling argument, neglecting my discussion to a series of statements with little elaboration alongside those points. Moreover, by suggesting to ‘label’ to allow the flow of the argument , I believe the marker is suggesting the use of signposting and seemingly highlights a substantial omission - the lack of development in my

• How well does your portfolio reflect the course goals and requirements (as defined in the syllabus)?

In one sudden movement, I found myself lying down. From what had once been a still and contemplative stare forward, I suddenly had no recollection of how I landed with my eyes observing upwards with my head at a ninety-degree angle from the ground. I became aware of how finely cut the edges of the Drakensburg wild grass were, as they sliced through the thick hair on my head and legs, pushing eagerly towards my scalp and skin, pulling me further into the ground, returning me. I became aware of how unstable the ground was as it bubbled and flowed past the bends and protrusions of my spine, preparing to split beneath me and return me. I became aware of how silent the air was as I listened for a voice of consolation but was met with the wallowing of daggered winds. I noticed the sky above me. Too soon yet too late, I was holstered from my daze and told to return.