My Portfolio Of The Semester

As the semester comes to a close, it is always interesting to look back and reflect on the events and opportunities my English class has given me throughout my first semester as a whole. At the beginning of this semester it was evident that I was feeling uncomfortable due to the adjustment that I was going through as a student moving to college. It was very difficult expressing myself through my writing since I was nervous about good impressions and my good grade. While this class was one of the most difficult courses that I have taken this far, it has become quite evident to me that I have grown a substantial amount as a writer and as a person; Especially, when it came to explaining my ideas, writing academic essays, and making arguments.

After this semester of English 102, at Bristol Community College I feel that I have gained the skill to articulate what I want to convey to the reader in many ways. I don’t just look at grammatical error, but instead I look for ways to make my sentences more effective and concise. Nevertheless, I hope that this strategy will continue to help me improve my writing even further on in the future.

It’s hard to imagine that just ten short months ago I was sitting in a classroom building a spaghetti tower with no idea what a rhetorical analysis essay was or what the word anaphora meant. Now, just a couple of months later, I have read and analyzed six different novels, learned to write an argument, synthesis, and rhetorical analysis essay, expanded my lexicon of literary terms, and sat through a three hour AP exam. This class has not only given me the skills to master the AP exam, but it has also given me knowledge to succeed in future English courses and in life. Through this course, I have experienced unparalleled growth in my reading comprehension and writing abilities.

In reference to the 100A assignment sheet for the rhetorical analysis, a rhetorical analysis is a written work that focuses on analyzing and understanding a published article. In this assignment, students will get opportunities to develop their writing and improve deep analytic skills to identifying rhetorical strategies that writers will use to achieve the purpose of a well-written document. The audience for this analytical paper will be my classmates, professor, and the committee members of the 100A.

Analyzing an essay includes summary and paraphrase to better explain someone’s point, but it is also looking to how the author did that essay, why he did that essay, and to whom he wants this essay to be directed. While I was looking to all my previous assignments, I learned that while an individual is writing an analysis, it is very important for him/her to be aware of making the essay clear, and who is the audience. When I looked to my first brief assignment of identifying rhetorical choices, I saw how I did not understand select and explain rhetorical choices. It was unclear and some sentences did not make any sense. Also, because I am used to use an attention getter in every introduction, I thought that it could also be applied in an analysis essay, and what I learned is that I could use one, but not a long one because sometimes, it may distract the readers from what the essay is really about, an analysis. When I was taking English 1301, I also went to the writing center, and teacher’s office hours. It was very useful to me because I learned different ways to right a paragraph, and other things. In the writing center, I learned to think more about the audience, they made questions like: who is the audience, how will this reference affect the audience, and is it really worth to use some of the things that I wrote. Also, with my instructor, I learned that I

While the authors of these essays execute remarkable examples of rhetorical analyses, I myself could definitely improve on my own essays. For instance, my writing can be vague, especially when explaining how the rhetorical

Analyzing was never my strong suit, until we were assigned to write a rhetorical analysis. The assignment was to look at a persuasive article whether in magazines or online, and analyze how/why the author’s article was effective. With the explanation on how to properly analyze, I was able to write an effective rhetorical analysis paper. Not only did I write a strong rhetorical analysis, but I now have the knowledge on how to effectively write an analysis, which will benefit me in the future. Learning how to take a text and analyze it, helped guide me towards goal #3, which better my process of writing and thinking.

As the Fall 2017 term comes to end, I look back on what I have accomplished in this class. English 102 – Composition II was one of the most challenging and toughest class I have taken at UW-Stout, but feel as though it has helped me to improve my writing skills. Even before the semester started the feeling of anxiety had taken over, as writing has never been my strongest skill, but stayed positive and confident I would be successful. Much to my surprise, my instructor, Michael Critchfield quickly addressed that this class would not be easy and amazingly changed my views of writing throughout the entire semester.

This semester I learned a lot about writing in English 151. It has been a roller coaster ride with these essays for me this semester. I learned step by step how to write a good essay and how to have your readers be engaged in what you’re trying to tell them. Each essay I did has taught me something valuable I can take to the next level of English. I feel as if as the semester went by I did not take my writing that seriously and that reflected in my grades I received in each essay. It made me a better student and writer and it will reflect next semester. In this essay, I will reflect on what I learned throughout this semester that you should apply in your writing when you begin English 151.

During this class I expressed the use of rhetoric in the four major essays I wrote, including the Narrative Essay, Rhetorical Mode Essay, Argumentative Essay, and Research Essay. Being able to think critically is a crucial part of success when it comes to writing these essays. At the beginning of this class, I had a much less understanding of this particular area. I struggled with being able to use research effectively to persuade others of a certain argument. I also had difficulty with grammar issues, and paying attention to my overall “voice” of an essay. I believe that I improved significantly in all of those areas because in each essay I have learned to put myself in the audience’s position and view the piece of writing in the reader’s point of

Proficient writing is an essential skill in all aspects of academic and professional achievement. English 101, Introduction to Composition and Rhetoric, provided the framework to good writing, teaching me composition and rhetoric fundamentals, polishing up my grammar and style, and expressing a clear message. English 102, Composition, Rhetoric, and Research, continued to build on the skills I learned in English 101, focusing on the subject matter research process and employing various rhetorical and literary devices to better express a clear message to the reader. The course also improved my critical thinking capacity, allowing me to culturally evaluate my target audience, present logically flowing arguments using appropriate language and structure, and critically reviewing my writing projects for content and expression. Every writer inherently knows there’s always room to improve and I hold fast to this mindset in all academic, professional, and personal writing projects. English 102 has both challenged and inspired me to grow into a much better writer than before I began the class, providing the necessary skills to be not just a good writer, but a great writer.

In reference to the 100A assignment sheet for the rhetorical analysis, a rhetorical analysis is a written work that focuses on analyzing and understanding a published article. In this assignment, students will get opportunities to develop their writing and improve deep analytic skills to identifying rhetorical strategies that writers will use to achieve the purpose of a well-written document. The audience for this analytical paper will be my classmates, professor, and the committee members of the 100A.

Growth, I believe, is inevitable when one is compelled to learn and apply that knowledge which has been presented to them. This semester has proved to be a time of development, change, and substantial growth. During my time in English 101 I have had the chance to really explore new genres of writing such as memoirs, rhetorical analyses, and persuasive essays. In this class I have been able to build upon old writing skills and cultivate new ones; and I have also come to recognize what I like and dislike writing about through the completion of the assignments we were charged with. Through this semester in English 101 I feel as though I have had the opportunity to enhance my ability to apply the rules of rhetoric to my work, convey my thoughts and ideas with greater clarity, and recognize the places where I can improve my work through the revising process.

As the semester started, I had set my mind that I was destined to achieve a lot. During the start of the semester, I had several difficulties writing English assignments especially in terms of grammar. During the first week of the semester, I sat down, organized my thoughts and comprehended that throughout the semester, I had to achieve all that I had planned for. As a student of English, I had planned that throughout the semester, I had to improve my skills as a scholar, writer and critical thinker. Now that the semester has ended, I can reflect all the semester activities to depict how my writing skills and critical thinking skills have drastically improved. This paper presents a reflection paper of how this

I have been writing since I have been in Middle School. I have realized that by college it was easier for me to write down my thoughts in order for me to remember what I have said or done. Writing out my thoughts gives me a sense of recollection, knowledge, and pacification that gets me through my day. I pictured writing to be as simple as jotting down a few sentences, but as I got farther in school I realized that there is more to it than just writing sentences. English has been my most difficult subject I have ever endured, but I have somehow been managing to make excellent grades and achieving all requirements. First in the essay, I will discuss my experiences in the English life that I’ve taken so far up until college. The second part will list my struggles in creating a thesis, a work cited, and properly citing my sources used in the papers.