Retrospectives

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

The story of my history as a writer is a very long one. My writing has come full circle. I have changed very much throughout the years, both as I grew older and as I discovered more aspects of my own personality. The growth that I see when I look back is incredible, and it all seems to revolve around my emotions. I have always been a very emotional girl who feels things keenly. All of my truly memorable writing, looking back, has come from experiences that struck a chord with my developing self. This assignment has opened my eyes, despite my initial difficulty in writing it. When I was asked to write down my earliest memory of writing, at first I drew a blank. All of a sudden, it became very clear to me, probably because it had some

When I sit back and consider the significant events in my past, the important aspects of my life, and my future goals, the underlying theme is my appreciation for life’s struggles, people who help you through them and how they make you who you are. Throughout my entire life I have experienced the joys of accomplishing tasks and the sorrow of hardships, but no matter whether they were good or bad experiences they all helped to shape who I am today and who I will become tomorrow.

Memory is a set of cognitive processes that allow us to remember past information (retrospective memory) and future obligations (prospective memory) so we can navigate our lives. The strength of our memory can be influenced by the connections we make through different cognitive faculties as well as by the amount of time we spend devoting to learning specific material across different points in time. New memories are created every time we remember specific event, which results in retrospective memories changing over time. Memory recall can be affected retrospectively such as seeing increased recall in the presence of contextual cues or false recall of information following leading questions. Memory also includes the process

Writing may be an enthralling experience for one and a clever way to decompress for another. In general, however, writing has different purposes for a variety of people. “Why I Write,” written in the late 20th century by Terry Tempest Williams, describes various reasons for writing narrated from a female’s perspective. The short essay begins in the middle of the night with a woman engulfed in her own thoughts. She abruptly goes forth by reciting the multiple reasons why she continues to write in her life. Through a variety of rhetorical devices such as repetition, imagery, analogies, and symbolism, Terry Tempest Williams produces an elegant piece of writing that offers the audience insight into the narrator’s life and forces the audience to have empathy for the narrator with the situation she is incurring.

Of the various assignments completed in this portfolio, four of them were the most meaningful to me. The “First

I only had fifteen minutes left. It was then that I understood that this essay would not be perfect. In fact, it would most likely be disorganized and flawed, but, regardless of the outcome, I would have to write. With this realization, the weight of perfection lifted off my shoulders and it was strangely liberating to know that I would not be able to meet the impracticable standard I had set for myself. The unmarked page seemed less of an adversary and more of a companion as I began to write. At first, my words came slowly and laboriously. Then, they came all at once. One sentence led into another until sentences formed paragraphs and paragraphs formed an essay. When the proctor rose, considered us with practiced sympathy, and told us to put our pencils down, I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. I was simultaneously filled with relief and self-doubt. I had completed the essay, but, in the process, I had compromised an aspect of my identity that placed faultlessness above all else. In the past, I had seen that part of me as an asset, but on that day, it seemed unpleasantly clear that it was my greatest weakness. As I slowly unfurled my stiff fingers, I considered the now empty desk in front of me. Perhaps perfectionism is as much of a hurdle as it is a

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 .

This portfolio has show my progress in many different ways. The biggest way is my rhetorical knowledge has been increased because of the sources we have had to read especially in this last unit when we had to use the UW database. The scholarly articles and journals pushed my reading and analyzing to the limit, but it really helped me for the future. Because of my ability to analyze the sources well, it has helped me increase my writing, because I have been able to really find good credible quotes to use within my work.

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.

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.

Over the past week I found it hard to write this paper. I’ll start and cross everything out, because it doesn’t sound like me. Everyone helping to put together an outline for me to follow and yet it doesn’t nothing. Four days, I’ve been trying to make sense of myself and I have nothing. Until one evening over my brother’s house, I had the funniest conversations with his wife. Then, ding! Ideas started coming in like Hurricane Harvey. Over a mere conversation with endless questions, I realized who my literacy sponsors, my obstacles were and who I was.

Coming into Comp I one of the things that I looked forward to the most was writing a personal narrative essay because I have always done exceptionally well-writing introductions and setting the scene. In my first essay for Comp I the Autobiographical Narrative simply

Consequently, this particular profile makes me realize how occasionally we tend to write about things that are not “tangible”. Thus, we do not set down our ideas to a solid ground, but we divagate on random concepts that -although might be important for our society-, they require to pry deeper in order to give them a better perspective and make them practical and functional. For example, I might be able to write an essay on respect of Human Rights; however, it is meaningless, if I do not give the reader the proper way to actually learn how to respect Human Rights.

As a writer there are many elements of writing that I struggle with, especially when composing an essay. When writing an essay, there are usually many skills that need to be used in order to be successful with the writing assignment. Many times in writing I struggle with explaining and fully developing the supporting details and ideas in my essay. I would also like to improve on incorporating clear topic sentences and concluding sentences, connecting my paragraphs ideas back to my thesis. Lastly, improvement can be made in my writing by avoiding awkward or wordy sentences. Writers face numerous challenges in their writing but strive to overcome or improve these challenges with each piece they write.