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Noah Green Professor Suzanne Ingram English 1101 049 5 December 2013 Portfolio Essay Organization of Portfolio My e-portfolio contains four main pages across the top of the webpage. Following the Home page is my Portfolio Essay which is first because it introduces my entire portfolio. Along with my portfolio essay is a work artifact that I will discuss later in this essay. The second page on my portfolio is my blog, which I believe is important because it encompasses my writing from the entire semester. The final page is labeled More which includes the remainder of my writing that I completed throughout the semester. The first two tabs under More are Literacy Narrative Essay and Genre Analysis. I included these first because I thought that they were the most important pieces that I wrote during English 1101. Both essays include feedback and work artifacts that helped me create my final draft. The third tab in my portfolio is my Midterm Assignment, which is located after my Literacy Narrative since my Midterm discussed concepts that I used in my Literacy Narrative. The fourth tab under More is the Whole Life Concepts Project, which is located near the end of my portfolio because it was not related to English 1101. I wanted to include it because it improved my technical writing skills significantly. The final page on my e-portfolio is my paper titled Fire on Table Rock Mountain. This paper is last in my portfolio because it wasnt assigned in English 1101, though encompasses many techniques that I learned throughout the semester.

English Course Evaluation In English 1101, one of the first assignments that I completed was a blog post that was submitted on my weebly page. Up until that point, I had never written a blog post, and blogging was foreign to me. Throughout the semester, writing blogs has allowed me to experiment with my personal writing, and explore my thoughts. Throughout the semester, I have learned how to express my personal feeling and thoughts through writing due to writing numerous blogs. Writing blogs posts has also taught me to enjoy writing. The blog posts titled The Mountains and One Semester Down, showed me how writing can be enjoyable since I could fully express myself without the criticism of others. My first major assignment in English 1101, was to write a Literacy Narrative Essay. While writing this essay, I applied the key concept of risk-taking to my writing, since I experimented with the use of dialogue in my writing. Prior to writing this essay I had never used dialogue in my writing, though I found that it enhances a piece of writing significantly. In my Literacy Narrative Essay I used dialogue bring my essay to life, such as the character Rod telling the story, The local Hawaiian surfers are very territorial over their surf spots and one time I was charged by multiple surfers in the water. This quote allowed my audience to see actual conversations that I was describing throughout my essay. While writing my Literacy Narrative Essay, I also got the opportunity to learn and experiment with writing more visually and descriptively. In the following quotation, I used various senses to describe a location, It was a warm sunny day in August, and my brother and I were surfing off the coast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. To compose my Literacy Narrative Essay, I wrote multiple drafts, and I have included my first draft in my portfolio. When I finish a first draft I typically print out the draft; I find that by

doing this, I can improve the paper much better than just reading it on a computer screen. Besides fixing grammatical errors, this type of editing also allows me to see if I need to clarify anything in my essay. I also included feedback that I received from my professor on my Literacy Narrative Essay. The feedback that I receive from my instructor always seems to be more beneficial in improving my writing than my peers feedback. The feedback that I received on that draft helped me specifically see what I needed to add to my essay, such adding dialogue and additional details. A major assignment in English 1101 was to write a genre analysis, in which I analyzed both a high school literature piece and a college literature piece. This assignment taught me how to look inside a piece of literature, and determine what an author is trying to convey. In the college genre the following is what the author was implying, It was evident that improving the overall cost of testing emissions was very important. Analyzing genres as a whole, showed me that there are many implicit messages in literature, and it is up to the reader to determine what those messages are. In many cases I realized that implicit messages can be interpreted in a variety of ways. Analyzing genres has also enhanced my curiosity, since I am more eager to determine what a specific advertisement or article is trying to communicate to its audience. While I was drafting my genre analysis essay, I used the technique of side shadowing, which is included in my portfolio. Side-shadowing was the most beneficial editing technique that I used since it allowed me to re-write sections of my essay in the margins. I also determined what the purpose of each paragraph was, which helped me decide if I needed to add information to each paragraph. In addition to my draft, I also included feedback that I received from my instructor. The feedback that I received helped me improve my writing because I was provided suggestions that applied to my entire essay as well as suggestions that gave me specific things I

needed to critique. For example, it was suggested that I provide more quotations throughout my entire essay and specifically change my genre from Non-fiction Historical Genre to Senior Exit Research Essay. Instead of taking a Midterm exam, I was required to write a Midterm essay half way through the semester. In this essay it was necessary to analyze English 1101 as a whole. For example, I had to analyze key concepts of the course, and describe if I was engaging myself into the key concepts of the course. By completing this assignment, I learned how to examine my progress in a course, and analyze if I was successfully engaging myself into the course. This assignment allowed me to see what concepts I needed to improve on during the remainder of the course. Lastly, writing the Midterm essay was instrumental to teaching me how to write to a specific audience. Prior to writing this essay I had never written with my audience in mind, which I did while writing the midterm essay. As my wild card artifact, I have used my Whole Life Concepts paper, which I completed in the course Engineering 1201. This was one of the most challenging papers that I have ever written since it was written in a genre that I had never encountered prior to my experience. While writing this paper I was responsible to properly learn technical writing techniques without any assistance. By completing this project successfully, my technical writing ability improved significantly, since I write in a more clear and concise manner now. Overall, my writing has become more professional and less wordy which can be seen in the following quotation. Passion is at the core of the Whole Life Concept Model, and I must be able to apply this passion in my career to create a positive impact in our world. Throughout the piece, I also used numerous headings and subheading, which is something I had never used prior to writing this paper.

In substitution of two writers notebook artifacts, I was approved to write a paper titled Table Rock Fire. The reason I was driven to compose this extra piece of literature, is because the topic that I wrote about is very significant to me. This piece is something that I would like to keep for the rest of my life, and use as a reference in the future. At the time that I wrote the paper, I had an immense amount of information floating around my head and I felt that I needed to put all of those thoughts on paper. Even though this paper is not related to English 1101, I believe that it best shows what I have learned throughout this semester since it includes personal writing as well as technical writing. This can be seen in the following quotations The Linville Gorge is located in western North Carolina, approximately 20 miles west of Morganton, NC. It is known as the Grand Canyon of the East Coast, and is the playground of many outdoor adventure enthusiasts. As an avid mountain biker and rock climber, the Linville Gorge is a very special place to me. This piece is unique because the audience for this piece is myself, and it is the first piece of writing that I have ever composed that wasnt assigned to me. In English 1101, we discussed writing for fun, and that is what I think I did in Table Rock Fire. To compose this essay, the Portfolio Essay, I utilized brainstorming techniques. To do this, I wrote all of the sections that I needed to include on a piece of paper. I then brainstormed for thirty minutes to an hour, about what I wanted to include in my essay. When I thought of things that I wanted to include I wrote them under the sections where they would be included. I find that type of planning is beneficial since it allows me to write down everything that I want to include in my final paper. This also makes the actual writing process much easier, since I already have an idea of what I want to write.

The Grade I Deserve Throughout English 1101, I have engaged myself into all of the techniques that we discussed in class. By doing this I have improved my writing ability tremendously, which is something that I did not think was possible. In my midterm essay I said Over the course of four years, while earning your degree, I think that someone will have a great amount of intellectual growth, but in sixteen weeks, there will be very little of growth. As I have almost completed sixteen weeks of college, I now can tell that I have grown intellectually, which is opposite of what I thought was possible. During this course I have completed every assignment to my best ability, while applying the key concepts to each assignment. From the beginning of English 1101, I kept my mind open to new ideas, and took the feedback of others to enhance my writing. By executing all of these things, I believe that I have earned an A in this course.