Francis Olave

Ms. Hofmann
English 1102-207
5 May 2014
Final Portfolio Reflection
Overall now looking at my Portfolio I can say that I have done many things throughout
this semester. I first started off with journal or writing entries. Each of these entries was done at
the beginning of class which took a good to five to ten minutes to do. Most of these entries were
written in our notebooks or laptops. The entries were responding to articles, stories, quotes,
homework assigned or to questions given by our professor. After each entry we were able to
share with the class or with pair what we thought and what we had written. Usually for me the
time given was not enough because I had so much I could keep writing about. I could say doing
this is something that helps one just write whatever is on their mind.
In class we were able to practice quoting quotes in our paper, introductions and
conclusions. An assignment we had done from Ballenger's book was "Strong Endings and
Quotes." In this assignment beforehand we had our inquiry paper draft done which I had the
introduction done on the day it was due for first revision and then added more after that. We
were to use the conclusion and on strong quote from the paper. For the conclusion we were to
rewrite, rework or revise the ending of my draft. This was my conclusion I did since it was not in
my first draft:
The celebration might have had changes throughout many generations. Many people have
different attitudes towards this celebration until this day. The Day of the Dead is a celebration
known in Latin America and is now being celebrated in the States. To an older person and a
younger person the celebration to them can be interpreted differently and have different view on
this celebration. This celebration will always be important throughout Latin America. Knowing
more about the history and the perspective of others has helped me more learn more about this
celebration.
For the quote I was to review my draft and pay attention to the use of sources I had. I had to see
how I blended my writing with my sources, how I incorporated my sources and chose a
problematic place in my draft. This is the one source I found important that should have been
rewritten and revised:
Quote:
The celebration of the Day of the Dead is celebrated each year on November 1st and 2nd. It
started back "with pre-Columbian Indigenous rituals for honoring ancestors." (Marchi) It is
mainly celebrated in Mexico. The whole purpose of this celebration is to remember those who
have died. They are either family or relatives. People believe that each of these deceased are
there with them. Many families do many things during this celebration. There are certain
traditions that are done. Usually families will make altars or go to the gravesite. They bring
offerings to the gravesite or altar.
Revised:
The Day of the Dead is a celebration celebrated each year on November 1st and 2nd. This
celebration first started "with pre-Columbian Indigenous rituals for honoring ancestors."
(Marchi) The purpose of this celebration is to remember those who have died, which are either
relatives or family. The celebration has traditions that are done. Families usually go to the
gravesite of that deceased. There they clean, weed, repaint them. They adorn the graves with
flowers, decorations, candles, making special foods or drinks. Something else important to the
people is having mass. In Indigenous regions of Latin America, such as southern Mexico, the
Mayan areas of Central America, and the Andean regions of South America, families gather in
longer cemetery rituals, which include singing, dancing, picnicking, or placing special prepared
foods for the dead at family graves. It is important to know how the celebration started and what
is done during this celebration.
All of this was looked at by one of my peers. She mentioned two important things in this
assignment. One of them was repetition and the other was not making it clear what I was talking
about or what my main focus was on. In order to change this I made sure I did not repeat the
word "celebration" more than twice and added a different word for it or changed the sentence. As
for the part of understanding what the whole paper was about I had to reword the whole
conclusion. I restated what my inquiry question was, made it more clear what the whole purpose
of the paper was and restating main points I wrote about in my paper. Getting feedback from a
peer is very helpful in my opinion. Another thing I was able to do was give feedback to a peer on
their proposal for their inquiry project. There were three main things that I was specific about
which was if the question was strong or not, the issue of the topic and the use of sources found.
All of this we were able to share with our groups and get each other's opinion if the feedback I
gave was good or if there was more to give. I think others find it helpful especially in this
situation since it is a proposal what other questions to ask following the main inquiry question, if
the writer knows or has experience of this topic and how the sources they have found are useful
or not. Something else that I was able to do in class were writings that were free written about
research papers, questions to assignments done for my inquiry project the night before, and how
I felt about inquiry project. All of these writings had a connection to do with my inquiry paper. I
either was a reflection on how I felt about past research papers and how I felt about this inquiry
paper. Past research papers were so easy for me because it was something I could relate to and
enjoyed doing and were just facts as for the inquiry the only thing I did not like was the fact it
was challenging. Even though it was challenging it made me think outside of the box. This was
something I needed to do.
I can say that throughout this semester my work outside of class improved somewhat. I
could say I started off confused to knowing well what I was doing in my assignments. Three
assignments that I have done to show this is My Preliminary Research, Research Proposal and
Evaluative Bibliography. All of these were pieces to the steps in my inquiry paper but if I ever
needed clarification I could go back to Ballenger's book. The book gave descriptions of what to
do in the assignment at times it could be a bit confusing but then I got the hand of it. Starting off
with my preliminary research which helped me narrow down what topic I wanted to do for my
inquiry project, which was the Celebration of the Day of the Dead. In this assignment I was to
use Ballenger's book and gave exact directions what to do. There were sections to the
assignment: Definitions, Debates, People and Context. Each section I either had questions to ask
about the Latin American Culture or I had people who were an influence in Latin America. All
this information came from research I did using Google search, using the internet at the public
library and Google scholar. As a result I ended up getting a C on this assignment because I was
not clear on how I found out my information and I did not bring specifics into each section to
show what information I found on my online research. If I would have been able to I would have
looked at it and made those changes in order to get a better grade but this did help me decide
what topic to use for my inquiry paper. The second assignment or the next step to the inquiry
project was the research proposal. In this step, I was to state what my inquiry question was. My
question was "Why has the celebration of the Day of the Dead changed overtime to new
generations? This question is a substantive question about the significance of the subject, the
Day of the Dead. It also questions what conflicts there are regarding to the concept or idea within
or outside of the culture and how it is interpreted within the particular culture. Step 2 was to
explore by this I mean I asked additional questions that interested me and that could help me
discover answers to my research question. Here I wrote ten questions some examples of the ten
questions that I did are:
"How is this celebration celebrated in Mexico vs. the United States? Is it different from the West
side of the States vs. the East side of the States? How have people responded to this change
overtime from one generation to another one? Why would there need to be a call for change?
How has the history changed overtime? Is the celebration celebrated differently from the older
generation then the new generation? What are some of the traditions? How these traditions have
changed? Are these traditions celebrated different in Latin American countries then in the Unites
States? When was the first time it was ever celebrated? How does the meaning of Day of the
Dead changed from older generation to newer generation?"
Most of these were half fact-based and the rest were substantive. Out of the questions I chose
two of them which were, how have people responded to this change overtime from one
generation to another? and how does the meaning of the Day of the Dead changed from older
generation to a newer generation? These two questions were the ones that interested me and
helped me as I began my research. Step three was my starting point. In this step I mentioned
what I knew about my subject already like what beliefs, ideas do I bring to this project? What my
personal experiences have shaped me the way I feel? Why I chose this subject over any other
subject and why does it interested me? The final thing was step 4 which I talked about what I
found on my topic and where. This is where I shared my working knowledge; this is where I
incorporated the first two sources I found. This is where I was able to narrow my subject, not
broaden it anymore and stick to the inquiry question I have. I was very proud of this assignment
because I thought I did really good on it, knew what I was talking about and good a really good
grade. Another assignment I chose to do was the Evaluative Bibliography. This is where I found
the best five sources in my investigation. Each source I was to study in depth to gather enough
information for an analysis and summery. Each paragraph was divided into sections. The first
part was summarizing the source, basically what the article or book is about and what its purpose
is. The second part was to respond to what I had read. I also included information on how the
article or book was relevant to my project or how it provided background or perspective to my
subject. Something else I was able to incorporate is the article or book was weak or not as useful
as I would have liked it to be. The third part was to discuss how I know this source was credible.
In order to do this I looked for clues on online sources, location, and explaining why this source
was trustworthy.
Something else I would like to mention is the random choice of writings to choose to post
on my portfolio. They are two papers that I had to do for my colonial Latin American class. The
first paper I was not satisfied with my grade and shows how poorly my analyzing is. The second
paper is a paper that I did very well on and my writing was well. This showed how my writing
progressed over the semester and I was able to obtain a good grade.
Throughout the semester I used Ballenger's text, The Curious Researcher to help me
understand more about research and inquiry. The first assignment we had from the book helped
me first learn that there are different ways of researching. The assignment is on page 25 of the
textbook. Doing this it showed me how to find my topic for my inquiry project. First I was given
ten words, then had to put each word in columns, then under each word write whatever came to
mind about that word, then after my lists were done I was to look for a single item in any of the
columns that I wanted, I chose Latin American Culture, and then after choosing that item I
generated a list of questions that I would want to know more about the subject. With this
assignment it helped me realize how research can be done differently and helped me start off
with a topic for my project. Another thing that has helped me understand was following the
example on page 105 by doing the same thing for one of my articles for my paper. Reading this
helped me understand how paraphrasing helps me understand what the article was about because
I'm the one putting it in my own words. Lastly something that helped me a lot was reading
Ballenger's guide on page 178 to 182. Here I was able to choose one problematic place in my
draft, a problem where I incorporated a source; basically I revised it again and made some
changes. By doing this I used grafting, sandwiching, billboarding, and splicing. These are terms
that Ballenger's explains and helps me understand how there is always room for improvement on
a paper, there is no such thing as a perfect paper.
The portfolio that I have made I decided to have each page a different title and have a
picture with the assignments. The first page is about me to show the audience who I am and
where I come from. I gave a little background of myself. Each page has a picture of either
elephants or something to do with Latin American Culture; this was something I thought was
different as to what others would put in their portfolio. The feedback I got from others in order to
make these choices was to include more pictures to make the portfolio not look dead but more
interesting but overall my assignments and the way I had the pages arranged were good. For me
it was not hard to create this portfolio because I had done a portfolio in English 1101 last
semester using Weebly before so that is what made it easy for me. My first portfolio was for my
final and was not used for the midterm. It was all based on the assignments and other writings
done in and out of class. There were more than six pages and each page had three different
assignments which we had to explain each of them. That is what was different and also there was
just one reflection and not multiple ones like we had to do. Another thing different was that in
this portfolio I had pictures that I included for each page but in the portfolio I did last semester I
was not asked too. I think on my next portfolio something different I would do is arrange my
page a bit better. Overall I think that my portfolio was done well and incorporated things that
were not asked for.
Going back to the three questions about research, reading, and writing which were when
do you know when you have found the right amount of research?, how do you know when you
can stop revising a paper?, and do all authors make mistakes when it comes to writing? All these
answers were answered towards the end of the semester. The first two questions I do not have a
right answer but I could say that when you are writing a paper you as the writer decide when you
have found enough information and when you stop revising a paper. I believe that there is always
a lot of information to research and that a paper can always be revised more than one time, there
can always be something else to rework. As for the last question I think that all authors make
mistakes when it comes to writing, not everyone is perfect. I do have two new questions about
research, reading, and writing. They are: when does an author know when they are done writing
a piece of work? How do you know if the sources found answer the question to what you are
finding? I could say that my goals were reached which were to be more detailed in writing and
be able to analyze text.