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Thania Lemus
Prof. Topf
English 114B
9 May 2014
Portfolio Essay
As a writer I consider myself as being creative depending on the topic that is given. To
me writing means expressing your thoughts and opinions in a formal, yet creative manner. As all
writers, I have weaknesses and strengths when it comes to writing. I tend to be very close-
minded when it comes to writing a thesis statement. Once a start with a thesis, I get stuck and do
not know where to go from that point on because Ive already decided on a thesis. I feel that
since English is not my first language, I have to try and put my thoughts together and figure out
what I want to say or where I want to go. I tend to think in Spanish, and write in English and that
is usually a problem because I cannot find an exact translation to what Im thinking and I end up
changing what I say. As for my strengths, I am extremely devoted when there is a topic that
catches my attention. I will write as best as possible and find an endless amount of evidence to
back up my essay. I also analyze better when Im interested in a topic. Nevertheless, both my
weaknesses and strengths go hand in hand and help shape me as the writer I am today. Through
self-reflection I see that I have improved in my writing and I am now able to separate my
weaknesses from my strengths in order to write better.
In the past, Ive taken several approaches when writing an essay. Magdeleine D. N. Lew
and Henk G. Schmidt explain that, students reflection journals, which focus on self-reflection
on the processes of learning and the knowledge taught, were coded in an objective fashion, by
means of automated content analysis approach. By analyzing the approach that students take
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when writing, they are able to determine in an objective fashion what can be improved or
perhaps, expanded. The approach that works best for me is to start writing with an idea of what I
want to say. I also learned that when it comes to the revision of an essay, it is best to not start
fresh but to find places where I can be more specific and improve. One approach, or more of a
tool when writing an essay was rhetoric. This concept was introduced to me this semester and I
was able to implement it this semester as well. This concept helped me understand how to
analyze an essay and how to break it down, and include critical analysis into an essay. It was an
area where I was challenged as a writer because developing analysis from a quote or other
evidence is not my strongest point. However, I have improved when it comes to critical analysis.
While writing, I often think to myself if what Im writing can be further explained or made more
specific. The questioning makes me write better because I go in depth and explore certain areas
more. On the other hand, finding areas where I can be more specific and expand on is difficult
but something I have definitely improved on. As a writer, I have improved in many areas but I
have yet to keep improving. As Lew and Schmidt state about self-reflection, they are believed
to assist learners to become better at self-reflection, which leads subsequently to better academic
achievement. When a student reflects on what he/she has done, it helps them understand and
learn what they have done, in this case, what they have written. Self-reflective writing is a tool
that has helped students improve not only their writing but their thinking processes, and therefore
improving their academic achievement.
Through the course of the spring semester, I have come across new approaches to writing
and also new concepts that have helped my writing. One essay that I feel I did an okay job with
is the last essay I wrote. The essay evaluated two places and observed the values and the way
people interact with one another. I feel that for this essay I did my research, as well as engaged in
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the topic itself and was able to make an okay essay out of it. I was really interested in the topic,
which made it easier for me to find evidence and write creatively. However, if I were to go back
and change something, I would include a little more research into some of my claims instead of
basing it on hearsay. I feel that having more evidence would have added more credibility to the
essay, and improved it as well. When I say adding more evidence I mean narrowing down the
sources but using more evidence from those certain sources. Nevertheless, the essay itself can be
improved in many ways even after revisions, but overall it is an essay that I did my best on.
Self-reflective writing has been implemented in order to help students realize what they
can improve. For example, Magdeleine Lew and Henk Schmidt state that self-reflections
currency as a topic of educational importance has resulted in the incorporation of reflection
journals as learning tools that promote reflection into many curricula. This explains that due to
the success some professors have had with self-reflective writing, it has been implemented to a
students curriculum. Self-reflection is a great tool when it comes to learning because one can
point out weaknesses and strengths, and one can also give examples of where they need the most
improvement. It is intended to make students aware of their own writing, and be able to criticize
the way one writes in order to make changes and improvements. For example, when it comes to
my essay and self-reflecting on my writing, I tend to mostly look at my weaknesses because it is
what I can talk more in depth about how to improve. When it comes to my strengths, I find it
hard to talk about since it still could be improved, even though I do it well.
Another one of my writings that I have been assigned where I could improve not only the
content, but all around information is my first essay. For the essay, we had to read a novel called
The Postmortal by Drew Magary, that is placed in a futuristic society and essentially criticizes
that society and takes social problems and exaggerates them to make a point. Turns out, my
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essay about the book was not exactly according to the prompt. Writing the paper according to the
prompt is one thing that I could improve on besides implementing better grammar and evidence.
I do realize that the evidence I used in the paper was good evidence, but the analysis given to the
evidence was weak and had little to do with the point I was trying to make. Even though I am
able to reflect on what I have written now, I believe that in order to improve the essay and its
content I would need constant guidance. With help and guidance, the assignment could have
been better. All around the paper has to be changed in order to notice a great improvement on it.
Though this particular assignment was not one of my best, I did my best with what I wrote and
with self-reflection I now know what to do and what not to do when writing an essay that
includes a book as reference.
After learning several approaches and new concepts about writing, I have grown as a
writer and have improved as well. I am now able to create analysis and connect it to the topic.
However, I also have many of things to improve, such as grammar sentence structure and most
importantly thesis and content of the essay. I have noticed that plenty of the problems in my
essays come from the thesis. If I were to improve my thesis writing skills, my essays, its content
and evidence will be more relevant and overall improved. Lew and Schmidt state that, a learner
undergoes to look back on his past learning experiences and what he did to enable learning to
occur, and the exploration of connections between the knowledge that was taught and the
learners own ideas about them. This shows how when one self-reflects it takes into account
past actions and learning experiences and from that a student will be able to create and learn
what their weaknesses and strengths are. Nevertheless, self-reflection is a great tool that
examines a students self, but it is also implemented in a students curriculum so they can
improve academically. When it comes to writing, self-reflection examines a students writing and
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it helps them improve in areas where they feel they need the most help. In my case, self-
reflective writing helps me understand where I have made mistakes and how to fix them, as well
as how to overcome it and not repeat in future writings.
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Works Cited
Lew, Magdeleine D. N., and Henk G. Schmidt. "Self-reflection and Academic Performance: Is
There a Relationship?" National Center for Biotechnology Information. U.S. National
Library of Medicine, 05 May 2011. Web. 01 May 2014.
<http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3167369/>.