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Pakhomova, Alexsandra
Professor Makarosyan
English 114B
May 3, 2015

Dear portfolio viewers,

I thought that English 114B would be a lot easier than English 114A, but it turned out that I
was wrong. English 114B was quite a challenge that I was not expecting. As the spring semester
comes to a close, I can say that it was a challenge that was to my reading and writing benefit.
This semester I learned that there is a lot more to reading than the words on the page of a
textbook. The words that are on those pages may have different meanings than we as readers are
used to. I enjoy to read, but I rarely read deep into the text, mostly because I am too eager to
know what will happen next that I fail to go back and analyze the meaning behind those exact
words that the author had chose. A good example of this would be one of my favorite readings
from this semester: The Pomegranate Trees, from My Name is Aram by William Saroyan.
The first time I read this chapter, I thought that it was quite interesting and very well written. But
as we started to discuss it in class, I quickly realized that some words in the text were specifically
chosen by the author in order to convey the culture that he came from and the struggles that it
once had to face. Pomegranates, my uncle said, are practically unknown in this country.
(Saroyan 340). When I read this line at home, I assumed the uncle was just saying that there are
no pomegranates in America. But when we discussed this line in class, I realized that this
line has many meanings. One way it can be interpreted is that the pomegranate symbolizes the
Armenians. During the time of the story, there werent that many Armenians in America and
therefore, they were practically unknown in this country. Another interpretation of this line
would be that the pomegranate is the symbol of Armenia. The author specifically chose this fruit

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and not some other fruit because it pays homage to his Armenian heritage. I found this to be very
interesting and from now on, I try to read as analytically as I can in order to find the deeper
meanings of the text. Other readings that I enjoyed from this semester were Sonnys Blues by
James Baldwin and Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston. I enjoyed these texts because I
found them to be very interesting to read and understand. The text that I didnt enjoy would be
Borderlands by Gloria Anzaldua. I found this text difficult to analyze and read at times, but I
did like that the author managed to mesh English and Spanish together in one text. I thought that
the meshing of the two languages worked well and represented the theme of the text more than
anything. To become a better reader, I just need to make an effort to read deeply. As I stated
before, sometimes reading deeply is not an easy task. It requires a lot of time and with time a lot
of patience.
I have always enjoyed writing essays. But when I entered college, I had to learn the
different formats of writing an essay. In high school, none of my English teachers stressed MLA.
My senior year English teacher mentioned the MLA format to us, but we never had the chance to
make use of that format. When I took English 114A, I had to learn the MLA format quickly
because everybody else in my class knew how to use it. At first it was a challenge, but over time
I got used to it. Revising essays was also not an easy task for me. Since none of my English
teachers in high school stressed the revision process, I had to promptly get used to it in my
college English classes. Although the revision process could be tedious, I believe that it is quite
beneficial to a writer. It gives the writer a chance to go back and make some changes to the
writing before making the final copy. Of the three essays that I had to write in English 114B, the
one that was the most challenging would be the ethnography essay. In this essay we had to find a
space in which we feel like we can identify with the most. This was a challenge for me because I
can think of many places in which I have a close connection to. I finally narrowed it down to one
place which was my church. As I was writing the essay, I realized that although I may know who

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I am, I am still in the process of figuring out who I am as an individual which made it difficult to
write. The essay that I enjoyed writing would be the last essay in which we had to find a theme
from The Woman Warrior and write how it is evident in our society today. It was one of my
favorite essays to write this semester because we got a chance to chose a topic that we wanted
which made the research and writing portions of the essay a lot more interesting to do. As a
writer I believe that my strengths are coming up with the topic for the essay as well as creating a
thesis . I have never had a problem of coming up with a thesis and normally I already have a
topic ready way before I get started with writing the essay. My weakness as a writer would be
coming up with five pages or more of writing. This semester I found it difficult to write a five
page essay. There were times when I had made a well written essay, but it was only three and a
half pages long. In addition to that, I cant think of anything else to add on to the essay in order
to fill up another two pages since I already answered the prompt. I can become a better writer by
facing my weaknesses head on. If I was to face my weaknesses, I wouldnt have a problem with
being a better writer.
The advice that I would like to give new students that are entering English 114 A and B
classes is to never give up. There will be times when the writing may seem a bit overwhelming
and the easiest solution may seem to give up, but in reality it is not. The writing process
cannot be done in one sitting. It takes time and with time a lot of patience. All the writing that is
done in English 114A and B will be worth it in the end when they become better writers than
they were when they had first entered their English classes here at CSUN.

Sincerely,

Alexsandra Pakhomova

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Works Cited
Saroyan, William. "The Pomegranate Trees." My Name Is Aram. New York: Penguin, 1945. N.
pag. Print.