Zach F.

Persson
709 19th Ave S
Fargo, ND 58103
(701) 639-3819
zpersson@hotmail.com
December 13, 2016
English Department
Minard Hall 318
North Dakota State University
Dear Assessment Committee,
I am currently a senior working toward my B.A. in English and obtaining a Minor in History. My
journey at NDSU has been longer than most as my freshman year was in the Spring 2009
semester. Upon entering college, I was very unsure of my ultimate career goal and selected
Business as my original major only to switch it to Zoology in order to seek a career as an MD.
After attending approximately one year of science courses I realized that I did not have a passion
that was so visible amongst my peers and opted to take time off from school in order to develop a
career goal that I was passionate about. Three years later, I decided it was time to go back to
college and enrolled in English 380: Shakespeare and realized that the English Department was
where I belonged; I felt as though my professors took genuine care to ensure that my collegiate
career was successful. After further deliberation over my options with such a degree, I concluded
that Law School would be the next step.
The English Department at NDSU has aided me greatly in developing my reading, writing, and
speaking skills through the its various course requirements. I had always been adept with
vocabulary, writing, and speaking in my own estimation, but my professors catalyzed vast
improvement in all three categories; all three skills are integral to my future designs. I have
worked very diligently to garner as much information from my courses as possible, often
discussing my writing with professors if my grade was less than the full point total in order to
understand potential improvements. My portfolio illustrates my growth as a writer under the
guidance of my English professors and is representational of the following English Major
Outcomes:
1. English majors will be able to write and speak effectively for a variety of purposes and
audiences in a variety of genres and media
7. English majors will develop professionalism exhibited in such qualities as self-direction,
cooperation, civility, reliability, and care in editing and presenting the final product.
English Major Outcome 1:
I have taken a variety of English courses over the past few years, allowing me to represent
growth in the first outcome quite well. In the Spring 2016 semester I took English 377: Modern
Poetry from Dr. Goldwyn. Honestly, I am not sure why I enrolled in that particular course
because I have never had a love of poetry. Modern Poetry broadened my perspective and

Portfolio URL: https://zachfperssoncapstoneportfolio.wordpress.com

understanding of poetry such that I was able to see its beauty and appreciate it. I learned that
Modern poetry and art were often strange, curt, or odd for a specific reason: these poets and
artists understood all of the previous conventions of their respective medium and purposefully
deviated from that model in order to produce something new and to evoke emotion.
I wrote an essay entitled Ezra Pound: From Hildas Book to Cantos that meticulously dissects
excerpts from two vastly different poetry books written by Ezra Pound. In the first, he follows
traditional poetic conceptions and in the second he breaks all the conventional rules. My analysis
of the poetry required that I understand the conventions of traditional poetry (rhyme, meter,
alliteration, assonance, etc.) in order to ascertain how they were being disrupted in Pounds later
work (4). I believe that this essay represents the ability to write effectively for a purpose that was
previously beyond my understanding in a genre that was unique: poetic analysis. I think this is a
very thorough paper and fulfilled the rubric requirements, but if I were to enhance the poignancy
of my thesis I would analyze more than one section in each poetry book. The addition of more
text would predicate further analysis and better evidence toward my conclusion.
In the Fall 2015 semester I was enrolled in English 382: Film Genre and Style; Dr. Theile was
the professor. This class was a comprehensive understanding of the cinematic elements from
narrative conventions to cinematography. I consider myself a movie enthusiast, but I had no idea
what the framework of a film actually looked like. In this class we analyzed novels/graphic
novels and their respective film adaptations. I wrote my seminar paper on V for Vendetta, the
graphic novel by Alan Moore and the film by James McTeigue. Not only did I analyze the text
and adaptation for my term paper, but I also had to participate in a group presentation of V for
Vendetta. Analyzing film and graphic novels is vastly different from literature in that it is visual
in nature. One has to be aware of that each scene is constructed with intention and visual
narrative is integral to understanding the film and/or graphic novel as a whole. The visual
narrative provides much of the subtext for the visual media. I am older than other students
(twenty-seven) and I never taught how to design a PowerPoint or how to incorporate that into a
presentation. This seminar paper and PowerPoint presentation display adeptness in different
genres: film analysis and group oral presentation. I am no stranger to public speaking, but group
presentations accompanied by a PowerPoint are quite different. The notes and the presentation
itself depict my ability to analyze the visual narrative and critically assess the genres of film and
graphic novels. Although the seminar paper was very thorough, it focused primarily on the film
adaptation of V for Vendetta; I think it would benefit my paper greatly to incorporate more of the
graphic novel since it is the original version. With both the graphic novel and the adaptation
represented in equal amounts, credible comparisons can be made between their similarities and
differences.
English Major Outcome 7
My group presentation on V for Vendetta from English 382 is also a good example of my
educational growth concerning professionalism, cooperation, and civility. Our groups were
chosen for us, so civility and professionalism were necessary to foster cooperation within the
group dynamic. There were three people in our group, and I had to take the initiative to ascertain
meeting times that could be scheduled to accommodate my other two classmates and finish our
project in a timely fashion. One of the group members was easy to work with due to our
willingness to cooperate and amicability toward one another; however, the third group member

Portfolio URL: https://zachfperssoncapstoneportfolio.wordpress.com

would cancel meetings last minute as well as not providing many dates that he was able to meet.
I was rather upset with this students reluctance to cooperate with the group, yet I remained
amiable and professional because I knew that anger would not solve this problem. Ultimately, he
did not show up to any group meetings and we had to trust him to do his part to fill some of the
presentation time (one hour). That said, I took it upon myself to pick up the slack with more
information in order to lengthen the amount of my speaking time to cover him if he neglected to
contribute. This decision displayed my professionalism ostensibly, because our group
presentation grade would suffer greatly if we did not reach the prescribed time. I found out on
presentation day that this difficult group mate did produce at least 5-10 minutes of speaking time,
which accounted for about half of his designated share. I was able to fill the gap in time with the
extra information I had gathered and our presentation resulted in an excellent grade. In our group
assessments, I remained professional and civil stating only the positive things that the difficult
group member contributed. Furthermore, my care in editing and presentation resulted in a
flawless speech without using notes that integrated seamlessly with our PowerPoint. Without my
growth these English Major Outcomes, this presentation would have been substantially less
successful.
In the English Capstone course, the goal of the course is to collaborate with a professor in the
department in order to produce a research essay and oral presentation. My project was a literary
analysis of witch trials supplemented with historical context in order to ascertain the prevalence
of superstition in Early Modern Europe. This project required a vast amount of self-direction
since I set the majority of the deadlines and it was my duty contact my mentors in order schedule
meeting. Self-direction is something that I struggle with, as procrastination is something that has
been a part of my homework since elementary school. That said, this project forced me to meet
my deadlines in order to have the segments of the paper completed by the instructors deadlines.
Additionally, I wanted to be professional and respectful toward the time that my mentors gave to
assist me in my research. My mentors give their time and their name to my project and I wanted
to create the best research paper possible in order to be worthy of their position. Ultimately, my
Capstone project was a success and I was able to complete it in a timely manner through selfdirection and professionalism. I would like to have had more than a semester to work on this
project, as the subject matter is very dense. That said, I am in the McNair Scholarship program
and intend to further my research and present again in April 2017.
Sincerely,

Zach F. Persson

Portfolio URL: https://zachfperssoncapstoneportfolio.wordpress.com