Artist’s Statement
Hello! Welcome back to my e-portfolio for Rhetoric 105! While clicking through the pages, seeing the different videos and pcitures, you will be able to see my progress of writing during Rhet 105. Throughout the course of this class, I have learned countless tips for my writing and many new English skills. Also, I have resurfaced some of my lost skills. My e-portfolio truly shows my progress throughout the class and in my opinion, it is the best way to showcase my hard work and effort. Although Rhet 105 was a required class for my nursing prerequisites, I was interested in the class because I think it’s important to never lose touch with your English skills. This class allowed me to open my eyes and recognize the mistakes I was continually making in my writing and for that, I am glad. From here on out, I can make my writing significantly better than before.
When I was rewarded to chance to revise, I wanted to focus on a few aspects of writing. To start off, I always make evident mistakes that I know are there, but I don’t take the time to review. Apostrophes and commas are commonly where I make mistakes. I often forget to show possession of the person or forget to put a comma. In order to improve this, I took advantage of my Writer’s Handbook. The Writer’s Handbook was an extremely helpful resource throughout my time in this class. It allowed me to see why I was making the mistake and also explain why. Everytime I used it I could tell I was learning more and improving my writing.
Within my portfolio, there are four assignments I worked on and completed: two major papers, which include my rhetorical analysis and annotated bibliography and two minor assignments, which include two critical response papers. This final assignment rewarded me with the opportunity to revisit and revise my work. When reading my revisions, you will be able to see my commonly made mistakes and what I have fixed and why. As I mentioned before, this assignment opened my eyes to my strengths and weaknesses. As a writer, I often have troubles writing concise sentences. For instance, it’ll take me a two or three sentences to get my point across in what really could have been one. Although that is my weakness, I believe I am a strong writer. Ever since I started writing, my teachers have acknowledged my ability to write. Writing comes easy for me. It gives me joy and a reason to put my thoughts down on paper.
When I begin to put my thoughts down, I just don’t scramble words on a page and turn it in. For me, writing has three layers; planning, writing and revising. I begin with planning. Starting with a fresh, blank sheet of paper and writing whatever comes to mind. This helps me construct my strongest idea. After this, I began writing. Now for me, the beginning is the most difficult part. Instead of starting with an introductory paragraph, I begin with my body paragraphs. I construct them until they’re perfect and then go back and do my intro paragraph. Through doing this, I have found that my intro paragraphs became better because they were extremely accurate to what the rest of my paper entitled. For this portfolio, I started with revising my rhetorical analysis of the University of Illinois Student iBook, something I currently use to stay organized. This is the paper I received my lowest grade. I noticed that many of my sentences had poor structure and nothing was revised well enough to my capabilities. After revising this and realizing my mistakes, I moved onto my Annotated Bibliography. Overall, I thought my work was sufficient and what I noticed was wrong was again the sentences. Although the fact that I stayed up extremely late writing could factor into why this happened. When revising my second major assignment, I came to the conclusion that I am exceptional at analyzing sources, which came in handy when completing my research paper.
After reviewing these two hefty assignments, I migrated onto my smaller assignments, which were two critical response papers. I enjoyed writing these papers because it allowed us to actually think about what we were writing. While viewing my portfolio, you’ll be able to realize how my writing has changed because of this class, only in better ways. I believe this class made me realize how I could do better and throughout the time, I have done better. This class, in particular, helped me see how strong of a writer I am, but I think that’s because the countless time we spent peer editing and meeting with the teacher. I wouldn’t have enjoyed this class as much as I did if it weren’t for the teacher. Mrs. Mary, thank you for taking countless hours helping our students and putting an immense amount of effort in grading and giving us feedback on our work. Because of you, my writing has taken a turn for the better and now I look forward to sitting down and writing.