Alexus Westberry

Suzanne Ingram
UWRT 1101
28 July 2014
Final Portfolio Essay
My portfolio is organized in a way that is easy to follow and succinct. I chose a nice,
clean, simple layout that best represents me, which ties into the visual and spatial aspects of the
modes of communication. Anyone that knows me well knows that I am the ultimate girly-girl, so
the pink and purple and wispiness of the layout show the basis my personality. Linguistically, I
did not try to do anything spectacular by using big words or silly catch phrases. I like things
simple, so that is what I aimed for throughout my portfolio. In a few of my works, I used gestural
communication where I included dialogue between people and internal thoughts to myself. In my
Literacy Narrative: My Lack Of, I described the setting at the time of a certain situation and
used words that kind of made it feel like you could actually hear and feel things that were
happening.
Each piece of writing that I included in my e-Portfolio has all contributed to my learning
in one way or another. The comments, especially, have helped me become a better writer and
better at revising my peers work, as well. I appreciate the topics that were assigned to me,
because they all gave me the opportunity to reflect on instances that shaped my literacy and
helped mold me into the writer that I am at this point. The readings from this class also
benefitted me as they were a good tool for me, being a freshman in college. My favorite story
that I read and will take key points from it with me was the essay by Joe Quatrone titled I am Not
a Writer, I am a Good Writer. Story of my life. Essentially, when you write something that
means something to you, no one can even think about telling you that your work is bad, because
it is yours. No one can tell you that you are a bad writer, because you are not. If you can write
one sentence that you are proud of, in my opinion, you are a good writer.
I will be explaining in detail how each piece of writing had an impact on my writing
career thus far and how I plan on using what I learned in this class to benefit me from here on
out.
Literacy Narrative
Writing my literacy narrative at first seemed like it was going to be a challenge, mainly
because I did not know what a literacy narrative was. But, as I got a better understanding of what
it was and how I was going to write a good one, the task became less of a pain to think about; I
was surprisingly excited to begin writing it. While writing the first draft, I decided to write about
finding my non-existent literacy throughout high school. I enjoyed writing about my personal
experiences, because it gives me a way to engage my readers and take them on the journey that I
had already been through. Realizing that this paper would be the first paper that I had ever wrote
being a first year college student put me in a place where I was comfortable and confident and
ready to write. Writing my literacy narrative was fun. I relived memories that were almost
forgotten about.
All of the struggles of switching teaching teachers, having multiple substitutes, and
literally, not learning anything, helped mold me into the appreciative student I am. I have always
appreciated the fact that I am privileged enough to receive a free education. When misfortunes
like that happen, it makes me come to a realization that I am extremely blessed to be able to have
gone to school for free all my life. That is why I would sometimes catch myself before I
complained about schoolwork, because the kid the same age myself living in a third world
country wishfully thinking about the day the opportunity would come where they found out that
they could go to school surfaced into my mind. Ever since then, I have had a brand new outlook
on what education means to me, and having a free education makes it that much more
meaningful. I felt like I was at a major disadvantage when all of the confusion took place. My
class was switching between classrooms and teachers and was not being taught anything of the
twelfth grade level, in my opinion. We constantly went over grammatical things that we should
have already known, as they should been taught earlier in our high school and middle school
years. Whenever there was some instruction time in the midst of all the chaos, we were given the
opportunity to write. Once we had a steady teacher, we were assigned daily writing warm-ups.
Although I was used to not doing that much work in class, I liked seeing those daily quotes on
the whiteboard. Basically, we had to break the quote down and write about what we got from it
and what I meant to us. Doing that allowed me to think deeply and in a way take a look at my
belief system and who I was becoming as a critical thinker. I kept that habit of thinking critically
throughout the remainder of high school.
Blog Posts and Midterm
Creating a website along with a blog was the most enjoyable things I have done all
semester. Having a blog is a neat way to be expressive and be yourself in your writing. So, when
I found out that writing a blog was going to be one of the requirements for class, I was
immediately excited. The first blog post being that of a questionnaire, so to speak, was a good
way to begin, because I definitely had a lot of questions that needed to be answered. Following
up with the third post, I could confidently answer mostly all of the questions that I had asked
myself from the beginning, which shows how this class has impacted me as quickly as a matter
of two weeks. Having to write and post things for this blog was great preparation for me, since I
have considered starting a fashion blog. I view it as expressive and/or free writing, because that
is exactly what it is. If you cannot be your true self through words on your own personal account
that you are willing to share with others is an issuea major one. That is why I write with
honesty. Your readers can sense inauthenticity and I do not ever want my readers to experience
that. Each of the blog posts that were assigned had a good reason why they were assigned in the
first place. For example, the forth blog post proposed the most challenges for me. Prior to this
class, I had never heard of rhetorical triad or the modes of communication or the genre of a piece
of writing. In fact, I had never heard of such a things. I thought you could only find the genre of
music or literature. You learn something new everyday. But I digress to day that having to
analyze other peoples work on that level gave me a better taste of how to apply what I got from
their work to my own.
The midterm was quite extensive, but it also was another one of my unexpected learning
experiences. When I first saw the question that asked if I learned anything about the relationship
between language and power, at first, I sarcastically thought to myself, Um, nothing. Ii
honestly did not know how to answer that question. But after I read further into the directions, it
all made sense. My favorite part about writing my midterm was the part where we had to give
advice to the incoming freshman. I love talking to students about things that I have already seen
and done just to prepare them for what is to come. I had people in my ear helping me out, so I
liked being able to be that person for someone else who may need to read what I advised.
Portrait of a Writer
Writing this essay opened me up to the point where it was a must that I think deeply into
the writer that I am and admit to the things that I had to work on and improve and even some
things that I should refrain from in my writing. Ultimately, I am a writer. Whether I am a good
writer or a bad writer, I am still a writer. This essay made me realize just that. There were
moments when I was writing this essay and had to just take a moment to think about what was
coming next, because the questions that I had to answer as a guide for the essay, I could not
automatically answer. I gained a greater insight on how I wanted to come across through my
writing. Writers want to be able to appeal to their audience, and I feel as though I do a good job
at that; however, I could definitely put some umph in it. After I made the corrections necessary
to have at least a descent paper, it read better, it flowed better, it sounded better. That
demonstrated me taking responsibility for my own learning and using independent inquiry.
Asking myself, Does this sound right? What could I do to make this sentence a strong one?
things like that helped me develop as a growing writer.
My Grade
Honestly, I think I deserve a B as my e-Portfolio grade. I procrastinated, as usual, but I
am unashamed to openly say that. However, I did work hard on my revisions and my e-portfolio
and hopefully, it will show. Without being too blatant, I tried to tie in some of the key concepts
from the course syllabus into this paper. In the overall class, I wish to have earned an A. I will be
satisfied with a B, but I still want an A, cmon.