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Juan Garcia
Professor Kimberly Strickland
English 1010
17 July 2014
Mid-Term Portfolio
Reflection Essay
Discovering the World in My Room
Of all the memories I have from my past, the ones from my home and particularly from
my bedroom in which I grew up are those I am most fond of. From my childhood I experienced
there, to the experiments I conducted in my room, to the late nights of staying up finishing
homework, I always reminisce every time I visit my parents home where I grew up.
I can recall the first day I set foot in this house. I had just turned seven years old when we
were to move in. I remember walking into what would be my bedroom. Wow, I thought, this is
so big. There is so much space here. Almost instinctively my two older sisters and I decided it
was a perfect time to play a game of hide-and-go-seek. We played in and around the house while
others began to slowly fill all the empty spaces with our furniture. Playing eventually led us to
exploring the yard outside. In the backyard I could smell the trees and hear the birds chirping.
There was an apple tree that was beginning to flower and another taller tree that I thought would
be perfect to build a tree house in. Coming from an apartment, the backyard was bigger than
what I was accustomed to. I could see myself doing anything I wanted back there, I would have
no limits.
As I grew older, the sense of freedom I had living here led me to do some crazy things
that most kids probably shouldnt be allowed to do, but Im different, at least that is what I would
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tell myself. I used this excuse to try out many new things that I was curious about, such as
playing with fire, experimenting with electricity and making my own fireworks. I know this
probably sounds as though I was getting myself into trouble all the time, but the truth is, I never
really caused any problems. I had a very strong yearning to learn how everything worked. I
couldnt stand to not know how certain things did what they did. In my room downstairs I was
able to take things apart in secret and learn to reassemble them, then later putting them back in
their place without anyone ever knowing that I had dismantled them just to figure out how they
functioned. I was able to learn a lot of new and interesting things by doing this. My room quickly
became my workshop and my laboratory.
While in high school I had to do a bit of growing up. I no longer had the vast amounts of
time to set aside for conjuring up my next quest to understand how something worked. I had
more homework than I knew what to do with. These years were filled with weeks of
procrastinating and late nights trying to get assignments done at the very last minute. Even while
this was the case, some of my best work came during these years. I look back now and I have no
idea how this was even possible. My room has all the awards and certificates I earned throughout
the years still hanging on the walls to remind me of everything I had accomplished growing up.
I truly miss the hours, days and the long summers I had there while having seemingly
infinite time to use in learning all of the hidden details of everything around me. I still crave the
knowledge I lack for those things I dont yet fully understand. I can only associate these feelings
with an addiction that compels me to comprehend that which is still a mystery. This has been my
primary driving force that has led me to become the person I am today. I can only attribute these
qualities about myself to the fact that I did these wild things while in my youth. Even though
there were many more memorable events that occurred throughout the years I lived in this house,
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none are more important to me than all the discoveries I made about the world and how things
worked, all while in my room.

Visual Analysis Essay
This visual text depicts an elephant that is disintegrating. The rear half of its body has
turned to dust and there is a pile of dirt that is being left behind as it crumbles to ashes. It uses
dark brown and gray shades that evoke a dim and gloomy feel. There are rays of light that shine
down on the poor elephant that is standing at the center of the frame. The elephant appears to be
dying or disappearing. It has its mouth open almost as if he is crying out for help but he is only
surrounded by an empty vastness of darkness and despair.
This particular image was comprised of a three print spread and part of a campaign for
the World Wildlife Fund. It was produced by Spains BBDO office named Contrapunto BBDO.
The ad was originally run in print beginning in November of 2011. All three images have the
same text on the bottom right corner; it reads Desertification destroys 6.000 species per year.
The campaign seems to be aimed at spreading awareness about desertification. This term is not
commonly used but it basically encompasses the process by which fertile land becomes desert,
which is typically a result of drought, deforestation, or inappropriate agriculture practices.
The basis for this visual text is the fact that humans across the globe are contributing in
some form or another to the causes of deforestation and bad agriculture implementations. This is
mainly occurring in second and third world countries where humans are over consuming vast
areas of forests for the purpose of harvesting lumber and to open up fertile lands in which to
cultivate crops. The deforestation in these areas of the world cause the fertile topsoil to be ruined
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by nutrient hungry crops that once grown over and over eventually lead that soil to become
unusable in crop cultivation. Bad agriculture practices such as this inevitably cause areas to
become barren and useless. Wind and rainstorms will eventually washout any remaining topsoil
only to leave the sand and silt from below. Over time the land that once held lush forests with a
diverse animal population will now been irreversibly transformed into a dry desert wasteland.
While the events just mentioned can occur naturally on earth, they typically take place
over a long period of time, usually tens of thousands of years. This ad campaign focuses on the
reality that we as a human species on this planet are doing the work of Mother Nature in a
fraction of the time that it would normally take her to do on her own. Rapid desertification being
caused in large part by human activity, is not allowing for the natural cycle of things to correct
the imbalance happening in the plant and animal kingdom. This in effect is whats causing the
endangerment and subsequent extinction of certain plant and animal species.
In the image, the text reads plainly, Desertification destroys 6.000 species per year.
While simple it is also a very powerful statement. Six species are being wiped out each and every
year as a result of mainly human ignorance. Ignorance to the fact that we will most likely never
be able to have some of these wonderful creatures roam amongst us ever again. This is the cold
hard truth. It compels the reader to reflect on what he or she can do to stop this terrible activity
from continuing any further than it already has. The mere image of this dying elephant induces
an emotion that most compassionate people can relate to. It gives a reason to take action, not for
the sake of this one elephant but for the entire animal kingdom that are entitled to their own
territory on this planet. While one person cannot definitively affect the situation on their own, it
begins with just one.
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Rhetorical Analysis Essay
Abraham Lincolns Gettysburg Address
Several months after the Union defeated the Confederacy at the Battle of Gettysburg,
President Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address. It was on November 19, 1863,
and it would take place at the very battlefield for which it was named for in Gettysburg,
Pennsylvania. As the 16
th
president of the United States, this is by far his most famous speech
ever given. Five different manuscripts are believed to have been drafted of the Gettysburg
Address. There are currently two of these manuscripts being held at the Library of Congress.
They were written by private secretaries of President Lincoln, one from John Hay and the other
from John Nicolay. This speech is also widely considered to be one of the most quoted speeches
in history.
The speech, while short, was incredibly powerful in its tone and meaning. It has a very
persuasive voice in that it was attempting to lift moral at a time when it was at an all time low
during the Civil War. Many lives had been lost equally from both the Union and the Confederacy
on this battlefield. It is no wonder that many were calling for a quick end to a war that was
originally only supposed to have lasted a few months at the most. Now nearly two and a half
years into the conflict and with no end in sight, President Lincoln had to deliver a message that
would reemphasize the basis for those who here gave their lives that this nation might live.
His speech had to not only give hope to the Union but also make it be known to the
Confederacy that those brave men, living and dead, who struggled here where men from both
sides and similarly just as courageous. In this sense, his audience was not only appealing to the
north but also to the south. He never implicitly calls to one side or the other but instead refers to
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the nation as a whole multiple times. This gives the audience a sense of unity that although in the
midst of war, there is still hope that this nation is still and always will be united.
The Gettysburg Address was Lincolns attempt to reiterate the main principles of the
Declaration of Independence. A new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the
proposition that all men are created equal. This, the second line of the speech, reminds the
listener of what they must fight for in order for the nation to long endure. The ideas of liberty and
equality were his two main points.
Abraham Lincoln makes various appeals to the listener. They must honor the dead and
take increased devotion in the fight to reunite the divided Union. He calls on his listeners to not
let all those who have made the ultimate sacrifice, to have died in vain. He makes truth of the
unfinished work which they who fought here have so nobly advanced. Lincoln then mentions
the fact that their progress in the war is still ongoing. They must now regroup for the great task
that remains before us, he says, the task of securing the basic freedoms and liberties of all men.
He pulls the listener in by finishing the speech with a government of the people, by the people,
for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
In this address, the words are so distinctively chosen and so meticulously placed
throughout, it is difficult to conceive any manner in which such an individual or group of
individuals today, given similar circumstances, could create such a short and concise message. A
message that is so powerful and full of so much meaning. Yet Lincoln and his private secretaries
were so precise in their conception of the speech, they were able to very effectively put our basic
rights of liberty and equality in the forefront of this defining Civil War.

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Works Cited
The Gettysburg Address abrahamlincolnonline.org 10/7/2014 Web
Web 01 March 2002


Rhetorical Rational
The target audience in the Reflection Essay would have to be anyone who hasnt yet met
me. It gives specific information on my upbringing as a child and into young adulthood. It is
basically describing why I am the sort of person I am. So in that sense it is an introductory type
of writing about me. The Visual Analysis Essay targets an audience who is compassionate and
willing to make changes about themselves and how they conduct their day to day activities. It
gives awareness about the ugly truths that go largely unnoticed in our daily lives. With the
Rhetorical Analysis Essay, the primary audience is someone who wishes to delve more deeply
into the history of one of Abraham Lincolns most famous speeches.
The first essay I wrote was taking a shot at trying to share my story with everyone in our
peer group. It was a chance to greet the other students and tell a small bit about myself that most
people dont yet know about me. I wrote it with the hope of giving people a better understanding
of the type of individual I am. In the Visual Analysis Essay I strived to make an emotional
connection by giving great detail about the image I was writing about. I used very descriptive
words to give the sense of pain and suffering which the elephant was depicting. Tugging at the
emotional strings was my main goal. Getting the reader to feel a sense of urgency about the
matter and then attempt to have that reader take action as well. The Rhetorical Analysis Essay
was an effort to go beyond the purpose of the speech itself and try to understand the writing
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method which was used to communicate the issue at hand. It identifies the rhetorical strategies
that Lincoln and his secretaries implemented to convince their audience that the war had to
continue. Similar to my Visual Analysis, Lincolns Gettysburg Address makes use of human
emotions to convey a very powerful message that many can relate to.
Most of the revisions I made to all three essays involved the correcting of overly used
words. I tended to sound very repetitive with the use of the same words. I revised these sentences
with other words of similar meaning. Another area where I had slight difficulty was
communicating my thoughts effectively and efficiently in writing; I sometimes went crazy with
run-on sentences. These I broke up and even rephrased some in order to give better flow to the
paragraph and paper as a whole. Rearranging some of my sentences to be further down in the
body of the writing was something I could more readily correct. This was done again for the
more effective flow of ideas and thoughts that I was trying to express to the reader. Even though
I have received full credit for these three assignments, every time I read over the pages, I still see
areas where I can improve. However, my comprehensive knowledge on this matter is the only
limiting factor to actually go about this task.
I strive to pass my knowledge on to those who I peer review. I think of the difficulties I
had writing while I was in grade school and the progress I have made since then with the help of
mentors and teachers. I take this into account as I give advice to others on what I believe can
contribute to correcting any errors. Yet, it is still not easy to criticize someones work when I
occasionally dont feel fully confident in my own writing abilities. I can only spot what is
obvious to me but may be challenging to those being reviewed.
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Taking this class for the second time now; the first was almost ten years ago, I can truly
observe an immense difference in my writing style. I can easily collect my thoughts and group
them together more accurately than I ever thought I would be capable of. It is amazing what has
transpired in the last several years with my writing ability. My only wish now would be that I
could have had this skill while in high school. But like the old saying goes, better late than
never.