My Growth as a Writer 

Dear Portfolio reader, 

Before I took this course, I was not at all confident about writing. I never thought of writing as my strong suit. I always struggled with how to start my papers and how to finish them. I would get caught up on grammar rules and spelling. I just never thought writing was my talent. As I’ve taken harder and harder writing classes, I still was never fully confident that I was a good writer. I think now, after I’ve taken this course, I’m understanding grammar better. I also feel that this course gave me a lot of good practice on how to open my papers and how to form my thesis. I’ve begun to go through my rough draft more than I have in the past.  

“Start by getting something — anything — down on paper. A friend of mine says that the first draft is the down draft — you just get it down. The second draft is the up draft — you fix it up. You try to say what you have to say more accurately. And the third draft is the dental draft, where you check every tooth, to see if it’s loose or cramped or decayed” (Lamott) 

I’ve realized how important that rough draft is. Just being able to get your thoughts down and then be able to go through it later. Having the opportunity to see where you need to fix your writing is very helpful. Reading it out loud to myself, making notes as I go through on what I should expand on, watching out for unnecessary wordiness. I feel like it’s helped me on the path to become a better writer. I feel more thorough when I go through to check to make sure I didn’t make any noticeable mistakes. Those small little changes are helping me improve. 

I feel that in the past 3 essays, I’ve become stronger with my organization. I feel that, for the most part, my paragraphs are in order and are organized well within each one. I make sure that my quotations follow the ICE rule; introduce, cite, explain. I try to keep in mind not to end with a citation. I also feel that my format for body paragraphs has gotten stronger by introducing what the body paragraph is about and working to prove whatever I’m writing about. I also feel that I have improved my Language and tone in my essays. I make sure that I don’t use slang or any unprofessional terms. I try to keep my tone consistent with the type of essay I’m writing about. If I’m writing a argumentative essay, I try to keep the tone persuasive or if I’m trying to write a review, then I try to keep it truthful to how I see it. I’m working on improving my citations and works cited pages. I feel like I still haven’t gotten the gang of who to cite my examples properly. The works cited pages either look off or I didn’t block cite correctly. Thankfully I’ve had peer review to help me point out those things but I’m still working to improve that aspect. I would also improve my research process. Sometimes I find it hard to find articles that help my topic. In the future I’m going to try to use the resources I have around me like the Sojourner truth database.  

This was also my first time creating an online portfolio for those other than my instructor to see. The process of creating the online portfolio has been quite easy so far. It feels almost professional to be able to have a place where my work is accessible. As a shy writer, it is kind of scary for me to publish my work for others to read. Although this course has helped me to make progress in my writing, I still wouldn’t say I’m confident in it. But the pride of being able to put work up in my first portfolio overshadows it. I learned through this course that online writing is a whole new form of writing. In this class we would make a word document for our rough draft and then when it was time to make the final draft, we would just copy and paste our work into the new document. Typing out a paper is way easier than writing it out by hand. Making corrections is so much easier by simply just deleting the mistake. By hand there are so many variables that can make it difficult to make a change. One could have written the paper in pen and would have to cross the mistake out, or one would have to erase everything to make room for improvement. Also, online writing has made turning in assignments way easier and way quicker by just clicking a button and turning it in. The online medium has also improved my writing by the limitless pool of resources available to me. There are several articles we read in this course that have helped improve my writing. For example, I’ve tried to keep the following quote from Adam Polack when writing my introduction, “The most important function of the introductory paragraph, however, is to present a clear statement of the paper’s argument. This sentence is your paper’s thesis.” (Polack) Being able to access website and articles with helpful information like this can be very helpful.  

I feel that this course has prepared me for ENG170. After having written analysis bases research and argumentative papers, I feel my skill level of being able to do research for a paper and cite it has improved within this course. I also feel that my persuasive skills have improved as well. In class we did an exercise where we had an in-class debate, and I was on a side I didn’t really believe and didn’t know much about. After being able to do research and write in favor of my topic, it has helped me with my persuasive skills. I feel that after taking this course I have gotten a better sense of what college writing is and I feel like I’m starting to embrace it. It was difficult and scary at the beginning of the semester but now I find that having a topic and writing a handful of pages about it is becoming easier. I’ve used some of the revisions my professor has left me on my analysis paper, and I applied it to other analysis papers I’ve written for other classes. I have also been able to use the grammar lessons we learned and applied it not only in my other classes but in my everyday life. This course has really helped me improve my writing to the point where I feel prepared for ENG170. 

 

 

 

 

Works cited 

Lamott, Anne. “Shitty First Drafts.” https://wrd.as.uky.edu/sites/default/files/1-Shitty%20First%20Drafts.pdf, 2005, Accessed 3 December 2021 

 Polack, Adam. “Writing Resources – Writing a Persuasive Essay.” Hamilton College, 2021, www.hamilton.edu/academics/centers/writing/writing-resources/persuasive-essays. Accessed 3 December 2021 

Seeley-Sherwood, Malorie. Syllabus for Composition I. Department of English, SUNY New Paltz, Fall 2021. Accessed 1 November 2021