writing for this class and beyond

Even though all of the English classes that I've taken have been writing intensive, I feel that the writing I have done for this class has prepared me the best for any writing I will have to do in the future.

This class has taught me how to make important decisions as a writer. We had to choose our own communities, which was an important decision because the remaining of the writing we were assigned to do had to be related to our community. After making that first decision, I also had to make decisions regarding different genres I would write my assignments in, especially for the initiating action assignment. I had to figure out what genre would be the most effective for the argument I was trying to prove (how the most publicized animal rights groups are also the most extreme). I also had to figure out the most effective presentation to convey information to the class.

Being able to effectively make these decisions will help me in future writing because decisions like choosing a genre will always have to be made, no matter what type of writing I will have to do. I feel that becoming better at making these kind of basic "writerly" choices will lead to better writing.

final portfolio

The rough copy of my final portfolio is finished, and even thought it took some time I am actually pretty happy with how it is shaping up. None of my three writing assignments needed too many major revisions, so the bulk of my time was spent on writing the three essays included in the portfolio.

For my introduction to the writer essay, I spent some time reflecting on how my writing has stayed the same and changed between now and high school. I focused on how my writing in high school was mainly fact-based and how the writing I did for this course was more open to creativity and opinion.

For my reflection on the writings essay, I mainly quoted myself, noting the changes I made to the various assignments. I also included why I made those changes and how I felt my writing would improve after making those revisions.

My concluding essay was the most difficult for me to write. I struggled with the question we were supposed to address, which was: "What do I need to know in order to evaluate learnings/progress/effort this semester that this portfolio does not demonstrate?" I think I've decided that for my final portfolio, I would answer that question by talking about how much my time management skills have improved and how I have become better towards making effective writing decisions (like choosing a topic to write about, genre to write it in, etc).