IRE Draft - Portfolio PDF

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Summary

This is an example of the introduction for the final portfolio....

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It seems as though the stars aligned for me to end up in a class like this. English 1102 was the very last class I signed up for and that was during add or drop week. I thought it would just be a class that I got over with so I could get on with STEM classes that are more related to my major. And surprise, surprise! I was too quick to force that judgement upon this class because I truly got so much out of it. As an immigrant myself, the multicultural American literature theme of this class led me to explore very complex parts of myself and I got to explore identity in a very personal manner as well as become a better writer. For the first essay submitted, we were instructed to write about a poem where we analyze the author’s art form and the way the message of it was delivered. As I looked through the list of poetry, I was drawn toward a poem by Janice Mirikitani called “Breaking Tradition”. This was the second essay I had to write in this class and I had a couple of pointers on the first essay that helped me write this one. Firstly, I really struggled with organizing my ideas and staying on topic as I tried to explain my point. To fix this, I began to roughly outline how I want my paper to flow. Although the end product of this essay was not much like the outline, it definitely helped me be more aware of how I wanted to go about explaining the ideas. Secondly, I struggled with depth. I needed to be more aware of my audience meaning I should be more elaborate about the ideas in my head since the people reading my paper, whether it be professors or peers, will not be in my head. The biggest obstacle was getting out of the five paragraph formula I was so accustomed to in high school and transitioning into the less limited analytical writing the assignment requires. During the revision process, I worked on the notes left by Professor VasconcelosHammock. Much of this process revolved around thoroughness. I worked on adding direct quotes and examples from my sources to support my claim. In hindsight, though I had useful

sources, I didn’t do a great job of incorporating them directly into the paper so I fixed that for this portfolio. Otherwise, there were some grammar and syntax issues especially when it comes to being concise which I worked on as well and kept in mind for the next essay. The second essay submitted is about Jhumpa Lahiri, a writer I have come to admire very much because of this class. The prompt for this essay was to focus on the way a writer explores identity through a particular work. I chose Jhumpa Lahiri from the options because as a South Asian immigrant, her works resonated with me very much. I was interested in delving in and analyzing more of her works. I chose Interpreter of Maladies because of the family dynamic in conjunction with the culture clash leaves lots of room to analyze the art form. I began by researching Lahiri’s life and how she portrays India in her works. With her background in mind, I began to draw connections to the story. I noted specific scenes, lines, and symbols I could incorporate into the essay. The biggest challenge was researching the cultural context and integrating that information into the paper. After a bit of searching around, I found that this work was published during the transition between the second wave of feminism into the third which I knew would be very relevant to the deeper implications of this narrative. Then, after outlining the essay and settling on a thesis, I began working on the essay itself. I began by introducing Lahiri and explaining how she juxtaposes Indian culture and American culture in her writing. I placed a lot of emphasis on symbolism in the later portions of my essay because much of the inter-cultural commentary by Lahiri can be found within the objects she uses rather than the characters. During the revision process, I once again worked on the helpful notes left by Professor Vasconcelos-Hammock. In my introduction, I was a bit too elaborate about Lahiri’s life by including details that seemed unnecessary for readers to know so I went back and condensed

some portions of it. I also summarized a bit too much when I should have written it with the assumption that the reader will already be familiar with the work and I deleted the sections where I was simply retelling the story. The last major fix necessary was the claim I made about Lahiri’s life, that she often fuses her own life experiences into her works, did not include citation. To fix this, I found an interview she did for NPR that supports my claim and added a quote from there into my paper. What I submitted for my exhibit of revision process is a good overview of the way my writing progresses. It features my intro paragraph for the previously mentioned essay. The first draft is very rushed and it is quite evident that I was just trying to get down my ideas in order to meet a deadline. For the second draft, I went back and added on more details. I did leave some careless grammar mistakes that I went back in and fixed for the third draft. After that, I decided that instead of placing all my focus on searching for errors with a fine-tooth comb as I’ve been doing so far, I should focus on strengthening my points. After changing my essay according all my previous notes, I came up with the final draft for this portfolio. The peer review I did focuses more on making the essay stronger rather than the nitty gritty grammatical details. I encouraged her to explain her points further. For example, she had very great analysis of the structure of a poem but does not go on to explain why the structure is important to the point she tries to make and what it conveys. I left notes for her throughout to explain the implications of her analysis as well as cite her sources. The wildcard I chose for this portfolio is a poem I wrote for extra credit. I had to pick ten lines from an exercise called Twenty Little Poetry Projects. I chose the first ten lines. I passed a few ideas back and forth but I just couldn’t settle down on a topic. After much deliberation, I realized that I should focus on something central to our class, perhaps something culture related.

After settling on that, I tapped into the restless, wanderlust spirit within me. For as long as I can remember, I’ve wanted to travel and have researched the most beautiful popular to the most beautifully obscure places around the world that I would love to visit. With this idea as inspiration, the poem seemed to glide through my fingertips. I wrote about my wandering soul, how it is always transcending elsewhere even though my physical body is here, wherever “here” is. Now that this course has come to an end and I am reflecting on my past work, I am left with awe regarding how far I’ve come. When I look at my first essay, it is astonishing how much I summarized. The most important takeaway from this class is the importance of thoroughly researching a topic and making sure that the sources are credible. Though my academic English career stops here, many of the lessons I’ve learned will stick with me as I move on in the STEM field....