Portfolio Reflection Letter PDF

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Professor: Star Glover, Fall 2019
ENGL115 Honors...

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Portfolio Reviewer 18111 Nordhoff St Northridge, CA 91330 December 10, 2019 Ashley Lee 2019 Lost Bunny Ave Matadoralle, CA 20200 Dear Portfolio Reader: When first coming here at Cal State University of Northridge, I was one of the many students lost in the herd of thousands of Matadors— a new and unfamiliar environment away from home. I imagined myself to be constantly overloaded with work and stressed out from college life. I remember struggling to memorize the names of each building and where they were located throughout the campus. I also recall my heart pounding like a hammer in my chest when first entering my classes. Yet, walking into my English class, I felt welcomed and relaxed. Professor Star Glover was shining like a superstar with a smile on her face. She shared with the class that she was overcaffeinated, but also nervous like the rest of us students. Teachers are commonly perceived as high authoritative figures rather than normal people with real feelings and thoughts. But, Star gradually became one of my favorite professors not only because she is amazing at teaching, but also her empathy and friendliness with the students. One of the most memorable lessons that Star has taught me is her own concept of a scared, lost, little bunny. The bunny represents the readers when they read an essay, research paper, or any other form of writing. Readers can easily get lost when the writing lacks clarity or if a sentence is misleading and does not align with the paper’s overall argument. Star also drew her own bunny with a frown. After explaining the purpose of the lost bunny, she turned the frown into a smile to demonstrate that through trial and error, one’s writing will definitely improve for the readers to better understand their writing. Although the lesson itself may seem silly and childish, it was easier to comprehend how the readers feel when visualizing them as a bunny. In addition, the humor in the lesson made it more unique and entertaining to learn others methods in writing better essays. For my portfolio, I chose Project Text and Project Space. I’ve had much practice writing argumentative essays throughout middle and high schools. However, the prompt for Project Text was interesting and somewhat different from my previous essays. In Project Text, I analyzed two different sources with the same message to determine which source was more effective in delivering the message. But in past essays, I had to analyze the books that my English classes read and develop my own arguments with supporting claims. My second essay, Project Space, was my favorite essay to write this semester. I’ve never thought to stop and examine why spaces are built in the way they are built and the architectural features

completes the space. The space that I chose is one of my favorite studying spots on campus— the NCOD, short for National Center On Deafness, tutoring center. The tutoring center was specifically built for CSUN’s deaf and hard-of-hearing students. I identify myself as hard-ofhearing, so I felt like the tutoring center was the perfect space for my essay. Furthermore, researching about deaf space that is created to accommodate my needs, as well as other deaf and hard-of-hearing people, allowed me to achieve a deeper understanding of the major principles of deaf space. In order to figure out what parts of my essays confused the readers, I pretended to ask the lost bunny questions as if it were a person. I learned that my analysis in both essays was not thorough enough, and some of my claims needed more explanation and support from outside sources. Also, my ideas tended to be repetitive throughout the essays; therefore, I rephrased certain sentences to be different from each other while all connected to the essay’s thesis. Sometimes, my ideas did not transition smoothly from one to the next, which created awkward moments while reading. From the feedback that I’ve received from Professor Star and my classmates, I applied their suggestions in revising my essays in order to showcase my writing in a better light. Writing these essays and being Professor Star’s student has improved who I am as a writer today. I was able to be more flexible and independent with my writing compared to high school, where the essays followed a specific format of concrete details, commentary, more commentary, and transition sentences. Throughout this semester, I’ve learned that in the real world, there is no right or wrong way to write. Yes, there are many elements that can enhance one’s writing, but the way how each person writes and how their writing is structured matters. Writing is not confined to the same format over and over again like in high school. It’s supposed to help me think and analyze topics on a deeper level while enjoying the process of creating the final written product. Therefore, writing outside of the box provides me with an opportunity to explore different ways to write and gradually develop my own style of writing. This then allows me to become more confident as a writer, person, and student here at CSUN. Now marks the end of the first semester of my college life. I am no longer a scared and lost bunny, who was completely clueless about the campus and who everyone else was. Instead, I am a butterfly that has experienced mata-morphosis not only into a better writer, but also a proud Matador.

Sincerely,

Ashley Lee...