Rationale essay - Grade: A PDF

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Nick Van Nevel Professor Walzer ENGW 1111-07 December 7th, 2015

Portfolio Rationale Essay The writing process is unique for every writer. For myself, one could best compare it to the process of modeling a clay sculpture or piece. To start off, I take a slab of clay and decide what I want to create, similar to starting off with a prompt and a blank screen. I take the clay in my hands and get a feel for it and slowly start projecting the picture or idea in my mind onto the clay. Once I have worn out the clay and have gotten an idea for what I want to create, I get a fresh slab of clay and get to work. As I sculpt, if it needs a small change or revision, the use of water helps keep the clay fresh and smoothen any additions onto the clay. An important part of any creative process is peer review. As with writing, having someone look at what I made and provide feedback to improve upon my work is incredibly helpful and can even spark new ideas in my mind. When I finalize a clay piece and decide to put it in the kiln, the work is not done. Once it is fired, I have to sand off any imperfections and if needed, glaze the project to not only smoothen the surface, but provide another outlet for my ideas. I found this process to be illustrative of my writing process. The drafting, revising, and finalization processes are all similar even though the mediums I am using to express my ideas are very different. This first-year writing class has taught me a lot about writing in general, as well as my own writing. In high school, writing was strictly academic and was often very structured. However, this class opened up my writing to new genres, audiences, and ideas about writing. I now have a much better understanding of not only how genre effects how I write, but how to

better adapt my writing process and style to account for a specific genre, as well as for a specific audience. Along with genre and audience, I have learned how to better incorporate rhetorical tools into my writing and utilize them in more efficient ways. These skills open up my writing to new possibilities in many different styles of genre, helping me strengthen all kinds of my writing, whether it is for different classes or in a work place. Writing, even with a prompt, is a creative process. Due to the free writes, I no longer see writing as a daunting and tedious task, but as an outlet for ideas and a way to help generate ideas. Another aspect of my writing that has changed, is my revision, which is now an important part of my writing process. Before, I focused on surface revision (grammar and sentence structure). However, this class has taught me that revision is a deep process that effects the overall structure and main ideas of a piece. Taking into account what I have learned, I now feel that the strongest part of my writing is my analysis or argumentative portions. The readings and discussions about rhetorical tools and their uses have helped me improve these areas of my writing. The weakest portion of my writing is organization and structure, something I have always had trouble with. I do feel that I have improved upon this throughout the semester and the revisions of my projects, but it is still an area I struggle with. Overall, I believe this class has helped shape my writing and writing process into a more sophisticated and adaptable style. This class has also given me a deeper understanding into human rights discourse and how the use of rhetorical tools and genre within this discourse effects people’s view and understanding of human rights. The readings given in class and their relation to the projects allowed me to not only understand, but utilize the rhetorical tools used in human rights discourse. I also am more conscious of viewing this discourse no matter the medium, because I am able to identify the rhetorical tools used and the problems that are possibly created using

these tools. I also have a better understanding of the multiple dimensions of human rights and understand how there is never one problem or one solution, that everything is intertwined. One of the most surprising parts of this class was that the students created the rubric and essentially graded themselves on the projects. This was so different from my whole academic experience that I found it almost uncomfortable. Now that I have a little experience with this process, I appreciate it because it allows me to write more freely and I am less focused on what the professor wants to see and more on the actual process. Throughout the semester, I have put in a lot of effort in all aspects of the class. The writing process for all of my projects was extensive with multiple drafts, revisions, research, and peer reviews (yes, it was required, but I believe that I put in what was expected and then some in order to make my projects the best that they could be). The outside work, like the readings and the required event, is another area where I put a lot of effort into. I did the majority of the readings on time and I made sure to have an understanding of them before class. I participated in the outside human rights event and completed the write-up for that event, on time. Overall, I believe that I earned a 95, or an A, in this class. I believe this is supported by currently having an A- average on the first round of the projects, and with Project 4 and the improvement from the revisions of Projects 1-3, I believe that my grade should move up to an A. As well as performance within the projects, another reason that I believe that I have earned an A is that I feel as though I have learned all the writing program (WP) goals listed in the syllabus. Whether I learned them from the projects, in class discussions, or other assignments, I have successfully met these goals. This class has truly been an invaluable experience. Usually I dread these core classes because of how standardized and impersonal they are. Needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised by how the class was taught and how there was the overarching theme of human rights. It

allowed me to put what I was learning into the context of a real subject that I am passionate about. I have grown to enjoy writing and have learned so much about my writing process and style, which has helped me build a foundation that I think will help me throughout my college and professional career....