Seminar Assignments - Portfolio Essay PDF

Preview

Summary

Portfolio Essay...

Description

Introduction The topic of my English 1102 class this semester was “Under a Veil and a Symbol: Weird Fictions”, one that I was slightly intimidated of at first, believing we would be reading stories of mysticism, magic, and other “blasphemous” elements. However, the class’ focus was not purely set on the genre, but rather on the literary art behind it and how to express our thoughts on those works. Our projects have been centered on developing a link between these seemingly inapplicable books and the real world through a variety of communication techniques. Having exposed myself to this genre for the first time, I was able to grow as a reader and writer, growth evident in the artifacts brought forth in this portfolio. The artifacts I have chosen most exhibit examples of oral and non-verbal communication, intentional visual design, electronic communication using blogs, and a substantial revision process is clear in each of the artifacts. I decided to look at my essay on weird fiction and modernity, a blog post, and a presentation/essay project Fin de Siecle Histories. Each project proves great attention to detail and was revised countless times. With regards to the research and writing processes, delivery, and media use, I believe I was able to excel this semester. Each of my artifacts exemplifies my strengths in these areas and shows my improvement in keeping focused and informative throughout, with little digression. My organization has developed and allowed me to organize large amounts of information within time/word limits thanks to planning I undertake prior to beginning. My Writing Process Throughout the semester, I’ve worked especially hard on developing coherent and welldeveloped arguments in my works. They have depended heavily on preliminary planning involving brainstorming, outlines, and light research. In doing this, I was able to develop my skills as a concise and engaging communicator. The PowerPoint attached reveals the process each work goes through before being submitted as a final draft. For instance, Artifact 1, which was my “Individual Essay on Weird Fiction and Modernity”, went through 3 drafts before being finalized and submitted. Those drafts, however, don’t even include the outline and research in which I compiled lists of websites and quotes from reliable documents and publications. The first draft not only included the introduction at its preliminary stages and an outline, but a list of potential bits of information and websites to be used in the construction of the essay. Headings such as “countries to talk about”, “imperial cults”, and “the divine right” are all included in that outline and are evident in the final draft of the essay, portraying the importance of my writing process and how it yields high quality final drafts, especially for assignments written in the essay format. Another artifact that similarly used an outlining and drafting process was the Fin de Siecle Histories project (Artifact 3) that included both a presentation and an essay. There, my group and I first began by creating a Google Document, which we split into four parts for each group member. We then created our own outlines for particular parts of the presentation and essay to most efficiently complete the project, but still contributing to each others’ work if need be. The outline includes various links and short phrases in reference to entire subjects to talk

about. This sort of outlining was critical to the development of both our PowerPoint and essay, each included in the artifact page. Organization was another very important issue for me during this semester. The first artifact is written in a very clear and ordered manner, beginning with an introduction to the topic, then followed by a pair of body paragraphs and a conclusion. Each of those body paragraphs discussed different ideas, the first focusing on the deification of rulers throughout history and the second discussing coupling the religious institutions with political institutions. Because each of those topics elicit textual evidence and external information, it was very important to carefully organize the essay to avoid confusing or losing the reader. The Fin de Siecle Histories employed a similar form of organization to make sure everything fit together for the audience members. It began with an introduction to the history of Mithraism, including information on its origins and spread through the Old World. Mithraic culture was then discussed, especially in relation to Christianity, to give true cultural as well as historical context to the presentation. Once we were knee-deep in discussing Mithraic mythology, an example of a common artwork was discussed which helped the audience understand their beliefs. Finally, the presentation ended with explaining the importance of Mithraism to The Hill of Dreams by Arthur Machen, as it was the work being studied for this project. My first blog post was also very focused on clear-cut organization. The post begins with a thesis statement and an introduction to the topic to be discussed in The Hill of Dreams, which happened to be socioeconomics and the authors’ resentment for his classist society. The post was split into three paragraphs, each focusing on one part of the subject matter. The first gave textual evidence of the cruel treatment of the poor in Victorian-era Britain, the second clarifying “the Poor Laws” in their society with two images that highlighted the economic divide. Finally, by drawing on information from Machen’s personal life, a line could be drawn between the protagonist of his story and himself, proving my point. This structuring of the post allows the reader to follow my thought process when developing my theory and would perhaps make it easier for them to see things the way I did. The use of images, videos, and other media presentations was another critical element evident in my work this semester. My blog post used a video, a map, and an old advertisement to support the claims I was making. Instead of attempting to explain the social classes in Victorian England, which book could be written on, I spared the meager 350 word limit and included a link to a YouTube video that, in less then four minutes, explained the class system at the time. This video allowed for my post to focus on the crux of the thesis statement rather than risk digressing and missing the point I was trying to make. The map I included helped illustrate the sharp divide between the classes in Victorian London. Instead of just talking about it, I used the map to show how the few rich families took up more space than the rest of the relatively impoverished masses that lived in crowded conditions. Just like the map, the chocolate advertisement is another relic from the time period that drew a bold line between the rich and poor. Such examples from the past made my claims more and more legitimate by providing more than just pure fact-based textual evidence that would likely bore an online audience. Similarly, the Fin de Siecle Histories

presentation was seriously aided by the use of a PowerPoint presentation involving a short performance at the beginning as well as maps and images. At the beginning of the presentation my group and I performed a Mithraic soldiers’ marching song that set the tone for the rest of the presentation. Then, using maps, we were able to explain to the audience the spread of Mithraism through Europe and prove, for instance, why it was such a formidable rival of Christianity for a long time. A particularly important use for images came when explaining the tauroctony in the seventh slide. There, a group member was able to point out specific parts of the relief that are religiously significant and explain their importance in the bigger picture of Mithraism and it’s history and culture. Conclusion All in all, I have come a long way in the realms of organization, outlining, media use with relation to my pieces. In this class, I used and presented in different mediums to discuss books and associated themes I would otherwise not have exposed myself to. By reading books I otherwise would not have, I learned a new way of expressing my thoughts rather than shying away from them. They provided a new way for me to look at art and to truly understand what I think of that art, especially surrealistic and expressionistic art. In doing this, I discovered not only the value in this unorthodox genre but also the value in writing styles not necessarily in the essay format. By fulfilling requirements for my blog posts, I was able to learn to write online posts of an adequate length to fully engage an increasingly large audience. Before this course, it is likely I would have written a bland, essay-style blog post rather than a short, concise and media-backed one. However, I strongly believe I still have much room for improvement when writing nontraditional pieces including blogs and other less formal works. My strong suit has definitely been my essay writing but hope to expand upon that skill and work on the others that seem to be developing. Ultimately, this class has allowed me to expand my horizons with regards to forms of writing and genres of literature, allowing me to attain invaluable skills for the classroom, workplace, and even social media websites....