Benjamin Herrera
Professor Graves
ENG 2150
05/21/2019
Portfolio Reflection
Over the course of this semester, I have been writing more in my life in a short period of time than I ever have before. Not only due to this English class, but my other liberal arts classes as well. However, my experience in English 2150 has helped me in many important ways with my writing. This is because English 2150 has helped me be able to analyze the tasks of an essay better before writing it, helped me to write concisely, and to be able to use data effectively when trying to make an argument.
First, I did the first assignment which required that I analyze two cultural works which shared a common theme. What made this assignment challenging and a learning experience for me was that I had to talk about how these cultural works talked to one another. At first, I merely wrote about what these works individually and how they both related to the theme of civil unrest. I talked about what kind of civil unrest the pieces were addressing with regards to whether it be racial, economic, gender based, etc. However through doing this assignment, I learned that writing about how they talk to one another is much more complicated than that. It is about being able to construct a narrative surrounding these two pieces in which they both contribute to that narrative around that theme. In my example I talked about how one of my pieces talked about civil unrest with regards to peaceful inclusivity while the other piece focused on militant resistance. From there, I was able to write about the history of the conflict between these two means to civil unrest and the importance there. This is why the first assignment really helped me to analyze the tasks of an assignment better and allow myself to analyze and deepen further when writing about different subjects. I am very proud of this change in myself as a writer. In my revision of the first assignment, I realized I had to improve how I wrote and communicated things. Earlier in my career as a writer, I would write and expand things longer than they needed to be. Through this process of revision, I was able to condense things.
For the second assignment, I had to incorporate a lot of research into developing a thesis for a sub topic question under our group topic of civil unrest. The way I went about this when writing my paper is that when writing and making an argument that I wasn’t sure about whether it was valid, I would look up statistics or questions to find evidence that would help me in proving my argument quantitatively. Due to this, I felt like my second assignment was not merely opinion based, but had a heavy reliance on statistics and data which served as the cornerstone as my paper. During my revision process of the second assignment, I realized that I had to be more clear about my thinking when going deeper on my topics. By doing so, I realized there was more to talk about with regards to how the thinking that Trump used to his advantage was there before.
In conclusion, I think my wrtiing still overall needs a lot of work, however I think I am a more focused writer thanks to this course. I am personally most proud of being able to analyze better the tasks of an assignment because this has allowed me to go in depth to the fullest potential of the assignment and not remain surface level with my analysis and writing. As I continue writing into my future, I will continually work to better these flaws and flesh out how I write.