Joseph Gohari
Professor Graves
English 2150
5/17/19
Portfolio
Throughout the semester Professor Graves has helped me become the writer I have always wanted to be. In the beginning of the semester Seth had us fill out a questionnaire about what are weaknesses and strengths were about writing. Knowing that I lacked some skill in writing I was truthful in my responses because I myself wanted to improve in writing. I had put down that I was weak in organization, expanding on some of my ideas, and lacking my own voice in my papers. I made it my goal to improve in those areas through the whole semester. Through writing these papers and focusing on what my skills needed to improve on writing helped me realize where I was making these mistake and self-critiquing my self along the process.
In my first assignment I talked about the viral movement and how the current generation is going through a wave of virality where everyone wants to become popular on social media across many platforms. I drew a connection between the two songs by the Chainsmokers, “#selfie” and “Kanye”, with the famous YouTube sensation David Dobrik and a video he created. Both the songs by the Chainsmokers were created following viral trends that were going on in society during that time. The Song “#selfie” depicts the rise of the selfie movement where throughout all platforms came a wave of selfies and self-portraits where people would add their own funny twist to the picture. The selfie movement was one of the first social outbreaks where people were more engaged in social media and were using it way more than usual. “Kanye” followed the recent fame Kanye was receiving after his outlandish comments on slavery and his national outburst like announcing he will run for president in 2020. Kanye’s remarks may have not gotten him the best attention as people opposed his views on history, but it was attention none the less. The Chainsmokers nearly wanted to poke fun at recent crazes while creating content that viewers worldwide would love to hear. In the beginning of this essay it was difficult to draw a comparison between the songs and Dobrik but eventually it was easy to see that both the Chainsmokers and Dobrik just want to create content for their viewers as they grow larger as people and as creators. What was necessarily hard also was how I would organize this paper because I would have to transition speaking about both the songs and connect them together as well as connect it to the vlog. With my writing improving each day as I wrote about the first assignment it helped me prepare for the big research paper.
Research was never my strong suit because I struggle as a reader and lack the mental capacity to stare at something for too long. So right from the get go I knew this would be a challenging process for me. as I found my sources to use in my research I had to keep in mind how I would approach this research. Since I was doing my research on viral marketing I had to research how big brand corporations use viral marketing to promote their products. Even though I had done my previous paper on how the Chainsmokers and Dobrik both market themselves and methods they use to brand their names, I needed to look at viral marketing on a broader scale. Seth made it easy for us with having to complete the annotated bibliography first so we could stat out with a reasonable amount of sources with some background about them. Having done this made the writing process much easier because all I had to do was provide more context through my explanations of the sources. Not only did it make the process much easier but it helped me with organization I trait as I mentioned before I was lacking in.
My revision process was what I expected it to be. As I have mention g-d knows how many times, but I am unorganized, and I do not explain some of my ideas enough. The revision tasks helped me understand where I needed to be me and less of what I read online because writing is all about expressing your ideas on the paper. Most of my tasks included adding more context to my ideas. It took a while for me to write my own words on the revisions because I felt that my word is not good enough to be mentioned in my paper while it was all I needed. What I felt was also helpful was the mini deadlines that were enforced as we would complete an assignment. This method of little due dates made me progressively work on my papers and leave myself with some leeway for the days to come
Throughout the semester and throughout all these writings I slowly but surely saw myself improving as a writer. Through peer reviews I got a sense of what my group though of my work and made me feel comfortable knowing I could ask any of them a question without feeling embarrassed. As well as this I also gained a group of friends who I couldn’t have asked for a better group. The group work brought us close as we would meet up in the library to discuss each other’s work with constructive criticism. At this point I saw my self grow as a writer and as a man. Learning the work with your peers is an important life skill I will take on into my older years as well as in business.