Zuzanna Osiecka

ENG 2150, Dr. Blankenship

May 26, 2016

Portfolio Reflection

Over the past few months, I think that I have written more than I have during my whole high school career. Since I went to a technical high school focused on math and science, writing has never comprised of one of my strong suits. Although I never had a problem with grammar and I have always considered myself a decent writer, writing essays seemed like a daunting task that took hours to complete. However, after taking this class, I can honestly say that I have never felt as comfortable with writing as I do now.

As I look back at the past assignments that we have had, I notice that some of the major course goals for the class consisted of some of the hardest tasks for me in writing. I have never considered revising my work as a crucial part of the writing process; when writing an essay, I always attempted to make it perfect on the first try so that I would never have to look back at it. I did not realize that it actually made writing a lot more difficult. There is a lot of pressure involved in attempting to produce something flawless on the first try, rather than writing something as a draft that will later be revised. However, because every major assignment required a rough draft, I felt that there was room for mistakes and experimenting with various writing styles.

If someone had asked me what rhetoric means a few months ago, it would not be a very long conversation; now I could say that I have rhetorically analyzed one of my favorite TV shows, The Blacklist. The goal of our first major paper consisted of choosing a cultural artifact and analyzing it using rhetoric; as for every major paper, there had to be a clear thesis, support with citations and a writer’s letter. Before this class, I have never written a writer’s letter, but I realized how important it is to include; it allows the professor and the students editing your writing to understand what you want to convey through your work. One of the most difficult tasks for me has always been forming a clear thesis. For example, when writing about The Blacklist, I knew what examples I wanted to use and how I wanted to present the show, but even my first draft lacked a strong main idea. I attempted to focus on the “distorted idea of good and evil”, but my thesis was too vague. I would never be able to see that if I did not receive feedback and advice, which allowed me to expand upon my arguments and form a strong thesis when revising. In my second paper, where I encountered the same problem, I knew that I wanted to write about my experience as an immigrant student. I knew the general idea of what I wanted to write about, such as my difficulty adjusting to a different culture and the ESL (English as a Second Language) classes I was put into, but I could not figure out the point that I actually wanted to make. After working on my thesis I realized that it made it much easier for me to leave my introduction as the last paragraph to write, and revisit it once all of my ideas were down on paper. Sometimes it is easier to analyze and explore a topic in order to understand it and make a definitive argument, especially when using rhetoric. Thinking about the audience, purpose and genre have aided me in analyzing all types of literature, which has also allowed me to understand the subject further and decide upon my thesis.

When introduced with the Creative Remix Project, I felt out of my comfort zone. A multimedia project sounded very intimidating, and I have never thought of transferring my essay into a different format. I found, however, that only the idea sounded scary; making a video turned out to be a lot more enjoyable than I thought. I learned how to insert recordings of my own voice into a short video, as well as the rules and regulations of what pictures are allowed to be used and how to use them. Maybe I will not necessarily remake every paper I write into a multimedia project, but I am proud to say that I have overcome my fear of editing videos. If I can use my essay about my immigrant experience as a student to create an entertaining clip about how our educational system needs to be reformed, then I feel that I can do anything. Maybe not necessarily anything, but more than I thought I could do before.

As I try my hardest not to sound cliché, I think that taking this class has definitely benefitted me and made me more comfortable with writing. It has altered my views; I have never considered revision as important as I do now, and therefore I always viewed writing as a very tedious task. However, I realized that this mindset has only caused me to dread writing. I have also noticed that in the past some of my teachers and professors graded rough drafts, something that only puts pressure on children and stunts their creativity. From now on in my future classes, I will always start my paper with a first draft; it does not matter how terrible it may be, because it is only a rough draft. I can always fix the things that I need to work on but it will provide me with a base for my essay, making it more approachable. As I have learned this semester, the most important thing is to transfer my thoughts onto my paper. Organizing my ideas is part of the revision process, that allows me to shape my thoughts in order to create a bigger picture.