In my portfolio, I have included three of my favorite assignments. They were not only enjoyable to write, but also demonstrate how I have completed all the course outcomes and met all the assignment requirements. The assignments that illustrate this best include the process essay, rhetorical analysis and contest essay, and the ethnography. I have analyzed these specific papers, and found how they have not only met all the requirements of the assignments and the course, but they have also shown how my writing improves through each draft. In the process essay, I accurately describe and analyze my writing process, and discuss how it can be improved, by making it more flexible to fit different styles of writing, especially creative writing. In
…show more content…
The analysis evaluates The Fountain Magazine and the prompt of their 2015 writing competition, allowing me to write an essay that answers the prompt accurately and creatively. The rhetorical analysis was especially difficult for me, since I had never written one before and the first draft was not so much of an essay as it was the insane ramblings of a stressed college student, being disorganized and filled with frustrated profanity. However, six drafts later, it was not only acceptable, it was exemplary. By just my second draft, phrases describing the audience went from calling them “a bunch of pretentious fuckwads” to “well read, scholarly types.” As for the essay, it went from a boring explanation of the theme of our age, to a textbook from the future, describing the early 2000s as the “Age of Connection.” For both components of the assignment, I used distinct styles that were appropriate for each situation. In the analysis, I adopted specific language, like constraints and audience, to discuss the prompt as well as the publishers of the magazine and kept the piece more straightforward and analytical. For the essay, on the other hand, I was able to be more creative, as the prompt required, writing fiction as fact and formatting it like a …show more content…
I researched the community r/gonewild, partially for the shock factor, but also to study internet anonymity and its advantages. Just like the rhetorical analysis, I had never written an ethnography before now. Fortunately, I was able to use some genre conventions to guide, most obviously shown in the design of the paper, using the IMRD (introduction, methodology, results, and discussion) to guide my writing. The research itself was based on a question developed during my preliminary observations, asking how different genders employ anonymity. I then answered the question, showing my methods, including interviews and outside sources, and results. Not only did I identify the community in question in the second paragraph, but I analyzed the use of anonymity within it, discussing the use of gender and the division of labor, while also affirming my theory with studies others have done on internet anonymity and gender behavior, including Suler’s “Online Disinhibition Effect.” The paper also includes an annex and works cited page, to show my
The analysis evaluates The Fountain Magazine and the prompt of their 2015 writing competition, allowing me to write an essay that answers the prompt accurately and creatively. The rhetorical analysis was especially difficult for me, since I had never written one before and the first draft was not so much of an essay as it was the insane ramblings of a stressed college student, being disorganized and filled with frustrated profanity. However, six drafts later, it was not only acceptable, it was exemplary. By just my second draft, phrases describing the audience went from calling them “a bunch of pretentious fuckwads” to “well read, scholarly types.” As for the essay, it went from a boring explanation of the theme of our age, to a textbook from the future, describing the early 2000s as the “Age of Connection.” For both components of the assignment, I used distinct styles that were appropriate for each situation. In the analysis, I adopted specific language, like constraints and audience, to discuss the prompt as well as the publishers of the magazine and kept the piece more straightforward and analytical. For the essay, on the other hand, I was able to be more creative, as the prompt required, writing fiction as fact and formatting it like a …show more content…
I researched the community r/gonewild, partially for the shock factor, but also to study internet anonymity and its advantages. Just like the rhetorical analysis, I had never written an ethnography before now. Fortunately, I was able to use some genre conventions to guide, most obviously shown in the design of the paper, using the IMRD (introduction, methodology, results, and discussion) to guide my writing. The research itself was based on a question developed during my preliminary observations, asking how different genders employ anonymity. I then answered the question, showing my methods, including interviews and outside sources, and results. Not only did I identify the community in question in the second paragraph, but I analyzed the use of anonymity within it, discussing the use of gender and the division of labor, while also affirming my theory with studies others have done on internet anonymity and gender behavior, including Suler’s “Online Disinhibition Effect.” The paper also includes an annex and works cited page, to show my