Yang 1

Qianchi Yang

Erin Dietel-McLaughlin

First Year Composition

09 December 2010

The Reflexive Statement

After three months of passionate input of effort, I meet the end of my first semester in

college. I have to say, it is a very impressive and enjoyable taste of college life, though

accompanied by little pain. As a non-native English speaker, I really meet some sharp turns in

developing my writing skill. To switch between languages is not easy, but once one achieves

it, it will be his or hers pride throughout the lifetime. I cannot really confidently say that I

make that achievement, but my hard work does bear fruit. And that is what you are reading

now—my portfolio.

As aligned on the top, we have 5 assignments scattered throughout the semester. According to

the chronological order, the assignments become more and more academically stressed, and

thus they ask for a higher and higher skill in organizing and structuring the essay. Carefully

organize my paper is the most important thing I learn from this class, and the hardest turn in

my writing style as well, since the logic in English is not the same as that in Chinese.

However, after tons of studies and revisions I gradually grasp the essence and the feeling of

writing in a good structure, especially after the video essay assignment, since making a video

visualized the need of organization in presenting a theory or conclusion and deeply impressed

me. As I scan through my works over the semester, I feel that my words are getting clearly-

oriented. That is the progress, I think.

The sequence of the 5 assignments is designed based on the difficulty of the skills each
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intends to develop, I think, language-focused narrative to the collaborative project aiming on

organizing, collaborating, communication, efficiency of sentences, and design, etc. And also,

every former assignment will be the practice for the latter one: narrative contributes to the

word usage skill we need for rhetorical analysis, and rhetorical analysis presents lots of

examples of persuasive writings that we need for our own research essays. I can feel that I am

making progress since every time I check back on the former assignment after finishing the

latter one, I will feel surprised for what I had formerly written. “What is that?!” I shout in my

heart every time I check my work.

There are three assignments that greatly developed my research skill, the research paper, the

video essay and the final collaborative project. Each focuses on different aspect. The research

paper and video essay helped me develop skill in looking for proper material to cite, both

from the Internet and the library. However, the collaborative project asked me to get

resources from people, which is another way of researching. The summary practice is also

very important in building up my writing skills too, since I have to go through a critical

analysis process to catch the main idea of the reading materials. All the practicing demanded

for proper arrangement of materials, which is also an important skill for future use, since the

remix of materials is one of the most efficient processes of creating new knowledge.

What’s more, each of the 5 assignments offer me the opportunity to try different writing

styles. The storytelling narrative, critical rhetorical analysis and delicately composed research

essay and visual essay can demonstrate my ability to compose in a variety of forms and create

works that serve in a variety of ways. I believe that after a semester of practicing, I now

capture the philosophy of writing, the next thing I would do is to practice, practice and

practice, then I will truly master writing.

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As for my best work, I think it will be my video essay. This is the first time that I seriously

consider about the arrangement of the materials. The video essay also asks me to control the

number of words while maintaining the amount of information, which means efficiency of

sentences is highly demanded. I spend much time planning for and working on my video,

with a total of 4version of revision done before I get my final video.

At last, I wish to thank all the people I have met in this class, especially Dr.E, the one who

give me strength to keep on working hard. I had a wonderful writing experience. And now I

am looking forward to the future works, with full confidence, and clear thoughts.