Wilmer 1 Sam Wilmer Professor Suzanne Ingram English 1103 3 December 2012 Development through College English One

of the things that I value most is thought. When I die, I would be content if my tombstone read Sam Wilmer, he was a thinker. During my semester in English 1103 I have learned how to think effectively in a college environment and then apply it to my writing. Looking back at my work I progressively wrote deeper papers, I had clearer ideas, and better support. There were assignments that required more advanced thought than others, and those were the interesting ones to me. I think that having a philosophy class, which I believe should be a general education requirement, at the same time as English really improved my writing. Hopefully my philosophical voice is reflected by the work I have done in the assignments this year. My portfolio is organized by major assignment and a few miscellaneous categories. Most of the pieces I chose all had to do with the major assignments so I decided to organize the site that way. It really shows how I went through the writing process during my assignments and highlights the changes I made between drafts. Take my WILTBY essay for example. I have a sheet that I brainstormed on, then I have my second draft with great feedback from Ms. Ingram, and then I have my complete final draft. This is the example I tried to follow on all of my major assignment pages because of the completeness of work. I also ordered the assignments by date to show the progress I have made throughout the semester. I wanted to show how my English class has affected my thinking and the way I have approached papers in other classes.

Wilmer 2 I tried to include a broad range of assignments in my portfolio. The most out there assignment I included is an essay I wrote for Deliberative Democratic Theory, a political philosophy class that studies both the origins of democracy as well as the philosophical element of a deliberative democracy. This class has really helped me during the writing process in English. The questions we discuss in that class are so deep and mind bending, and the questions have taught me what a good question is. This class reminds me of the first day in English when we discussed inquiry. Having a philosophy class throughout the semester never let me forget what inquiry is and how it is applied. I loved writing for English right after that class because I knew my work wouldnt be shallow. This mindset has really propelled my thinking throughout the semester in English, and that is why I included an essay from the class. Also English had an effect on my papers for Deliberative Democracy. I was producing more logical arguments because of the writing process we have used in class. Reading the draft out loud is the most helpful thing when it came to the philosophy essays. For example, the first line of the second paragraph reads Freedom and equality clash constantly because no two human beings are the same. When I read this sentence out loud I realized how powerful of a sentence it really was, and I decided to move it to the front of my paragraph. Reading aloud helps me weed out the bad sentences and focus on the good ones. After this semester I am considering starting a blog of my own. Granted it wont be on health or English class, but doing blogger has given me the experience of informal writing with a real purpose. Blogger was probably one of the assignments that kept me engaged with the class the most. The blog assignments had more to do with how we are doing in the class? or how do you feel about the writing? This was completely new to me. Feeling and emotion in an educational setting? Not until now. I think that writing those assignments and reading our

Wilmer 3 classmates blogs really helped everyone identify with each other more, I know I did. That just made the writing process easier for me. It was easier to give valuable feedback since I knew where my group mates were coming from with regards to their topics. My worst piece of writing from the course, at least it is what I feel, is my WILTBY essay. I think I just took the wrong approach when I was writing it and it is reflected in my essay. Reading my class mates work their essays were all much more personal and I really understood how they thought and went about their lives. My essay was too much about goals and aspirations, and I ignored my history, because that is really what made me who I am. For example my title How to become a Supreme Court Justice implies that I will be basically writing about a plan, which I did. What I learned from this essay is that before writing I need to sit down and brainstorm ideas with the angle that I should try to include all possible angles. Or, in other words, I needed to not just ram through the work I need to make sure I am covering as many topics as much as a can to help the reader gain a better understanding of my topic. In my WILTBY essay I really lost sight of the whole assignment because I was so focused on this major goal of becoming a Supreme Court Justice. I took this new broad approach with me the rest of the semester and I think it helped my writing in all of my essays but especially the three sided assignment and the argumentative research essay. The annotated bibliography was something that I have never done before. However, I have always known that once you find a source you need to evaluate and really decide whether you should use it or not, but this was different. This was simply finding sources and taking notes on them with only a general idea of what the sources had to pertain to. The annotated bibliography showed me that it is much easier to write about a source once you have a general idea of what it is about. It is not enough to put a paraphrase/quote and let it stand alone. The

Wilmer 4 annotated bibliography allowed me to analyze the quotes better. I tried so hard not to do really specific research when I was doing this assignment. After completing the assignment I understood what Ms. Ingram meant by saying We should become experts before we write on a topic. My annotated bibliography prepared me for my three sided assignment because it forced me to become an expert, it forced me to think about my topic in a general sense before I wrote anything specific. Now moving to my best piece of writing this semester, the three sided assignment. This essay was something that I really enjoyed writing and researching for. One of the reasons I thought the essay was so good was the result of my annotated bibliography, an assignment that helped me figure out general ideas related to my topic. Luckily for me my research was extremely interesting and there were three groups that I was relatively familiar with from previous classes. All of that contributed my writing of the three sided assignment which turned out to be what I think is my best piece of writing this semester. Usually my writing in these types of assignments has been described as up in the ether. My thought process was very fluid while I was writing the three sided essay. I learned that to really write it effectively it required empathy for each of the three sides. The line The general public feels that it is a little strange to have the government poking around with their mental health displays my empathetic reasoning. This is an approach I plan to use more often. By attempting to understand a groups reasoning, I can create an argument for them that is much more accurate. This essay demonstrates my ability to create a logical support for a perspective I may not necessarily agree with. This paper has greatly enhanced my ability to write papers with multiple sides. I think that I now have a sort of formula, not too specific, to produce a very good analytical research paper.

Wilmer 5 The research essay was one of those assignments that I actually was looking forward to all semester, if that is possible. This essay, while I dont think it is my worst piece of writing this semester, challenged me the most. I think that I almost got emotionally attached to my argument, which made my paper sound terrible the first time I read it out loud. I remember in class Ms. Ingram saying Dont get too attached to your papers, then you wont want to change anything. When she said this I didnt really understand what she meant until the conference. I love to argue and this was the most formal way to do it. Quickly I realized that when you are writing an argumentative essay it is very easy to find a flaw in an argument. I was trying too hard to address potential counter arguments instead of developing my own solution which ended up lacking substance in my first draft. While I think the content of my essay was good after draft two, the organization needed some real work done. I was moving paragraphs from the end to the beginning and vice versa to try and clarify my argument. For example I had to move paragraphs to the front of my essays that defined what mental health and positive psychology are. My final draft has some very drastic changes that should have improved the readers experience and made the essay much less confusing about what the main ideas are and what my purpose is. My thoughts were jumbled at first, but through the writing process they got clearer and my paper got better. The argumentative research essay was the assignment that best displayed the writing process for me. Each draft was so drastically different from the other. My performance in this class has frankly surprised me. In high school I made straight Bs every year in Honors English, and I thought it was impossible for me to get an A. I dont know if I am taking a different approach this year, if I am better prepared or whatever, but English in college feels pretty natural to me. I know that I have been to every class this semester (in all of my classes), and I have read and turned in every assignment on time. The examples I

Wilmer 6 chose for the in-class assignments really reflect on both my preparedness as well as my contribution to the class discussion. One of the main reasons that I think I have done so well is the new writing process we go through in class. It gives everyone new perspectives when they are writing their papers and it has helped me especially when I know something doesnt make sense but I just dont know what to change. My group is pretty great in giving me these new perspectives. Rachel and Jarred are both awesome writers and helpful classmates and they have given me feedback that has improved my own writing. Throughout the semester my writing has developed to and my papers are better, in all of my classes. I now know how much work goes into a well written paper. Based on my performance in the class as a thinker and a writer, I feel that I deserve an A.