Introduction to/ Reflection of my Portfolio

Hello viewers, My name is Dan Tadros. This is the portfolio for my English 1101 class of the Fall 2013 semester. Throughout this semester I completed a few major works including a literacy memoir, genre analysis, and an ethnography report on the UNC Charlotte student body council. I also put together a book of thoughts and ideas throughout my time in this class called a Daybook. I have put together this portfolio to display both the process or my works, and my completed assignments. Coming into English 1101 I didnt have a good idea about the meaning or components of literacy. I couldnt even accomplish the simple task of describing it. My first main assignment in this course was a literacy memoir where I had to relate literacy to my life. This was incredibly difficult for me considering I didnt even have a basic idea of what literacy was, but upon completing this assignment I can honestly say that I have a full understanding of the topic. Once I understood literacy I began to learn about discourse. It took me a while to catch onto this because I had never even heard of discourse. Before I understood discourse I was asked to create a genre analysis project. This had overwhelmed me but I was allowed to do this analysis on something that interested me which helped a lot. By time I had completed my genre analysis and looked over some of my peers I had a pretty good understanding of discourse and discourse communities. At this point in the class I had learned a significant amount, and in completing weekly writing assignments I feel that I had evolved my writing abilities immensely. My final project was to conduct field research on a specific discourse community, and write an ethnography report on my observations. This seemed like a lot at first

but ended up being my favorite assignment of the semester. I had a great time observing and analyzing the UNC Charlotte student body council, and even enjoyed writing my report. I have placed rough drafts and notes on each of these assignments in this portfolio, and added each completed product as well. I have spent a good amount of time reflecting on each assignment and even on some daybook entries. I hope you enjoy looking through it as much as I have enjoyed putting it together and reflecting on my past semester.