Final Portfolio Essay

Organization
My e-portfolio is organized in an easy to navigate way. As you look through my portfolio
you will notice that have include images of leaves that inspire fall. I included these images
because my Literacy Narratives story was in the fall, and also my Portrait of a Writer Essay was
written in the fall. Not to forget that my birth date is in the fall also! But I made sure that I
carried the theme throughout. My home page introduces my website and I made sure I told a
little bit about myself while also providing a contact which is my email. My Final Portfolio Essay
was next because I wanted to make sure it was easy to find and my readers could get a glimpse
on what my e-portfolio is all about. I listed everything in order of importance. I made sure that
each piece was related to one another so that my website didnt look unorganized.

First Artifact
Under this tab I placed a Writers Notebook Artifact. For my artifact I included my letter
to Ms. Ingram that I had to write for a warm up. This artifact marks my very first day of UWRT
1101. So this artifact was very important because it was the very first piece of writing that I
turned in for feedback. I talked about my strength and weaknesses. When I looked back at this
letter I realized that I had more strengths than I thought I did. I also realized that I have
improved on some of my weaknesses. I said that My biggest challenge is finding a topic and my
strength is being descriptive. This contributed to my learning in this course because it showed

where was I was as a writer at the beginning of the semester and as you look and read through
my e-portfolio you can see what type of writer I am at the end of the semester. The primary
purpose of me including this letter to Ms. Ingram is that it shows my mindset towards reading
in writing. I even stated in my letter I dont think I am the best writer.

Mid-Term
On my midterm page I just put my midterm because it stands alone. Our Midterm was
our halfway point through the semester so I tried to place it in the middle of my tabs. I reflected
on what I did throughout the semester so far which helped us practice for reflecting for this
final portfolio essay. We had a requirement to answer each of the midterm question with a
minimum of 200 words. This helped me explain and elaborate on everything I have learned
over the semester. In my mid-term I said that the most challenging Key Concepts would be
independent inquiry, critical thinking and providing and receiving feedback. Now that I have
finished the semester and looked back over my midterm I see now that providing and receiving
feedback was not as hard as it seems. Independent inquiry and critical thinking is still
something that I am working on but it has improved a lot. My mid-term gives my readers insight
on how my writing is improving. Its a good reflection on what I am beginning to learn about
myself. I would say that when writing my midterm I learned a lot about myself.

Portrait of a Writer
My Portrait of a Writer essay was written as a non-formal essay. I decided to write it in a
journal entry style because it felt comfortable and more like me. Some might say that my essay

was confusing because I go back and forth but in reality thats just me showing how my writing
process works. In my essay I state that I just flow. Whatever is on my mind I just let it all out.
This is so true with all of my writing. When writing my first draft I knew that I wasnt going to
like it. I tried to write my paper as a formal essay to my teacher. I wrote it in a way that I felt
she wanted to see it instead of how I wanted to see my paper. When I started peer editing
Olivia said Since you like writing in your journal why dont you write your essay as a journal
entry? Deep down inside I thought about doing that but I never tried it because I wasnt sure if
it was going to be appropriate for a paper to turn in for a grade. This paper allowed me to get
out of my comfort zone and try new styles of writing. Playing around with this journal entry was
very cool. I even found out some new things about myself that I really didnt know about my
writing in the beginning. Under my Portrait of a Writer tab I include my final draft of The
Writer Within Me embedded with two drafts, my brainstorming and also some feedback that I
received from my paper. My feedback is what helped me out the most. Ms. Ingram and Michael
both suggested that I include and excerpt from my journal and also talk about my academic
writing.

Blog
My Blogs were very insightful. I was able to read an article and simply express how I feel
about the subject or author. These blog post also shows my progress in how I am beginning to
be able to better analyze writing. My responses became stronger and I also took more
information from the reading then I have before. My blog posts also give my reader an idea of
how I was thinking while creating my e-portfolio. In Blog Post #4 I said I need to remind myself

to be reflective when writing my e-portfolio essay. This has helped me to make sure that my
entire final portfolio essay is exemplary.

Literacy Narrative
My Literacy Narrative is a story about me and my literacy in tennis. I talk about my
tennis coach Matt Walton and how he has helped me understand the fundamentals of tennis.
Not only that but how he has taught me life lessons as well. On this page I included a video of
different tennis grips. This relates to my essay because my coach taught me these grips during
practice although I dont use all of them, he showed me for my own personal knowledge. I also
included my brainstorming, first two drafts and some feedback I received from Keylee Brown
and Ms. Ingram. This paper was different from any other paper that I have written because it
was a narrative. This is the first time that I have written a paper using inner dialogue. It was
very new to me but after I finished my narrative I was pleased with how it brought out my
paper. This help me accomplish on of the key concepts which was to get out of my comfort
zone.

Conclusion
In this course I have engaged more with Who am I the writer? and also What is my
writing process? After writing my portrait of a writer essay I learn more about my love of
writing journals. Its crazy for me to think about it, but I almost forgot how much I actually like
making journal entries. Being engaged with these two key concepts has allowed me to grow as
a writer and explore how I can improve as a writer also.

Another thing that I found myself forgetting is titles for my paper. I would usually leave
them blank or have a comment on my paper saying title? I honestly didnt realize that I didnt
include titles until we started doing peer editing sessions.
Writing this semester has been a great experience I honestly had no idea that I was
going to enjoy this class. I have been able to express how I feel, and also write about things that
I want to write about. Normally I found my writing very dull and boring now I can see myself
within my writing and can tell that its something that I wrote. My paper actually reflects who I
am.
When I look back to the very first assignment ever assigned in class it was the That isnt
What We Did in High School: Big Changes in Teaching of Writing by Mc Andrew. I remember
reading this and being able to relate to everything that the author was saying about high school
writing compared to college writing. It really opened my eyes to a new perspective of writing.
When I was writing my RRL for this passage I quoted the teacher controlled the topic, and this
was very true. As I read through my RRL after I completed it I realized how high school writing is
more restrictive then I thought it was. Every paper that I can ever remember started out like
this.
Overall UWRT 1101 has been a true writing experience. My writing has matured and I
know that I will continue to grow in UWRT 1102.