12/5/2014

Dear Reader,
The E- portfolio has been a great opportunity to evolve as a writer and
refine my writing skills. The English class itself has been quite challenging because
English is my second language. The E-portfolio consists of five tabs: home, daybook,
polished writing, Multi- Genre Project and Reflection. This project required a great
amount of time, organizing skills and becoming selective with the finest pieces of my
writing. The portfolio is a fantastic way to organize all the key information pieces
obtained during the course of the semester.
The first tab in the E-portfolio is the home tab. The tab illustrates my children and
myself. My children and I are the reasons why I have never given up my motivation. The
pictures are reflecting us as a family: the most precious thing to me from left to right in
order with Mommy (Karla), Laila my oldest daughter, Leslie the middle child, and lastly
my little whopper Katherine. Not all the pictures are of my children and the last one is of
a famous Nicaragua writer and composer. I choose this because it reflects a great writer
from my country Nicaragua: it voices that in my eyes, not all Hispanics are uneducated.
The homepage also has a short paper that describes me as a person with details of me
and my family. The paper will be a nice quick way to get to know a little about my life the
paper explains my long term goals, the reason why I never give up, and the love I have
for my country. The paper also gives a quick look into my opinion of the media and our
lives today in the twentieth century. The home tab is the first step into the maze of Karla
E. Chavez's portfolio.

At the beginning of the semester we started working in our daybook. The

daybook was used to take notes down, work on exercises out of the book, and paste
handouts as well. The daybook entries helped me structure my learning by recording
my exercises and challenging the information I obtained from the readings in the book.
The daybook has been also the tool I used to record all my notes and key points from
the English class. Out of the daybook entries I selected five important pieces that were
relevant to my line of inquiry. I felt that these daybook entries relate with the illegal
immigration and their affects on crime rate.
One of my first pieces that I choose was the amazingly written letter "A Letter
From A Birmingham Jail" by Martin Luther King Jr.. The reason I choose this piece was
because Mr. King expresses the voice and pain of the people, his brothers and sisters,
through his writing. He also addresses several people in his letter but he does it using
comparisons of men from the bible and does it with all forms of professionalism. His
words were so sharp and direct to everyone. His quotes were so drastic but at the same
time they fit the situation. Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like a
mighty stream. -Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from the Birmingham Jail. I also picked
this piece because it liked to my line of inquiry: the illegal immigrants and their affect on
crime rate. The letter explains the injustices that were done to African Americans during
slavery time and I speak on the injustices done to illegal immigrants in the twentieth
century. I compare the situation with slavery very much because it is repeating itself by
enslaving illegal immigrants but without plantation making natives a slave of the society
but in a new era. "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." -Martin Luther
King Jr., Letter from the Birmingham Jail

My second piece under my daybook entries is Burkes Parlor. I picked this

because It explains in a few sentences to make sure you are aware of a topic before
giving your opinion without all the sides of the story or scenario or the situation. The
situation at the parlor reminds me of people who love to butt in. It is also a great
metaphor and you can look at my entry in the portfolio. It will explain my opinion more in
depth.
The third daybook entry 4.1 speaks about my entry about the sweatshops. I
choose that entry because in my country there are several sweatshops and that is how
many people from my country Nicaragua make a living. When I go back and visit I
always see the people walking to the factories or riding the bus to try to make a decent
living. It also gave me an idea to make this become a part of my line of inquiry because
of people that try to make a honest living and are exploited just so they can make a few
dollars a month. The illegal immigrants are treated the same: they are paid an unfair
salary and are being worked from sun up to sun down. In my entry I explain a little of
how the poor people of the sweat shops are being exploited and I also mention it's not
only the employers fault but we as consumers play a great role as well. In the future I
hope we can work together to make a difference for the children and adults that make a
change in their involvement .
The fourth entry in my daybook is the voices piece. I had to put this in because
I feel it relates a bit to the Letter From A Birmingham Jail and how he voices the
injustice done with African Americans. In the letter he addressed more than two sides of
the spectrum. I picked out three voices of my line of inquiry to represent through my

illegal immigration and the effects on crime rate. The voices have two sides but one of
the sides represents my voice and the illegal immigrants, it represents them and it gives
them a chance to be heard. The positive voice has a chance to show and explain the
facts of how they affect crime rate.
The fifth and final entry of my daybook that I posted in the daybook section is my
bubble map. The bubble map focuses on humans and their characteristics. This is a
vital piece because as humans we don't now how hurtful we can be to others in many
ways. It links back to show that all injustices are made from humans and how some can
be helpful but others can be so degrading and resentful. The map explains in detail the
great traits that humans have and some of the bad traits. As you read through it you can
see the detail I have incorporated in each bubble with plenty of descriptions.
At the end of my daybook entries I have added a rationale for each entry, just
quick thoughts on why I specifically picked these pieces. Each daybook entry has its
own rational explanation with plenty of detail, and as you read through it, you see how it
brings the daybook entries to a end with their final my thoughts.
The third tab in my E-portfolio is the polished writings. The tab will show you how
I went back and corrected several errors to perfect my writing. The first writing is the
Annotated Bibliography. This entry shows my research with citations. In order to find
scholarly data and facts I reviewed several articles that I collected in library databases
that inform about illegal immigrants and their effects on crime rate. Some of the articles
were agreeing that illegal immigrants were criminals and others were against the illegal
immigrants and arguing that they increase the crime rate. When I turned in my paper I
made some mistakes and that caused me to receive a B on my graded annotated

bibliography. To correct the errors I went back and organized the citations alphabetically
and also made sure all citations had a hanging indent. I also checked and made sure all
paragraphs covered everything in the research. You can see the first draft is scanned in
and following underneath is the final product with all the corrections.
My second polished writing is the rhetorical analysis. My first draft had several
errors: one of the first errors was not being able to provide a first draft because I was
out on maternity leave--that was the first error. I also had several problems citing my
work improperly. It was a formal writing paper and I asked questions in the first
paragraph and that was not allowed. I also had some spelling errors and corrected them
as well. Finally, to finish out my paper I added a few more sentences with a little more
detail and informed the reader so they can have a clear understanding of the analysis.
The third polished writing is round table essay. The writing is a projection of the
three voices that I choose to explain my line of inquiry. I had a major issue with the
tense shift--I still do, but I have learned to stay in one tense. I also had a challenge with
the passive voice and the changes were made to respond to those errors. I also had the
same issues with the citations as in the previous papers and I have corrected these
errors. I made a mistake by adding many extra words and eliminated many of them and
I revised many of the sentences. My conclusion was weak and I added some more
sentences to try to strength in it. As you read through the paper you will be able to see
the sentences that were revised and words that were eliminated. The paper showed me
a way to persuade the audience by not including my emotion and showing the reader to
base their decision on facts and data . The paper was also in formal writing and I had to
refrain from including myself in the writing.

The fourth tab in the E- portfolio was my amazing project, my Multi- Genre
project. I loved this chance to be able to voice my research in other ways and it gave
me a chance to be very creative. I will quickly guide you through the genre . The very
first page is my cover page to my project with vibrant colors and nice illustration. The
second page is my table of contents page that gives you the titles and page numbers of
the pieces in the genre. The following page is a dear reader letter that introduces my
project. The following pages you will see in my genre are the wanted poster, interview,
and the comic these are all followed by a reflection letter as you read through it will tell
you why I choose these out of the selection. Following the reflections is the report of the
genre also followed by a reflection. The final piece to my project is a reflection letter of
the project and how I felt through the course of the project and what I learned from this
opportunity. The genre was a great way to voice the reality illegal immigrants face in
America and how natives affect the crime rate in the United States. Certain parts of the
project have more than one page so just make sure to go through the project. My
project has a total of twenty pages including the cover letter and the table of contents.
The last and final tab is this amazing reflection letter that sketches out a map that
guides you through the E-portfolio. This letter should inform you briefly on all the details
of my portfolio. To go more in depth you have to read all the amazing writing and
informed writing . The portfolio was organized and reviewed several times before I
decided to publish it. I have grown drastically as a writer especially in the area of writing
formally. I also have learned to cite better and quote the correct way. Even though I am
vey passionate about the illegal immigrants and crime rate topic, I have learned to not
put my feelings in the writing and instead inform with statistics, data and scholarly

research. Learning how to voice other information to persuade the reader is also a new
strategy that I learned along the time of the course. Thanks to my instructor and all her
detailed information. Enjoy my E- portfolio!

Sincerely,

Karla E. Chavez