Ware 1

Luke Ware
Suzanne Ingram
Writing and Inquiry Context I & II
December 9, 2015

Final Portfolio Essay

Introduction
All of my final writings and all of the draft pieces that could be considered
junk copies can be found on my E portfolio. The E- Portfolio was a challenge at first
to fully grasp the concept of having all of my pieces of work come together on one
site, but as the class went on I understood that the portfolio was to show my
progress as a writer and what I have learned and not fully learned. For my portfolio I
used the Website known as Weebly. I chose Weebly because I have used the website
before during my senior year of high school, so the layout and process of the
website builder was easier for me to understand. I regret this decision in some way
because I think that choosing the alternate, Wix, I could have gone out of my
comfort zone by trying something new. I feel like the E Portfolio does a good job
presenting all the pieces of work I have done over the semester by organizing all
the pieces from each other.

Organization and Communication

The organizational structure of by website starts off on a homepage where
there is a little bit of information where I talk about myself, what I like and enjoy

Ware 2
doing. Directly above the Title page you will see tabs that have the sections of my
website. For instance if you would like to view my blogs that have been written over
the semester, you would click on the Blog tab. This will take you to view all of my
blogs and likewise goes for all the other tabs. I liked this design for my website
because it is very clear visually and has an elegant look to it. The one I had
previously was just a dark backdrop with a grayish forest for the backdrop. I thought
that looked less appealing to the eye of the viewer so changing the visuals to
something bright and clean would make the reader more excited about looking at
my work. There are a few modes of communication seen throughout my E-Portfolio.
One of the ways I communicated throughout the website is through blog posts. This
was very simple because you would directly type the text into the website, there
was no transferring documents to the page or anything along those lines. Another
way of communication that was used in this project was embedding documents into
the page. This was very helpful because this allows the reader to look at the
document without having to download the piece of work to their own computer.
More means of communication can be seen through how I placed the information.
For instance there are a few pictures that helped give a reference to what I was
writing on some of my pages. Using pictures with this project helps because visual
aids help explain to the reader, especially if they were not completely sure with
what you were trying to get across. Different types of fonts are also an effective
form of communication because when I had something I considered more important
I would place that thing in bold or italics to grab the readers attention and
emphasize the importance of the piece of work. Different types of colors for the
words are also important because they can keep the reader on their toes and keep
them interested because using the same fonts and same colors can be a little

Ware 3
boring in my opinion. However using colors can distract the reader from the actually
piece of writing they are actually reading so this form of communication must be
used in moderation. When trying to find each piece of work from the E-Portfolio the
best way to find everything is looking in the tabs and reading the headings. For
instance if you click on Exploratory Essay you will see the drafts for that particular
paper, as well as artifacts like the feedback I was given and the brainstorming
pieces from my writing process. In general, when finding my artifacts, there is no
particular section for them, they are under the pages that the specific artifact
correlates too.

Artifacts and Purpose

Exploratory Essay
Each piece of my writing has a specific place on my E-Portfolio and carries a
purpose. The Final Portfolio Essay is the paper that you are currently reading. The
FPE has all the information regarding the artifacts in my E-Portfolio and why they
are there. My paper about my passion is important because it talks about who I am
as a person and gives the reader an idea about what I want my future to look like.
In addition to success, I have the need to help the environment and
protect Gods beautiful creation. I also have the desire to stand up for
what I believe to be right, and help those who are in need. I think this
served a great purpose in my writing process because I feel like the reader can see
the progress in my writing from each draft. By reading the suggestion of the readers
and seeing how I took the suggestions they gave me and implementing them into
my final draft is a cool process that helps in my writing.

Ware 4

Research Paper
My research paper is included in my E-Portfolio because I did the research on
something I was passionate about. I think that the paper does a good job showing
how there are more sides to a story than one might think. There are many opinions
about certain topics, and having a perspective on each side can help write a great
research paper. In blog post number five we did a round table discussion that
helped in seeing things from another perspective, Politicians that have
environmental topics on their platform. - Politics plays a vital role in the
environment because politicians can determine the policies of
environmental topics. In some cases politicians are more concerned about
other topics than the environment. The writing process throughout my
research paper helped me understand the need and usage for quoting work to help
glue your paper and facts together. I added the drafts for this essay to help show
the difference in the start and finish of the exploratory essay. For instance in the
first draft of this paper I had a long run on sentence, Ever since I enrolled at the
University of North Carolina Charlotte, I realized that everything from that
point on would affect the rest of my life, knowing that my future career
and the rest of my life depends on a degree from college., then I changed
that sentence to, Ever since I enrolled at the University of North Carolina
Charlotte, I realized that everything from that point on would affect the
rest of my life. Knowing that my future career and the rest of my life
depends on a degree from college tells me that success matters. There
were many other sentences similar to this that needed restructuring and a better
flow. I got the suggestion from my peers when they reviewed my paper. That is why
I also included the hardcopies from these papers that my peers wrote their

Ware 5
suggestions on. I also enjoyed reviewing the other feedback that focused on getting
the message across to the reader. From my first draft a peer wrote after reading,
Good paper overall might want to elaborate in some places to help the
reader have a better understanding of what youre talking about.

Midterm
The midterm paper has two drafts. I revised the first draft after receiving my
E-Portfolio feedback. The midterm paper talks about my struggles in the class as
well as things that I believe that I am doing right with my work and learning. My
midterm review was something that I decided should be showed because the
feedback it shows that there were some things that I need to work on. This artifact
shows how helpful feedback can be and if there is always something you can
improve on. I highlighted in red, the new additions to my midterm paper, that my
teacher recommended me revising.

Visual Bibliographies
The visual bibliographies were in the form of an embedded Prezi presentation.
I think that the visual bibliographies helped me find a lot of different sources and
better summarize the sources to help me have a better understanding of what I was
researching about. I included the feedback from my teacher because I think the
artifact shows how I feedback from others shows were you actually are in the
process compared to what you think you are, Your annotations for #6-8 look
thorough, but some of the others look brief.

Ware 6
The pieces on my E-Portfolio all have a reason to be there, whether they show
my writing process or feedback others have given me, the pieces fit in well with the
overall meaning of my portfolio.

Growth as a Writer
Overall, my writing skills have not grown that much. I feel like in this class it
does not focus more on how we structure sentences and when to use pieces of
grammar. However I believe that the way I think about writing and how I structure a
paper has grown. After all of the exercises we have done in this class over the
course of the semester, I have grown in my writing process and am more confident
in my writing abilities. For instance in my exploratory essay you can observe how I
took suggestions from my peers and took them into consideration and actually
change my paper for the better. For an example, a peer reviewer wrote this in my
draft of my exploratory essay, give examples of the beautiful things youve
seen. Instead of stopping there I wrote in my next draft, A particular memory
that drives my inspiration took place back in my freshman year of high
school. My dad and I travelled down to the Florida Keys and live on a
sailboat for a few days. That example shows how I can take suggestions from
others to make my paper better in some way. After attending the conference with
Ms. Ingram, I learned that my paper could use more quotes and to focus on who my
audience was. According to Sandra Yin, author of Lifestyle Choices Affect
U.S. Impact on the Environment from PBR. I also took away that I should
not be afraid to show my opinion in my paper, something I am not used to from high
school, The importance of environmental awareness is something that
everyone should keep someplace in their mind. From my midterm paper I

Ware 7
took the suggestions that Ms. Ingram gave me from the midterm review feedback
sheet, Can you revise to clarify and expand. One piece of feedback that I
received was the need to clarify and expand my thoughts on practicing the seeing
in the moment activity, as well as expanding where I talked about the 5 modes of
communication. For an example I added, I never knew the way you organize
your writing can be a form of communication as well as facial expressions
and other forms of language from the Gestural mode. After reading those
suggestions I expanded and clarified my midterm paper and felt like it was a better
paper. After seeing how I have taken the suggestions from others and implemented
them in an updated draft makes me feel like I have grown as a writer.

Key Concepts
A key concept that I took from this semester was taking responsibility for my
own learning. I realize now that I am in college and that the teachers here have
more students than my teachers in high school. They do not have time to keep track
of students work and make sure they are paying attention in class. I engaged in
taking responsibility for my own learning because while I was in class I focused and
had no distractions like a phone or any other web site open. I also kept track of all
my assignments and turned the majority of them in on time and completed. Another
key concept that I was engaged with in this class was making connections.
Especially now, I am having to piece everything that I have learned from this class
together. I cannot just simply write about information, as an example, I have to
quote extensively from pieces of work to provide a good ethos for my papers. In
addition I have also had to engage in the key concept of critical reflection. I realize
that in college it is not good enough to just do and be done with a task. After writing

Ware 8
my papers and other assignments in this class I now take the time to check my work
and see if that was the best I could do, and if not maybe work on the task a little bit
more until I am satisfied. I can now reflect on my own writing from a rhetorical
standpoint and ask more in-depth questions for my work. I can now understand not
just what I am writing, but why.

My Grade
I believe that after reviewing all the work and review I have done, I think that
I deserve an A. I feel like I have done all the work required for this class and have
also participated well throughout the semester. I have participated in the writer
workshops and have given good recommendations to the work of others and also
have taken their suggestions into my own work. As of for the e-portfolio, I have met
all the requirements needed to receive the A grade. From my midterm review I had
30 out of 30 participation points and I believe my participation remained constant,
despite my two absences for my own personal health reasons. I have fundamentally
grasped all the concepts that were taught throughout the year. With all the learning,
participation, and completion of tasks that I have done, I believe that I deserve an A
for the class.