MIDTERM PORTFOLIO

Brandi L. Logan
ENGLISH 1010 SPRING 2016

Contents
Section 1 Self Rhetorical Analysis .............................................................................................................. 2
Section 2 Literacy Event (week 3) .............................................................................................................. 6
Section 3a Peer Reviews (Given) ................................................................................................................ 9
Section 3b Peer Reviews (Received) ........................................................................................................ 11
Section 4 Text Analysis ............................................................................................................................. 13
Works Cited ................................................................................................................................................. 15

Section 1 Self Rhetorical Analysis

I carefully read the peer reviews I received on this assignment and I very much appreciated the
constructive feedback. In this final draft of my self-analysis, I have incorporated the suggestions
made by my classmates. These include direct quotes taken from my papers that I chose to
analyze as well as my word choices and my intentions behind them.
I find the task of formally evaluating my own writing to be very challenging. I much
prefer examining another writers work to try and determine where they were coming from or
evaluating the tools they used to deliver their message. When it comes to evaluating my own
writing, I already know that I had in mind how I wanted things to sound or what message I
intended to send, but I feel that I just write what comes naturally. Does that make me an
accidental writer? I think this deserves some additional evaluation before that decision is
made.
I realize that we are all here to develop our writing and critical thinking skills, and I think
that I have made some progress. I am certainly more aware of methods and tactics that I use in
my writing even if prior to this class I didnt realize they had a name.
I am going to start my self-analysis with our assignment from week 3, the Literacy
Event Essay/Reflection. The current assignment required me to view my writing in a different
way, a more technical way and in doing so I realized that both the essay I had written in high
school as well as the essay I wrote for the week 3 assignment would technically be considered
narrative writing.
I wrote in the first person telling a personal story with the intent of relaying to the reader
something that I had been through. It had all the makings of a piece of narrative writing: a

protagonist, an antagonist, conflict, both internal and external, etc. I feel that this style of writing
allowed me to be on a very vulnerable and personal level with the reader and utilized one of
Aristotles three appeals, pathos.
The internal conflict of losing my dear friend in my first essay and the external conflict
with my not-so-nice teacher that I detailed in my literacy event essay both serve to evoke
emotion in the reader.
I chose to use words and descriptions that enabled the reader to feel what I felt at the time
of my friends death. Some examples include the following excerpts: Everything was fresh and
raw and intensely painful. and Disbelief, nostalgia, anger, longing, deep sadness, and loss. Oh,
the loss. I think that most people can relate to these feelings on some level.
I tell my story in a way that allows the reader to put themselves in my shoes, so to
speak. At times, in the essay, I feel that my writing is conversational like I am telling a new
friend about things that have happened in my life. When I read this type of writing, it typically
generates feelings of empathy within me.
When given this self-analysis assignment, I initially thought that there was a conflict with
one of the key components of rhetorical analysis. The target audience. I thought I havent been
choosing my audience. My audience is chosen for me because this is a class, and this is an
assignment. When looking back through the past assignments, one assignment, in particular,
made me realize that this was not the case. I realized that in the week 4 Political Cartoon
assignment, in choosing my political cartoon, I effectively chose my audience regardless of who
was going to be reading the paper. Lightbulb moment!

My chosen audience was college students and graduates experiencing student loan debt.
In my political cartoon essay I write It is quite obvious that college students/graduates are the
artists intended audience. If I were to re-write this paper at this time I would elaborate on why I
thought it was obvious. It would read something more like The image of a college graduate
being encircled by a monstrous snake labeled debt tells us that the artists intended audience is
college graduates facing overwhelming student loan debt. As far as applying the principles of
rhetorical analysis to my chosen political cartoon, I feel that I did a good job. I think that my
analysis was thorough and, for the most part, kept to the requirement of analyzing the methods
used to deliver the message more than the message itself.
The last piece of my writing that I am going to comment on here is the week 5 Further
Analysis assignment. The goal of the assignment was to provide an objective summary of an
article of our choosing. I am quite happy with the way this piece of writing turned out. Even
though this subject hits incredibly close to home for me, I was successful in remaining objective
throughout the summary. I did this by reiterating the facts of the article as laid out by the author
and by using several direct quotes from the article. There is no trace of my personal experience
or opinion in my summary and I fulfilled the requirements of the assignment.
As I worked through this assignment and looked back over my writing with a different
perspective, I realized that more often than not, my writing is not accidental. I may not have
known or realized what the methods I was employing were called or that they were in fact
methods at all. But, I knew what I wanted to convey and how I thought that would be best
accomplished. Since the beginning of this class and even since I started this assignment I have
learned a lot about my writing style. I feel that I have acquired a lot of knowledge in regards to

writing in general, developed many tools to evaluate and analyze the writing of others and gained
tremendous insight into my own writing.

Section 2 Literacy Event (week 3)

Looking back over this essay, I am quite pleased with the final product. At the time of
writing it, early on in the semester, I wasnt aware of some of the methods I use as a writer. This
essay is one of the pieces of my writing that I selected for the Self Rhetorical Analysis
assignment. There are a few areas that I would re-word for the sake of flow, but overall I feel
that I was successful in meeting the criteria for the assignment.
I truly enjoy reading, and when you find an author and a piece of writing that you connect
with, the experience can range from pure escapism to thought provocation to transformation.
Several books came to mind when we received the assignment to write about something weve
read or something weve written that has moved us. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger,
Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou,
Shes Come Undone by Wally Lamb, and the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling just to name a
few. I decided, however, to write about something Ive written. I find the concept of writing
about something that youve written yourself very interesting as well as very challenging. Add
in the stipulation that it needs to be something that has moved you, and the ante is significantly
upped.
I chose to write about an essay that I wrote in the beginning of my Junior year of high
school, some twenty plus years ago. I was never able to figure out why, but my teacher at the
time did not care for me at all, and she wasnt shy about making sure that I knew it. Well come
back to that a little later. The assignment was to write about a person, place or event that had had
a dramatic effect on your life. This assignment came at a particularly difficult time for me, and I
knew instantly what the topic of my essay would be. Just before the start of the school year, one

of my closest friends was killed in a head on collision. Needless to say, this event most certainly
had a dramatic effect on life as I knew it.
I knew that I had chosen a topic that would more than fulfill the requirements of the
assignment. What I didnt know was just how much writing about his death would help me to
get through it. I remember thinking that I wanted to document every single detail about every
single detail of my grief, from the moment I found out that he had died to our final goodbye at
the cemetery.
At the time of writing the essay, it had been less than a month since his passing.
Everything was fresh and raw and intensely painful. I chronicled it all from the phone call in the
middle of the night to the slew of phone calls that followed as the terrible news reached our
circle of friends. From the procession, to his funeral that was held in a big old church in
downtown Salt Lake. As a young child, my Great Grandmother took me to that church every
year for Easter services. The church, which in my childhood had been a place of peace and
beauty, would bring me no solace on that day. I remarked on what it felt like to watch as the
casket containing my friend was ceremoniously lowered into the ground and on the
overwhelming sadness in the eyes of his family, a family I knew well.
Putting this experience down on paper effectively left my emotions running the gamut.
Disbelief, nostalgia, anger, longing, deep sadness, and loss. Oh, the loss. I covered the five
stages of grief and then some. It was hard. It was agonizing. But, it was also extremely
cathartic. In systematically dissecting and documenting my grief, I experienced other,
unexpected emotions. Those of joy and gratitude. For having known him, for the many
memories I had of good times spent together, and for having had the pleasure of calling such a
genuinely kind human being my friend.

Back to the teacher I had mentioned a few paragraphs ago. The second part of the
assignment, a part we werent informed of until the day the essay was due, was that we had to
stand up and read what we had written to the class. I was panicked. I didnt want to share this
part of myself with the class. I begged and pleaded to be excused from that part of the
assignment. The choice I was given was to read it for the class or take an automatic deduction of
one letter grade. She assumed that I hadnt completed the assignment and that that was why I
didnt want to share it. She said, and I quote, Its not my problem that you are determined to
snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. I took a deep breath and I hesitantly began to read. My
voice shook as I read my words aloud. Writing about the loss of my friend had been a catharsis,
reading what I had written, out loud to a room of strangers was terrifying but at the same time
liberating. I silently handed my essay to the teacher and took my seat. My paper was returned to
me a few days later and at the top was written a large red A along with a simple Im so
sorry.
I still have the essay, written in a teenage girls hand on a couple of pieces of college
ruled notebook paper that has yellowed with age. Its folded up and tucked into an old journal in
a box along with a collection of other miscellaneous memories. I have taken it out and read it a
few times over the years, and each time I have it has taken me right back to that time and all of
the emotions associated with it.

Section 3a Peer Reviews (Given)

Review # 1 (week 7)
I chose to include this review in my portfolio because I felt that it was thorough. I attempted to
interact with my fellow writer by posing a question. I pointed out the assignment requirements
that she met and relayed to her that I enjoyed her writing as well as offered some critical
feedback regarding grammar, punctuation and insufficient length.

Hi Hannah,
I think you did a great job with this assignment. Did you find it difficult to analyze your own
work or did it seem to come naturally to you? I enjoyed reading your self-analysis very
much. You followed the requirement of providing evidence to support your analysis through the
use of direct quotes. You took a look at your choice of words, were able to note the methods you
used to back up your writing and you were able to define your ultimate goal for your writing. I
really enjoyed reading about your insight into the type of writing that you prefer to do. I
appreciate that you are not afraid to approach and discuss "taboo" or controversial subjects if you
feel that there is something that you want to say about them.

Overall, I think the structure of

your self-analysis was sound. The last sentence of your introductory paragraph is quite long,
maybe consider breaking that up a bit. I found a few grammatical errors and some missing
punctuation. Also, if you put your self-analysis into a word document Times New Roman font
size 12 double-spaced you only have about 1 pages. Its a really good paper and wouldnt
want you to lose points for it not being the required length. Great job!

REVIEW # 2 (week 2)
I am proud of this review, especially for it being so early on in the semester. I identified with my
classmate and attempted to build on the common threads between us. I made sure to begin with
quite a bit of positive feedback before offering critical but in my opinion, helpful feedback to my
fellow writer. I also made mention of the guidelines we had been given for effective peer
reviews.

Hi Lorraine,
I enjoyed reading your post. It seems that you enjoy your job and that taking care of each of
your patients is important to you. I was drawn to your post because of the medical nature of its
content. I am a veterinary technician, and one of my favorite tasks is venipuncture.
As I have read through the class posts, Ive realized that most people are not giving constructive
feedback. Rather, they are only stating that they like someones post or that they found it
interesting. Per Bangerter Sensei, we are to critique each others writing and offer suggestions to
help further develop our writing skills.
I did find your piece interesting. I love getting a glimpse into other peoples daily lives, and I
feel that you effectively gave me that glimpse. You were very specific when describing how you
interact with patients vs. coworkers.
I did find that there are several extremely long sentences in your post that may be better broken
into multiple sentences. This is something that I struggle with myself. Your post also contains
some sentences that read a bit awkward and they may benefit from some rewording. For
example the first line: Every day at my job, I use Rhetorical Sensitivity as a Phlebotomist,
working at a clinic on Hill AFB. Instead, you could try something like I use rhetorical

sensitivity every day in my job as a Phlebotomist. It pares things down so that the reader is left
with a clear idea of the subject of your piece. Another sentence that stood out to me begins
When drawing children. I would consider steering away from medical jargon that not
everyone will understand or relate to. A generic way to word this may be When drawing blood
from children.

Section 3b Peer Reviews (Received)

REVIEW# 1 (week 7)
I included this review in my portfolio because it is one of the few reviews Ive received this
semester that has offered some critical feedback or suggestions on how to improve my writing. I
took his comments into consideration and found that I agreed. I altered my final draft to reflect
his advice.

Brandi, I am right there with you, I also find it a challenge to evaluate my own work. The
question you asked, "Does that make me an accidental writer?" really got me to think, and I
realized that I have been an accidental writer. I am hoping to improve and change that as the
semester goes on, and learning about rhetoric, and rhetorical strategies has helped me very much
already. I liked your choice to analyze a few of the writings you've done throughout this
semester. I can remember reading them in the previous discussions. Your week three literary
event stood out to me. A wide audience was able to connect and understand the message you were

working to convey. It was moving for me to read, as it generated feelings of emotion, as I

thought about people close to me that I have lost.

Your self analysis was very well done. I enjoyed how you pointed out the progress you've made
this semester as you've worked to further develop critical thinking, and writing skills. The only
suggestion I have is, personally I would have liked to see some quotes/more examples from the
pieces you chose to analyze. Great essay, keep it up.

REVIEW #2 (week 6)
I chose this review because it made me feel that, as a writer, I was able to successfully convey
my intended message. In this instance, my audience was not a group of fellow veterinary
technicians, but a group of people with varying backgrounds and experiences unrelated to my
article of choice. I was able to educate my reader about a subject that she was unfamiliar with.

Brandi I enjoyed your analysis very much so! You are a very clean writer. I did not find any
grammatical errors or anything I would advise to revise. I had never heard of "compassion
fatigue" before reading your article and now that I did, I feel I have a little more insight on what
the Vet's that take care of my dogs might actually go through being in this professional field. I
love that the author used and you included the sentence "the way her beloved family member's
body looked after being struck". I find the author wanted to convey that pets are family to most
owners and it would be a similar feeling seeing an actual human family member lying there just
like it would an animal. I think you emphasized really well that the authors delivery of this
message was to make the readers aware that being a veterinary is not just doing puppy check ups,
there are also physical and mental side effects to the job.
P.s. It is very cool you're a vet tech. What a rewarding job. :)

Section 4 Text Analysis

I feel that I did well, overall on this assignment. It is a subject very close to home. I think that I was
successful in relaying how the author conveyed her message, not just the message itself. I detailed her
word choices, use of imagery, shock value and her intended audience.

In her article, Fighting Compassion Fatigue in the Veterinary Industry (Dobbs, 2012) the
author is attempting to bring recognition, awareness and understanding to a problem that many
people may not even know exists.
In my personal experience as a CVT (Certified Veterinary Technician), I feel that most
people outside of the veterinary field have little to no understanding of what the day of a
veterinary professional actually entails. While there are those joyous moments of celebrating a
new pet in our clients families or the victory experienced when we are able to pull a patient
through a life threatening situation, unfortunately right behind it will be the cancer diagnosis or,
as described in the article, the patient who has experienced severe physical trauma and is barely
clinging to life.
I feel that it is quite evident that Dobbs intended audience is people that work in the field
of veterinary medicine. She makes statements regarding helping patients, working in harsh
conditions, and convincing pet owners to trust us. All of which point to someone working in the
clinical setting.
Dobbs opens her article in the first person, putting the reader in the role of the veterinary
technician. I think that this is an effective way to convey this experience to a reader that may not
have ever even thought about a situation such as this. Some people may have been on the other
side of the scenario as the heartbroken pet owner. As the story of Fluffy unfolds, the author

uses imagery to create a vivid and detailed picture of what has happened to the client and their
beloved pet. This serves to elicit empathy in the reader not only for the technician but for the
client and the patient as well. The graphic description of the situation also adds shock value to
get the readers attention.
In the first paragraph of the article the author does not specify that the victim of the
accident is an animal. She writes the way her beloved family members body looked after
being struck.(Dobbs p.1) instead of the way her dogs or cats body looked after being struck.
If you didnt know the title of the article, you might think that the family member that has been
struck by a car is a human being. I understand this to be the authors way of placing value on the
life of a pet and communicating the value that she and some people place on the animals in their
lives.
Dobbs goes on to say that you could be a social worker or a counseloryou look in
the mirror and you are wearing scrubs. (Dobbs p.1) I think that she uses the example of a social
worker or a counselor because these are professions that are readily associated with helping
people through traumatic events in their lives. I think that the technician in the article who is
counseling clients and helping them deal with trauma only to realize she is wearing scrubs
signifies that there are many hats a veterinary technician wears. Some of which may be
unexpected, especially by technicians new to the field. Veterinary technicians and other
veterinary professionals not only care for the animals that are brought in to them but are
instrumental in helping the client navigate all aspects of having animals in their homes and in
their lives. From the well puppy visit, to the management of a cat in chronic renal failure, to end
of life care, counseling clients is a major part of the job.

Repeatedly throughout the article the author uses words and phrases that convey a sense
of being used up, depleted, lacking or empty. Examples of this being Our emotional stores have
become depleted, run down our gas tanks, benefit others at a cost to self, Our feelings of
caring have been stretched to the limit. (Dobbs p.1, p.2) These phrases communicate the taxing
side of the profession and relay the notion that veterinary professionals need to take an active
role in doing things that replenish their resources and that they need to actively engage in selfcare.
I feel that the author offers hope by going on to discuss what can be done about
compassion fatigue and how people working in the field of veterinary medicine can help
themselves deal with the constant stressors of the job. She discusses engaging in open dialogue
with our peers and leaders, taking an active role in our own well-being as well as helping our
colleagues to do the same.
______________________________________________________________________________

Works Cited
Dobbs, K. (2012, August 30). Fighting Compassion Fatigue in the Veterinary Industry. Veterinary Practice
News, pp. 1-2. Retrieved from http://www.veterinarypracticenews.com/August-2012/FightingCompassion-Fatigue-In-The-Veterinary-Industry/