Keya Echols

April 30th, 2015

UWRT 1102- 047
Prof. Suzanne Ingram

FINAL PORTFOLIO ESSAY

On one of the first days of class, Ms. Ingram asked us What we were passionate
about? a question that was actually hard for me to answer at first. Passionate is defined
as showing or cause by strong feelings or a strong belief. Things that I considered to be
passionate about were animals, Americas youth, music, and mentoring. Not knowing that
Ms. Ingram wouldnt have us brainstorming without a reason behind it, I soon was able
to narrow down on what I wanted my focal inquiry question to be for my research
project, between Does reality television affect self-image? or Do images in the media
affect our self-esteem?. When narrowing down to a specific audience I ultimately chose
to focus my inquiry question of Does Keeping up with the Kardashians effect selfimage? for my research project.

E-portfolio
When reflecting on the semester in UWRT 1102 and what is included in my Eportfolio, I have worked to make my E-portfolio as manageable to my readers as
possible. Bearing in mind the 5 modes of communication, I have worked with the
linguistic mode, visual mode, and spacial mode more extensively than aural or gestural
modes. When looking at my choice of words and the delivery of my writing within my
blogs, I focused on writing to my audience, reality television viewers, and not if I was

Keya Echols

April 30th, 2015

UWRT 1102- 047
Prof. Suzanne Ingram
writing to a professor, in more of a business manner. For example, when focusing on the
linguistic mode, the Facebook page, genre #1, my word choice is specifically how a
person would interact on social networks. When concentrating on the visual mode of my
E-portfolio, the color does appeal more to women, who from a survey found that 72% of
women over 60% men do watch reality television strictly out of boredom. The layout and
style does appeal more to women, but with my audience being reality television viewers,
my style essentially grabs the attention of my readers. By the arrangement and
organization of my E-portfolio, my readers are easily able navigate and be able to
maneuver through my E-portfolio when focusing on the spacial mode of my E-portfolio.

Blog
My weekly blog posts turned into ways of reflecting on my
growth throughout the semester. During the semester, blog post
prompts often helped me with a later on assignment in the semester.
Not knowing from the get-go that blog pots actually had a correlation
with things in and outside the classroom, I would consider blog posts to
be essential to seeing how my writing has grown from the first blog
post to the last. Moreover, blog posts were helpful throughout the
semester.

Keya Echols

April 30th, 2015

UWRT 1102- 047
Prof. Suzanne Ingram
Where in blog post #1 I expressed that I had to think about what
I was passionate about but by blog post #3 I already had an outline
plan for conducting my research to solve the equation of How does
Keeping up with the Kardashians affect their audiences self-image?
Blog post #3 was the initial start of my research proposal. I indicated
that the major problem is though Keeping up with the Kardashians is a
reality show and portrayed as what is real, the show is exactly lack
there of. By blog post #4, Whos at your roundtable?. I was
attempting to see who would best be my audience. When considering
this, one warm-up came to be extremely helpful from the purpose to
be making a conversation between people at your roundtable. Before
hand, the blog post prompts were not too complicated but when it
came to blog post #5, where we were asked what genres we have in
our daily lives, I was lost. I was confused at first, but it was certain that
I was not alone within my classmates. With class discussion as well as
comments on my blog posts, I was cleared of any confusion. Blog Post
#6 was helpful to me narrowing down who would best be my audience,
between reality television viewers or reality television producers,
ultimately choosing reality television viewers with the help of my peers
and Prof. Ingram. With a comment stating, producers will probably

Keya Echols

April 30th, 2015

UWRT 1102- 047
Prof. Suzanne Ingram
only be swayed to make changes if they lose viewers (i.e. money), I
was able to choose a focal audience. Blog posts 7-9 were me reflecting
on my research entirely through the semester. Specifically in blog post
#7, I reflected on ethos, pathos, and logos and said the genres that I
chose will make impact on reality television viewers emotionally.
Because self-image can make or break someones self-esteem, I plan
on arguing that your self-image should not come from the values that
reality television tries to instill in us, an argument that I made through
my research. Focusing on if my initial inquiry question or main purpose
had changed. My initial plan stayed the same throughout my research
being to convince with research as well as opinions that viewers
should not indulge in reality shows where 17 year olds appear as 30
years old.

Midterm
Unlike

research through the semester, my midterm needed

a few revisions. Here I included my midterm letter (Feedback Artifact

#1) which gave me additional research tips to include Jean Kilbourne
which I included in my final E-portfolio. This was also helpful in me
including more quoting from my own work into my midterm and in all

Keya Echols

April 30th, 2015

UWRT 1102- 047
Prof. Suzanne Ingram
was the constructive feedback that I wanted to grow to give by the end
of the semester as well as getting out of my comfort zone. Having
early problems with giving feedback, I also included a handout from
class (Writers Notebook Artifact 1#) that gave us focus questions to
ask ourselves when peer reviewing and giving feedback. This was
helpful because I usually am not a reviewer who gives helpful feedback
but just praises what you have done already so having questions in
front of me to ask myself while critiquing was very useful. Clearly
having troubles with peer editing, I also included an Improving Peer
Review handout (Wild Card #1) where it stated that the goal of peer
editing is not to fix, change, find whats wrong with, or edit another
writers draft. Additionally stating that the goal is to read, discuss,
brainstorm, bounce ideas off each other, have dialogue, offer
suggestions, and leave with ideas. This handout was helpful because
before I was editing my peers by trying to find what they were doing
wrong instead of offering suggestions and using each other to bounce
around ideas.
In the semester, we as a class came up with what we thought
was reflective thinking, referring back to our midterm. Here I also felt
necessary to include what we wrote on the white board (Wild Card #2),

Keya Echols

April 30th, 2015

UWRT 1102- 047
Prof. Suzanne Ingram
what all goes into reflective thinking. As a class, we included under
Reflective Thinking:

Past
Quoting/Analyzing/Specific Support
Constructively Criticize
Forward
Demonstrate/Explain/Describe/Discuss Work
Acknowledging
Show Change/Growth

Additionally what was also helpful with my midterm was my Dear

Readers letter (Feedback Artifact #2), where we essentially wrote to
our audience, mine being reality television viewers. I mentioned that I
think I will have non-biased that Prof. Ingram questioned would even
be a reasonable expectation, a question that had an impact on my
research after that point seeing that my final research purpose has a
clear bias now. What was also helpful were the suggestions of research
Jean Kilbournes Killing Us Softly which I turned into an extra post
onto my blog because it was so interesting and went perfectly with my
inquiry question, How does Keeping up with the Kardashians affect
self-image?.

3 Column Source

Keya Echols

April 30th, 2015

UWRT 1102- 047
Prof. Suzanne Ingram
For one of the first big projects we had this semester I chose to
do a 3-Column Source for my annotated bibliography. Because in 3Column Source I was able to put my sources in a specific order to make
sense as well as make connections. For example my first source was
from CNS News and applied more factual evidence behind why nonviewers of reality television shows are more extroverted while viewers
are more introverted. This shows the start of my research when I
anticipated my research to be non-biased, an un-realistic expectation.
By my 9th source, my bias was clear and true to my argument that
reality television is instilling negative values on its viewers lives. Here I
also included a draft of my 3-Column Source. (Process Work #1)

Multi-Genre Project
After focusing on an inquiry question and initial research I was
able to start my Multi-Genre project. Im going to introduce my 2
genres before my reflection because it only made sense to complete
those before reflecting on them.
For my first genre, I created an OK! magazine cover with Kylie
Jenner, Kim Kardashian, and Bruce Jenner on the cover. Here I also
included my initial rough draft of the OK! magazine cover. (Process

Keya Echols

April 30th, 2015

UWRT 1102- 047
Prof. Suzanne Ingram
Work #2) The cover has pathos written all over it where it reports, 7
SURGERIES AT 17!!! Kylie desperate for attention under Kris
supervision! Other teens look up to Kylie. Is she your Role Model?! .
The magazine cover appeals to my audience, reality television viewers,
emotionally, connecting with the audience in asking them Which
Kardashian are you? Take the quiz... The OK! Magazine cover
additionally appeals to my audience because people who view reality
television are clearly interested in the media and what their favorite
stars are wearing so I believe that the gossip magazine genre definitely
is attracting my readers as well as keeping their attention through
linguistic, visual and spacial mode.
For my second genre, I chose a Facebook Fan page of Keeping up
with the Kardashians. This idea initially came from a warm-up where
we asked to make a conversation between people we chose to be at
our roundtable. On the Facebook page where comments would be I put
conversations between professionals to reality television stating facts
and opinions at each other. I have included my original warm-up.
(Writers Notebook Artifact #2) Before deciding on the Facebook page I
contemplated just having a script for a debate but again, my audience
would appeal emotionally more to a Facebook book page because my

Keya Echols

April 30th, 2015

UWRT 1102- 047
Prof. Suzanne Ingram
readers enjoy the media/social network aspect more than debating in a
roundtable. Also, a Facebook page is more engaging and entertaining
than a script. Here I added my first draft (Process Work #3) of what the
comments would entail on the Facebook fan page. This genre also uses
linguistic, visual, and spacial mode in all aspects where my mediasavvy audience knows how to navigate through a Facebook page and
will grab their interest from the page being a fan page of Keeping up
with the Kardashians.
As for my reflection, here you see my growth of rhetorical
awareness through the semester. While in the beginning of the
semester where I expected an un-biased research, I now am aware
and clear how I biased my research to show a clear purpose. In my
reflection I referred back to blogs as well as warm-ups. Unknowingly,
my reflection as well as all my final products through the semester was
using the key concept of the writing process and revision. Here I
added a rough draft (Process Work #4) of the answered bulleted points
that were needed to be in included in my final reflection. I continued to
make connections through my reflection as well as my E-portfolio as a
whole with my audience and genres emotionally.

Keya Echols

10

April 30th, 2015

UWRT 1102- 047
Prof. Suzanne Ingram
In conclusion, I believe I deserve a B- with that I did miss some
important due dates for blog posts and an assignment or two. I do
believe however I have showed growth this semester in my feedback,
writing, and even out of class, when considering getting out of comfort
zone. I do believe that everyone should be passionate about something
and this E-portfolio is something I plan to continue to show in order for
people to wake up and realize the unrealistic values and meanings we
are getting through simply watching reality television. All in all, this
semester was by far not easy but I am glad to say that none of my
questions were left unanswered whether by my professor or my peers.