I believe that UWRT 1103 has greatly helped prepared me for my future

professional and academic careers. I also believe that this class has help to improve my

understanding of the importance of multimodality and using technology as a form of

media. These are just a few of the skills that I have greatly improved since being in

UWRT 1103. Through this website I hope to share my experiences and knowledge

about the subjects we have discussed during the semester such as; literacy, genre,

inquiry, and arguments. Overall, these different portfolio exhibits all work together to

demonstrate the effectiveness of this course at preparing students for their future

endeavors in the professional world.

Our first portfolio exhibit was the literacy project and it focused on the importance

of multimodality and the idea that literacy does not have to be only linguistic. The idea of

multimodality has helped me to see how to convey ideas in more convenient and

understandable ways. It also has allowed me to reach more audiences and to better

understand the actual definition of literacy. In addition, during this portfolio exhibit, I

learned how to use a new program; Weebly. This website building site has helped me to

better understand multimodality and literature through the variety of features provided

by the website. This in combination with our in class lectures and at home readings

have greatly benefited my understanding of academic literacy in the technological era.

In order to understand the design choices and use of artifacts a viewer of this website

must understand the concept of multimodality. For starters, there are five modes of

communication and they are: visual, linguistics, spatial, gestural, and aural. Each mode

serves a different purpose and can help reach new audiences and help to better explain
a concept such as literacy. The visual mode focuses on the use of colors, styles, and

the layout of the media. The linguistic mode solely relies on the use text and written

language to convey its points, while the aural mode uses audio such as; music, videos,

tone of voice, etc. The spatial mode, similarly to the visual mode it focuses on the visual

appeal of a piece of media and aspects such as; arrangement, proximity, and

organization. Finally, the gestural mode uses individual expressions; whether they are

facial expressions, hand signals, or body language. These all help to convey a message

such as mine through this website.

The next portfolio exhibit was the genre unit. In this module, we focused on

rhetoric and how it affected genres and their conventions. This module was my favorite

from the class and linked to the other modules. It incorporated the use of multimodality

in our literacy and the ability to argue my point of view. For example, during this unit I

was required to write about a movie review and explain my opinion on why the author

might make the choices he did and argue my point as well. This would eventually come

back into play when we began our argument module. Additionally, the genre unit helped

me to better understand rhetorical situation and understand other authors reasoning for

literature and intended audiences. Being able to identify genre conventions is an

important skill that will be useful even outside of the classroom due to it being able to be

applied to a variety of events or things. Another type of genre we learned in UWRT 1103

was that of a graphic journal. We used these constantly throughout the semester to

share our ideas and to help brainstorm or plan for upcoming assignments. These
graphic journals we a great success and due to this experience I intend to continue

using techniques similar to these in the future.

The inquiry portfolio exhibit followed directly after the genre module and it

focused on being critical of literature and researching. We did this through assignments

such as; critical reading assignment one and two, and the primary research

assignments. These helped to teach us how to gather research on our own and to use it

to effectively support our ideas and statements. Additionally, we strengthened our skills

at questioning the motive of authors and asking questions about the who and why

behind an authors or writers choices and actions. This portfolio also assisted me with

two of the learning outcomes we discussed in class and throughout my portfolio

exhibits. They were critical reflection and critical reading. These both greatly impacted

my success in this module because they allowed me to fully understand a topic and

potentially view it from another point of view. This ability to view a topic from a different

point of view is key in the argument module and the genre module because both require

a firm understanding of the differences between authors perspectives and beliefs.

Overall, this unit was very useful because it taught me to question what I had previous

never thought about and therefore I was able to learn a lot from this module.

The final portfolio exhibit was the argument section. These sections focused on a

variety of skill sets, however the one topic I feel I learned the most from was

argumentative assignments. They all greatly improved upon my ability to take a two-

sided approach to a topic, which is an extremely important skill in the academic and
professional world. In addition, I have learned how to write an argumentative paper and

the benefit of making a belief statement before you begin an assignment. This helps to

prevent you from losing track of the initial goal of the paper or assignment and also

streamlines the task. As previously stated this topic relates to the other three topics

because; it uses multimodality to share and reach other audiences, promotes reflecting

upon others viewpoints, and helps to teach the understanding of the genre of

argumentative literacy.

This course has helped to teach me of the multiple aspects of literacy and has

greatly improved my understanding of the subject. I hope this website can help to

educate others on the benefits and knowledge I have gained out of this course. I also

feel that information and use of multimodality on this website helps to create a useful

and wide reaching piece of media that will continue to help others better understand

literacy. Not only has this course taught me how to use new forms of media and other

platforms such as; graphic journals, survey sites, etc, it has also taught me how to

express a variety of ideas in a condensed format. In conclusion, I feel that the skills and

knowledge learned from UWRT 1103 and this final project have been and will continue

to help me in my future endeavors and I am glad I was able to take the course.

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