Henry Cole Baxter

UWRT 1102

5/5/17

Digital Portfolio Introduction

In the beginning of this course, I was introduced to a concept that I had

not heard of or thought about ever before in my entire life. This concept was

American identity. Not only did I learn what this was and what it meant, but I

also learned what it may be for myself and what I believe it means to me,

but I also learned to think about what it may mean to others as well. At first

this concept was pretty hard to wrap my head around because I was born in

America and havent ever been outside of the country so I havent had any

experience with anything other than living in the United States of America.

Not only have I never been out of the country, but I have always lived in the

south where a lot of people that I surrounded myself have the same views of

American identity. This being said, I hadnt ever really thought about what

this concept may mean for people in and from different areas around the

country. Throughout this course, I have learned a whole lot about myself as a

writer that I did not know before. One of the main things that I realized about

my writing and the act of writing in general is that writing is truly about the

quality and substance that you put into your work, instead of the structure

and grammar and things like that. In the past, all of my teachers were big on

taking points off for incorrect structure or grammar and that is not how

writing should be evaluated. I learned to focus on the quality of the material

in my writing instead of the visual representation being grammatically or

structurally correct. I also learned a lot about things that I didnt know

much about before such as immigration and the process that goes along with

that, and how every person in this country may have a different American

identity than me, but that is what makes this country great. So, the concept

of American identity has changed my views on this country as a whole as

well as the people of this country as a whole.