English 1201

Professor Simon Workman

Jason Lewis

About the Class

This class has given me a better understanding to writing different genres. I have enjoyed
learning the different writing processes and communicating with classmates in the discussion
groups about our work. At the beginning of this class, I was nervous because I have not been in
school in a few years but after the readings and writing assignments, I feel more confident in my
writing techniques and MLA format. I have included some of my work in the portfolio.

The first writing I have included is a summary. I wrote a summary of an interview with a rapper
named Meek Mills that was published in The New York Times Magazine. My goal was for this
summary was to reword and summarize the information published. This type of summary was a
first for me and as you can see it is lengthy. I enjoyed this interview as I could relate to Meek
Mills and the topics discussed. I believe I did well in providing the information discussed in the
interview. If I would do this assignment again, I would decrease the length and include an MLA
works cited page.

The second writing I have included is a visual text analysis. In this writing I compared two
different renditions of the same song presented in two different music videos. My goal for this
assignment was to describe how the lyrics communicate the message in two different videos. I
was successful at this as the scenes are 20 years apart so elaborating on the imagery was a
focus. If I were to do this assignment again, I would provide more details in my explanations
while comparing the two.

The third writing I have included is a research essay. The focus for my essay is on African
Americans and their history in law enforcement. My goal was to put this paper together using
different statistics, convincing the reader of the validity while discussing something I feel is
important. My goal is evidenced by the statistics I used, and references cited. If I were to do this
assignment again, I would have more of a main focus.

The fourth writing I have included is an alternative genre to my research essay. This was my
first time ever doing something like this. My goal was to find a genre that would best fit the
information in my research essay. I chose to do a timeline, and this was perfect to display the
information as dates play a critical role in my topic. I am proud of the layout and format of the
timeline as well as the pictures I used. If I were to do this assignment again, I would focus on a
specific state and its statistics rather than the nation and other countries. But overall, I am happy
with this assignment. It was fun to do!

The final writing I have included and the last page of my portfolio is a reflection of a personal
narrative I completed 5 years ago in an English class.