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David Zimmerman

ENGL 211

4 May 2020

Self-Evaluation of My Published Works

An interesting thing happened while working on my portfolio this semester. I

remembered how much I like to write and be creative when working with websites. It has been

many years since I have done any work on websites or even a single webpage. I used to make

and maintain web sites for both my Boy Scout Troop and Cub Scout Pack. It was an enjoyable

thing to sit and watch what you design come to life.

I had some struggles when we first started to use Weebly and then had the extended

layoff due to the COVID-19. There are still somethings that I would like to learn about the

website and the way that their service works. There are some items that didn’t work out as I

would like, and some worked better than I thought they would. One big problem was a way to

import my papers and not lose the original formatting. I did finally find the “Scribd” button so

that I could post my papers but would rather they be presented in a different way.

I have learned a great many things about not only writing but how to read what someone

has written. Until this semester I never really understood or recognized how effectively the great

writers and speakers use rhetoric to get their point across. Looking back at all the speeches that

I have studied and all the books that I have read, I now know why and how they create the

feelings that they caused to build inside of me. With this knowledge I now can effectively create

feelings within the readers of my own works.

I enjoyed doing the research and then building my thesis and writing the research paper

on “Why Study Engineering Management” since it has to do with what my intended course of studies
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are. While it is harder to do research when there is no library or other reference centers other than the

internet available at this time, the hardest part is not having the ‘Writing Center” at the university

available to give assistance in the process and wording of the paper.

I think the assignment that I enjoyed the least would be the “Self-Evaluation” since sometimes I

am more critical of myself than needs to be and sometimes I miss areas that need to be adjusted or

fixed.

The digital portfolio is a great way to present yourself to others without having to be in front of

them. With a digital portfolio you can present samples of your writings, both informal and formal

papers, and other things that maybe of interest to a prospective employer such as maybe a diagram that

you drew up for an electrical circuit or a sequence of operation for a piece of machinery.