For the “Critical Thinking and Expression” section of my capstone portfolio, I chose to

include two papers from my Spanish 345 (Cultures of Spain) class taken from Professor Alder. I
chose these artifacts because they are some of my best academic works, and Professor Alder’s
rigorous requirements for each essay helped me to present effective research and to make
convincing arguments. These artifacts definitely demonstrate the criteria for this section of my
Spanish portfolio.

According to the portfolio requirements, my research paper had to be “on a particular

topic that synthesizes and integrates information from multiple sources, organized conceptually.”
The paper also needed to introduce credible academic sources with appropriate citations. My
research paper was about two of Spain’s constitutions, the Constitution of Cádiz and the
Constitution of 1978, and how these constitutions impacted Spain and the rest of the world.
These constitutions revolutionized the country and have served as inspiration for constitutions
around the world. For this paper, Professor Alder asked his students to search, study, and
dialogue with information from peer-reviewed resources. We used lib.byu.edu to find articles,
and later we summarized these articles’ main themes and took out quotes to use in our research
essay.

The main portfolio requirement for the argumentative paper was defending a particular
thesis or claim. Additionally, the essay needed to “have a clearly stated thesis, which should be
supported with carefully-chosen evidence, while also acknowledge opposing views and multiple
perspectives.” My argumentative paper was about the unexpected similarities found in Teresa de
Ávila’s Libro de la vida and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ Book of Mormon. I
began the paper describing my experiences as a missionary in Washington state for the Church
of Jesus Christ. The Hispanic population in Washington was primarily Mexican and extremely
Catholic. I came to think that members of the Catholic church and members of the Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had almost nothing in common. However, the aforementioned
texts gave me a new perspective, and in the paper I argued that members of the two churches
actually have a lot in common. For this argumentative paper, Professor Alder asked his students
to reflect on the meaning of a cultural manifestation, using this cultural product as a primary
source of evidence for an argument. My essay includes direct quotes from both the Libro de la
vida and the Book of Mormon that defended my position.

I feel that I have developed many skills in the area of critical thinking and expression as a
Spanish major at Brigham Young University. The most important skills include writing a clear,
effective thesis and organizing a paper in order to convey a clear argument. I also learned a lot
about standardized essay formats, such as MLA and APA format. I definitely plan to continue
using and developing these skills in the future. After I graduate from BYU, I will continue my
education by attending the Mortuary Science program at Salt Lake Community College. I look
forward to doing research in the field of mortuary science and presenting my findings using the
knowledge I have developed at BYU.