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Valeria Reyes

English 1301- 129

Judith McCann

1 December 2021

Portfolio Reflection Essay

It was a pleasure taking this course because I had great classmates and professor. It was

an amazing experience making my own website and decorating my portfolio. I decided to name

my website Shine like a Star. I decided to choose this name because I wanted to use a simile as

my title. In fact, I can say that this is one rhetorical choice I made in my website. I also decided

to use “Shine like a Star” as my title because I think it motivates me to strive for my best and to

shine wherever I stand. I personally believe that over the semester I have grown academically in

my writing. As I went thro my portfolio I saw that my writing had molded in different ways

because my grammar, spelling, became better and my sentence would flow with my entire essay

which made everything easier for me.

As a matter fact, there where many things that helped me be better in this course. One of

the Elements that guided me through this semester was the book called “Everyone’s an author.”

One of the reasons why I think this book was a great support for me was because there I could

check how I had to do my in-text citations and my work cited for my essays. For Instance, one of

the writings I included in my portfolio was the 2011 Super Bowl Chrysler and, in this Activity, I

learned many things because I had to give credit to the video in a formal way. The book

“Everyone’s an author guided me on how I could site the Super Bowl Chrysler video on page

593. In this page Lunsford mentioned many ways on how people can site Audio, Visual, and

other sources (Lunsford 593). In the Activity 2011 Super Bowl Chrysler I also learn how to me
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more Imaginative since I had to have imagination in order to understand better the video. As

Lunsford stated in her book even little imagination can give you new type of ideas about a

certain topic (Lunsford 13).

Another Activity that I included in my portfolio that was very helpful for me was Chapter

26 Reflect activity. This Chapter was very helpful for me because that helped me identified what

was the difference between APA and MLA. Since this is an English course, I had to use an MLA

format for each of my essays and assignments. Chapter 26 also helped me quote things correctly

which helped me in my essay because that made my writing have more credibility. In fact, In the

book I learned that when I am quoting something from somewhere else, I have to use the exact

words from their original source they used in their quote (Lunsford 543). The book also

mentioned that when the writer quotes something, someone said they have to give credit to that

person. In fact, Lunsford mentioned on her book is that when there are short quotations of

poetry, there should be no more than three lines and should be enclosed (Lunsford 544).

The third reflect activity I added in my portfolio that was very helpful for me was the

Chapter 33 Editing errors. I found this Activity vey helpful because it helped be reflect on what

editing errors I did in my essays and how to fix them. For instance, in the book Lunsford

mentioned that every sentence should have a subject and a predicate in order to be completed

(Lunsford 714). I also learned in Chapter 33 how to identify when there is a fragment. As

Lunsford mentioned in the book when a subject or verb is missing it means that it is a fragment

which makes it an incomplete sentence (Lunsford 715). In Chapter 33 Lunsford also mentions

how to identify when a sentence needs a verb for this you will need to check if the sentence

makes sense or not (Lunsford 716). In Chapter 33 I also learned what are Comma Splices and

how to fix them. Lunsford mentioned in the book that a comma splice might look like if it’s a
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good complete sentence, but the problem is that there is a comma between two sentences or also

known as two clauses (Lunsford 717). Lunsford mentioned many ways of fixing a comma splice

one of them can be adding a period between the two clauses to make two complete sentences

(Lunsford 718). Another way how to change a comma splice can be by changing the comma into

a semicolon which will let the reader know that there is a close connection between those two

sentences (Lunsford 718). The last thing you can do to change a comma splice sentence into a

good complete sentence is by adding transition this will make both sentences completed

(Lunsford 718). In Chapter 33 I also learned about what fused sentences was and how to fix it. A

fused sentence looks like a great sentence, but it does not have explicit connection between the

two clauses (Lunsford 719). In order to change this the writer has to change a few words to make

it sound like it has a explicit connection. Another option Lunsford gave us in the book is to add

a period between the first sentence and the second sentence in order for them to sound completed

(Lunsford 720). Chapter 33 also talked about the Pronoun Reference which was very helpful for

me because I would do that in my essays. According to Lunsford a Pronoun Reference is when

the readers are not sure what a pronoun refers to (Lunsford 726). Lunsford stated that in order to

check for a unclear pronoun reference first they have to check each pronoun and then they have

to make sure the points are clear (Lunsford 726). I also learned that there is also a pronoun case

that is referred to different forms of a pronoun (Lunsford 732). To check for the correct pronoun

case first have to check if it makes sense because if it has random sentences that don’t make any

sense that means that the pronoun case is not correct. (Lunsford 732).

The Next Activity that I added in portfolio that I found really helpful and interesting

was the fallacies of Argument Assignment. In this assignment I added some Fallacies Lunsford

mentioned in her book. For instance, in chapter five Lunsford mentioned that in the emotional
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argument use different types of tactics to convince people to do something and that is why most

of the writers apply this in their writings (Lunsford 90). There are many ways how emotional

argument can be used in a writing and a popular one that Lunsford mentioned on the book is the

one where they frighten people and make things like a big deal (Lunsford 80). Another thing I

learned when I was reading this article from Lunsford that I found helpful is that there is also

another type of emotional argument appeal which is the Appeal to popularity. In this emotional

appeal Lunsford mentioned in her book that the Bandwagon appeals urge people to do what

other people are doing (Lunsford ,82). In other words, sometimes people do something just

because the other person is doing it which is called Appeal to popularity.

I learned many things in this English 1301 course such as fixing grammar, spelling,

punctuation and run on sentences. Something super important that I learned that I can I apply it

other courses is the MLA in text citations, worked cited and the MLA format. I think this will be

super helpful for me in my other college courses because when a professor asks to do my papers

in MLA format, I will know how to do it the correct way. Another reason why I think I would

apply the MLA format to other courses it is because mostly in college professors ask you to do it

in a certain format. I also found this helpful because I will not be at risk to have plagarism in my

essays because they are cited correctly and have the good amount of information an essay should

have. For instance, If I had to do research for an English course and if I had articles with good

information, I will get that information and reworded on my own words and then give credit to

the author of the article which means do intext citation and work cited to avoid plagarism

problems.

I think that that my writing strengths change a lot over this course because in each essay I

learned something new. For instance, in my first essay I did not know how to do the work cited,
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but then my professor and the Lunsford book gave me some advice on how I should do the work

cited pages in the MLA format. I also think that my writing strenghts changed over time because

on each essay I had feedback from my peers and professor on how I should change words or

sentences. This was so helpful for me because that made me double check my work and make

sure everything sounds good. Another reason why I think my writing strenghts changed is

because everytime I did an assignment that I had to read an article I would learn new words that

related to the course which made me have more acknowledge. As I stated before I would find

Lunsford’s book very informative because it had all the correct information about the MLA

formating and how to imporve the writings.

I think that doing the portfolio is was a super cool experience however it was kind of

complicated to do because I had to had good imagination to put the correct colors to the website

to make it look nice and formal. I also founded complicated to do because It was hard to arrange

each of the things I had to include in the essay. For instance, for each essay I had to put each

draft I did for it and the feedback they gave me in the each of my essays. Another challenging

thing I found from the website was the adding the buttons because each button had to take the

person to the essay or draft depending on the button.

I think that my identity as writer changed with this essay because I explained what was

the hardest things that I found for this course and also what was the easy. I also think that my

identity changed because I showed many examples of my activities and what I found helpful on

each of my activities that I added to my portfolio. I also think it changed because I included

some chapters that helped me with this course.

Overall, I think this was an amazing English course because it had good explanations for

each lesson. Another reason why I think it was a great course it is because the chapters that we
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had to read for each activity we had to do. In fact, I think that for each chapter I read from this

book I learned something new that I can apply to my other courses even though they are not

English course. One Specific chapter that I think that it was helpful for me was Chapter 33

because it talked about grammar errors and sentences errors. I think that I struggled the most

with grammar, but with this chapter I actually found out who I can fix incomplete sentences such

a comma splices, run-ons, and even fragments. I also learned in this English course that it is okay

if my writing is not the best because I learn something new from each of my errors. I also think

that another thing that helped me a lot was the writing center because the tutors from there

explained me what I could do to improve my essay and gave me some ideas of what to include to

my essay in order for it to be good.

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Worked cited

Lunsford, Andrea et al. Everyone’s an Author 3rd ed. Norton 2020.

https://ncia.wwnorton.com/ebook-everyone3