Yuriy Goshovskiy

ENGLI-1101-NET59
FALL 2021
Evaluation

In my portfolio, I have included what I believe are my three best works of this semester.

First up, we have my Exploratory paper. I believe this is my best work thus far this semester in

terms of writing and research. I have never gone out of my way to “explore” for a topic and then

write about it. It was a fun and great learning experience, and I definitely earned the grade I

received for it. Next up, we have the Photo Narrative paper. I ranked this one second because,

although it’s one of the most personal and touching pieces I have wrote this year, it still doesn’t

compare to the research I had to do with the exploratory paper. That’s not to say I didn’t work

hard on this piece. In fact, I have never written a photo narrative before, but I know I did well for

my first time! Lastly, we have the Literary Analysis paper. This one was tough, partly because

literary analysis isn’t my strongest suit. Initially, I had lots of difficulty understanding Edgar

Allen Poe’s writing. Once I did understand it, I then had difficulty comparing it to the present-

day. However, I marked this my third best piece of writing because I did what I thought I

couldn’t do - write a literary analysis piece. That brings me into the revision.

Because I struggled with the third presented piece, I decided to revise it. I started by

adding specificity in the thesis statement. Then, I corrected a few grammar errors. Finally, I

added another paragraph that would further explore the comparison of the Red Death and

COVID-19, specifically on Trump’s followers to Prospero’s followers. I believe these

revisions/additions certainly made my paper better, but it still isn’t perfect.

This is the mindset I have when writing. I try my best to put forth the writing I believe is

best. I know it won’t ever be perfect, and I am content with that. Having this mindset presents

me from overthinking and allows me to speak my mind. This is what I do well. I speak my mind

until I have nothing left to say. Sometimes, unfortunately, that results in less being said.
However, sometimes less is more. It’s much more meaningful to put forth writing that isn’t

simply being put down just to fit a criterion, such as page count. This is what makes my writing

mine.