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Mario Alvarado

Professor McCann

English 1302. 203

4 May 2022

Portfolio Reflection

Reflection is one of the most satisfying things to do, it involves no work, only simply

viewing what one was able to accomplish. It is more than pleasant to do so, especially in things

like courses in which a lot was done. Throughout the English 1302 course, I obtained knowledge

that helped me take rhetorical decisions in the design of my portfolio, editing of my essays, and

further continuing my growth as a writer.

As a requirement for this portfolio, we had to revise our essays and change at least 25%

of their content. While revising my essays to meet these criteria I made various changes which

all have some rhetoric to them. Logos was used when editing Essay 1’s introduction to have

more background information in the form of inserting a sentence which explains why people

believe that dominancy can not be established over the non-dominant hand. Furthermore, Logos

was also used when including why it is hard to use the non-dominant hand, essentially explaining

that the brain gets “confused” and impedes the individual from doing anything with the

non-dominant hand.

Furthermore, logos was also used when revising Essay 2 as I made revisions that would

help contribute why certain bullying motives cause bullying to occur. For example, I added a

sentence that explains how Caste Syndrome specifically contributes to bullying which is by

essentially depicting that certain individuals have a higher ranking on the Caste System, and

those that are below them can be seen as “inferior” which will lead to bullies harassing them to
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remind them of their inferior status. Additionally, when detailing bullies with low socioeconomic

status and poor academic backgrounds, both pathos and logos were used during the revisions.

The low socioeconomic status and poor academic performance statements were kept in the essay

in order to convey an emotion of the bully enduring hardships which in a way “justifies” their

behavior to the audience.

To further, Logos was used when revising essay 2 when actually explaining how it is that

bullying motives will lead to bullying’s occurrence. One of the last rhetorical choices made when

revising essays was when revising essay 3 as pathos was accounted for when actually explaining

why individuals are bullied due to their gender identity or sexuality. When revising that portion

of essay 3 I wanted to appeal to my audience’s emotions in order to let them get a glimpse of

how unfair bullying is sometimes, as it basically tries to reform an individual to do something

else that may not actually be in alignment with their beliefs or personal values. Not only was

pathos accounted for when discussing this specific topic as a bullying motive, but it was also

taken into consideration when editing the low socioeconomic and academic achievement

backgrounds because I once again attempted to appeal to my audience’s emotions in order to get

them to understand why a bully does what they do. Not only were rhetorical choices made when

revising the essays, but also when designing and creating my website.

One of the examples in which I used Logos when designing my portfolio was when

choosing the “right” to include in the “writing” word. The reason that the word “right” was

turned into a wordplay on the word “writing” was because I intended to get viewers of my

portfolio to think about why a directional term was being used with a writing term. The word

“right” was included because in the right hemisphere of the brain the parietal lobe, responsible

for sensation, is found. I wanted to make viewers make the logical connection between the
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wordplay and my essays as my essays basically have to do with sensation, and the brain a lot. An

example of this would be using the non-dominant hand causes a sensation of confusion, while

bullies feel a sensation to displace their behavior onto innocent people. Besides logos, Ethos was

also used when designing the portfolio.

The manner in which ethos was used was when creating a bibliography for all the images

that were used in this portfolio in order to stand out as more credible, in addition to giving credit

to the people whose images I borrowed to include in my portfolio. I also used ethos when

designing this website by including quotes that support what a specific page on the portfolio is

about. Besides containing a small portion of ethos, the design of the website also includes a

heavy dose of pathos.

When designing this website I took pathos into consideration because I wanted to create a

visually appealing portfolio, while also keeping a level of professionalism, in addition to not

straying away from the actual purpose of the portfolio; to display my writing and growth as a

writer. In order to make the portfolio visually appealing, I used bright but soft colors such as

light blue, in addition to images that stand out. I was able to keep the level of professionalism in

my portfolio because the entire aesthetic of the portfolio was similar to that of something

medical or psychological, which is basically a common theme throughout all my essays. The

actual purpose of the portfolio was able to be kept into consideration because the essays and all

the writing work is displayed in a clean, easily readable format while also providing a nice

psychological aesthetic for viewers to enjoy while browsing through the portfolio. The decisions

made when designing this portfolio were influenced by a few homework assignments that were

completed throughout the course.

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One of the most influential homework assignments that influenced my revisions and

rhetorical choices when creating my portfolio was the FCV-19S Activity in which it analyzed the

psychological implications of the COVID-19 pandemic on individuals. It is because of this

homework assignment that I was able to come up with the topic for the entire portfolio theme

because after reading the article I could not think of a common theme or topic that was found

throughout all my essays and eventually discovered that all my essays have to do with the brain

or are psychologically related. For example learning behaviors such as using a non-dominant

extremity, and psychological motives causing bullying in addition to psychological and

sociological motives combining to cause bullying behavior’s occurrence. This led to my

designing of the website with the aesthetic of “psychology” in mind. Another homework

assignment that heavily influenced my rhetorical choices was the More Than Inconvenienced:

The Unique Needs of U.S. College Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic assignment.

The way that More Than Inconvenienced: The Unique Needs of U.S. College Students

During the COVID-19 Pandemic assignment influenced my rhetorical choices was because the

assignment discussed challenges and unlike many other articles that only talk about problems,

offered solutions. Rather than influencing the actual design of my portfolio, it influenced many

of my revisions for example the revision made in the first essay in which I realized that I had

stated the problem of the non-dominant hand being hard to use but didn’t really offer a solution.

After further revision, I was able to contribute that with repeated practice and use of the

non-dominant hand, dominancy can be established over it which enables an individual to use it

almost equally as their dominant hand. Because of this homework assignment, I was able to fix a

very important flaw in essay 1 which was not offering a solution to the problem discussed

throughout my essay. The last homework assignment that influence my revisions and design of
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this portfolio was Google Home vs. Alexa: Two Simple User Experience Design Gestures That

Delighted a Female User.

Google Home vs. Alexa: Two Siple User Experience Design Gestures influenced the

design of my portfolio because it discussed a situation in which a person prefers Google Home

over Alexa because although Google Home is not an actual person it’s more than what can be

immediately seen. Similar to this, I wanted to design my portfolio to be something that was not

immediately what it seemed, but technically is. This drove me to design my portfolio o be

designed around the central idea of writing sensations which could mean many different things

but rather than actually being based to depict the many topics in my writing which cause certain

sensations in individuals, the portfolio is aimed to give viewers a sensation of my writing. My

portfolio, similar to a Matryoshka doll or Mark Danielewski’s house on Ash Tree Lane in

“House of Leaves”, the more it is analyzed the more that can be found within it, whether it be a

new definition of the title or just more content, the portfolio keeps expanding. Similar to Google

Home, the portfolio may not be immediately what it seems to be. As fun as it was to design this

website, there were a few challenges that came with its creation.

One of the most challenging aspects of this website was inputting things such as files and

Scribd documents. The reason this was challenging was that it was very time-consuming in

addition to sometimes Weebly would just glitch out which would delete the progress I had made

when inputting the documents, which as a byproduct caused my sensation as far as writing to

turn into frustration, but after calming down and fixing the files, everything was okay. Coming

up with a creative name also took some time, this was not actually necessary for the portfolio but

I wanted to because I wanted to continue the precedent set by my English 1301 portfolio but
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could not find anything to link both together so instead I decided to just continue the wordplay

tradition.

Finding a common theme to use as an overall theme in the portfolio was difficult because

for the life of me I couldn’t figure anything out, but after going through the most influential

homework assignments, I was able to find the common ground of psychology being shared

throughout all my essays. The last challenging aspect of this portfolio was probably this

reflection essay, and honestly, it is not necessarily challenging but rather time-consuming, and

honestly, I wouldn’t mind it if I didn’t have a pretty extensive amount of exams and other things

coming up but it’s okay, better to struggle now and relax later than the other way. Besides

slightly making me struggle, English 1302 helped me obtain knowledge that can be applied in

other courses.

In English 1302 I learned many things that will be applicable in other classes, for

example how to write a research analysis and an effective position paper. Knowing how to write

a research analysis will benefit me in the future because research analyses are some of the most

common writing assignments assigned to students and having previous experience in writing

them will reduce the amount of overwhelmed I may feel. Besides research analysis, English 1302

allowed me the opportunity to write an effective position paper, specifically in essay 3.

Essay 3 had us choose a topic and pick a side on that topic, of which I chose that bullying

is caused by a combination of multiple different types of motives rather than one specific motive.

Writing essay 3 will help me in future courses because position papers are almost always

assigned in all courses such as history, science, English, etc. By already having experience in

writing a position paper with a fair amount of word count, I can write a more effective position
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paper than if I had not written one previously. Another very important thing I learned in this

course was how to give personal input without using personal pronouns.

The research analysis essay required us to choose a topic and discuss the many different

arguments surrounding it, and as part of the criteria for this essay, we couldn’t just include many

sources, rather we had to analyze what the sources said without using personal pronouns. Being

able to meet this requirement will help me in future courses because other courses tend to require

a research analysis paper, which also will require our analysis of sources without using personal

pronouns. Moreover, there were a few things that I learned in English 1302 that will most likely

not be used in future courses.

One of the things learned in English 1302 that will most likely not be used in future

courses is the use of MLA headers. The reason that MLA headers will most likely not be used in

other courses is that headers are not part of the MLA style of writing and were most likely only

applicable to this course unless another instructor says otherwise. Something else that will most

likely not be used in other courses is the writing of a personal experiment because it is very

unlikely that I will be asked to conduct an experiment and write about it, specifically, due to the

criminal justice major that I am pursuing, my classes will most likely not require any

experimenting. Lastly, citing a letter to the editor as was done in Essay 1 will most likely not be

used in other courses because it is very unlikely that I will cite another source in which a letter,

most likely written by me will be directed to the author or editor. English 1302 has helped me

further my writing strengths and weakness. For example, my ideas, which have been my main

strength, have become more diverse and have actually increased in abundance. Organization

which was originally a weakness but developed later into a strength was improved because now

my paragraphs will flow into one another more effectively. Through the furthering of my writing
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strengths and weaknesses, my identity as a writer was changed, mainly due to the writing of this

reflection essay.

With the writing of this portfolio reflection, my identity as a writer has changed because

it allows me to stop downplaying what I’ve been able to write and accomplish. My main value is

humbleness because to me one can be good but never the best because once a person is the

“best” they’ll stop working to improve themselves and will eventually fall from their pedestal of

ignorance. However, it’s important to acknowledge one’s accomplishments which is typically

something I forget to do. Thanks to this essay, I was able to realize all the struggles I’ve gone

through as a writer and how I’ve been also able to grow as a writer thanks to the English 1302

course which is something to be proud of and ever grateful for.

All in all, the English 1302 course has brought about many things for me and has taught

me many things. English 1302 has brought me out of my comfort zone by giving me concepts I

have never written before in my life such as an experiment, a research analysis, and an

argumentative essay. Although it seemed like something that someone at my level should not

even be writing about, I was able to overcome that obstacle and managed to do pretty decently in

my opinion. English 1302 has also allowed me to obtain so much growth as a writer in the form

of knowledge, and strategies to become a better writer and rather than a writer, a better person.

To my instructor of English 1302 and the course itself, I have one thing to say, and that is thank

you.
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Works Cited

Lederer, Alyssa M., et al. “More Than Inconvenienced: The Unique Needs of U.S. College

Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic.” Health Education & Behavior, vol.48, no.1,

Feb. 2021. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1090198120969372. Accessed 31 January 2022.

Lunsford, Andrea, et al. Everyone’s an Author 3rd edition, W.W. Norton & Company, 2020.

Perz, Catherine A., et al. “Validation of the Fear of COVID-19 Scale in a US College Sample.”

International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, June 2020. EBSCOhost,

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-020-00356-3. Accessed 31 January 2022.