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Eduardo Giron

Professor Trishia Briones

ENGL 1302-227

4 May 2022

Portfolio Reflection

My ability to appeal to people beyond just using logos (logic) in writing has never

exactly been my strongest ability, so I stuck to it. To be candid, the majority of the revising done

to each essay revolved around actually completing the papers I may or may not have submitted

as incomplete. For essay one, I initially neglected to include more direct entries from the journal

I used to conduct the experiment, as well as write a relatively short conclusion to the otherwise

lengthy first half of the paper. Therefore, the vast majority of the revision for paper one revolved

around including more direct quotes from the subject, as well as reanalyzing the entire

experiment with a more fresh perspective. I found possible errors that could have occurred as a

result of bias towards some of the music genres experimented with and included it in the

conclusion. For essay two, I initially failed to complete the paper’s objectives and submitted a

half-baked paper for whatever points I could manage to scrape up as a result of poor time

management. Consequently, I attempted to complete the poor mess I turned in the first time for

this round of revisions. I still believe that I could have done a better job with the revisions, but oh

well. As for essay three, I didn’t even turn anything in because I had nothing to submit, I didn’t

do the work. Thus, for essay three I completed the objective of adding a biased point of view to

the paper and wrote a new narrative/argument structured around the existing information

gathered in essay two. Needless to say, I didn’t have any other works or advice for a frame of
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reference to base my improvements on essay three as I did for essay one and essay two to some

extent.

I am not quite sure how to answer this portion of the portfolio reflection, as I don’t

believe I used any “rhetorical choices” when designing my website. I merely included some

aesthetically pleasing (to myself at least) patterns in the background. As for how I structured the

website portfolio, I displayed the final revised version of each essay in their respective tab front

and center, with a mostly chronological display of each relevant work related to each essay as the

user scrolls down. In the home page, I wrote a short synopsis of each essay and what is included

within each tab. Below that, I included a mini autobiography about myself mentioning my

academic plans and some of my interests.

The source of most of the influence that appeared on my revisions directly came from

feedback I received on my work, either through peer-reviews or direct feedback acquired from

my instructor. Although, I would be remiss if I failed to mention the homework we were

assigned near the beginning of the semester was an important refresher that reminded me of the

guidelines and strategies when working on peer-reviewed/scientific articles. Strategies such as

making sure that the paper is peer-reviewed, breaking the paper down into digestible amounts as

to avoid overloading on information, and knowing when an article is irrelevant or off topic to the

research that is being gathered for a paper.

Based on the results of the experiment that I accomplished for essay one, I can confirm

that music can be beneficial when trying to study. As for what genres I can reliably include for a

studying playlist, classical will absolutely be included. As for actual skills picked up from ENGL

1302, I’ve improved my ability to write out a clear and concise argument with sources
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incorporated in my argument in the MLA format. As well cementing my comfortability in

utilizing the MLA format, as I have been accustomed to using the APA format instead from

various classes throughout the years. Furthermore, my previously mentioned improved ability of

going through academic papers is going to become very useful as I have no doubt I will be

required to write yet another research paper again in the future. Being able to recognize when an

article is not worth your time or irrelevant towards building an argument is invaluable and could

save countless amounts of time.

Ironically enough, I don’t believe that I’m going to be using the MLA format too often as

most, if not all, of my future classes are going to be utilizing the APA format as they are science

classes.

I believe that my ability to fluently write in an academic manner similar to those present

in peer-reviewed/scientific papers improved significantly. I already possessed a similar writing

style, but the increased exposure to reading and writing about various peer-reviewed articles

throughout this semester (particularly for the first and second paper required for this course) has

undoubtedly strengthened my writing ability in that capacity. Furthermore, I believe that my

ability to read and extrapolate information from scientific articles improved from, once again, the

increased exposure to reading and writing about said articles. Before this course, I would

typically require many rereadings to fully understand everything being discussed in an article.

Near the end of this course, I could mostly understand after only rereading once or twice.

In all honesty, the sudden realization of when everything (website, revised papers, etc.,)

would be due gave me a new enormous source of stress that is no one else’s fault but my own. I

have mentioned this before in previous reflection papers for this course, but I have poor time
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management that has haunted me for years. I truly believe my best work occurs when I have no

choice but to work and turn in something, yet I understand that I lean too heavily on that

“ability” of being able to finish right before the due date. As displayed with the incomplete paper

I submitted for essay 2, I can only do so much with the time that I leave myself with. Aside from

my personal issues that go beyond this course, the website building was a new challenge that

confused me for the first couple of days I tried to work on it before the interface started clicking

with me. The template from Weebly (the website) that I chose simply overwhelmed me at first

with all of the possible options that it gave me. I had to delete most of the example material the

template provided me as I couldn’t think of what to fill it in with. Truth be told, I’m not the most

creative person. Especially when given the freedom to design anything however I like. I easily

get overwhelmed by decisions in those scenarios as I tend to overthink and never really land on a

choice. This character quality of mine led to deciding on the theme for my website to be far

longer than I’d like to admit. The fact that editing backgrounds and themes on the website were

not as smooth as I would have appreciated did not help. The process was similar to editing and

moving a picture on Word: if I moved a title or a textbox by even an inch, the entire editing tool

used to display a document file would suddenly disappear or even fade into the background,

leading to carefully editing around the issue to find it again. Perhaps that’s a little exaggeration

or even user error on my end for failing to find an easier solution, but those were my main issues

when designing the website. As for the least challenging of this whole process, once I figured out

how I wanted to format my website (scrolling vertically within each tab to display more instead

of imbedding links and all of that, opting out of a more compact website), uploading all of the

required files was pretty hassle-free.

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I believe that this paper proved the worth of a healthy self-evaluation of abilities,

strengths, and weaknesses. By self analyzing the work both completed and uncompleted,

especially when done months after they have been completed, allows for a newer, more

experienced mind to see where improvements can be made. It is extremely beneficial to see how,

when given enough time, a paper that one has written and read countless times, can become new

again. The chance to criticize previous works, to see what worked and what didn’t throughout

the course of a semester allows for an experience similar to reviewing a peer’s paper. By

acknowledging and recognizing one’s limits and weaknesses, beyond just for a grade in class,

allows for growth by improving on what once were weaknesses. Experience and what one

chooses to do with it, either from success or failure allows for the development of my own

character. I know where I need to improve in (time-management, indecisiveness, etc.,) and what

I learned from this course that will serve to improve my writing and beyond.