Jane Paden

Dr. Bruce

English 307

4 May 2022

Scholars Notebook 3

21 March 2022 Primary Claims and Sub Claims (Week 9 Monday)

Primary Claim:

- Following her immigration to the United States, Mrs. Sen experiences feelings of

loneliness along with other negative emotions.

Sub Claim:

- The separation from her family and culture causes Mrs. Sen to experience an identity

crisis.

- Social isolation caused Mrs. Sen’s mental health to worsen, leading to a cycle of negative

emotions.

23 March 2022 Refining Claims with Thesis Machine (Week 9 Wednesday)

1. Mrs. Sen

2. Mrs. Sen experiences feelings of loneliness and other negative emotions.

3. Mrs. Sen experiences feelings of loneliness and other negative emotions because she has

left behind everything that she knows.

 4. Although on the outside it seemed as though the Sen’s had begun their life in America

fairly well, Mrs. Sen was struggling internally and was plagued with feelings of

loneliness and other negative emotions.

5. The isolation that Mrs. Sen's experience did not cause her to be lonely.

6 April 2022 Addressing Counter Arguments (Week 11 Wednesday)

A. My thesis: Although on the outside it seemed as though the Sen’s had begun their life in

America fairly well, Mrs. Sen was struggling internally and was plagued with feelings of

loneliness and other negative emotions.

B. 1 reason supporting my thesis: The isolation that Mrs. Sen experienced after moving to

America was a direct cause of her loneliness.

C. 1 counterargument to this reason: Mrs. Sen was not lonely because she had moved to

America, she was lonely because she did not choose to interact socially.

D. 1 way I’ll address this counterargument: It can be hard for immigrants to socialize when

they move to a new country as it is already an overwhelming experience. They also

experience loneliness because they are separated from everyone that they have known for

their entire lives. It is not that Mrs. Sen chose to isolate herself, she had a hard time

immersing herself in this new culture.

13 April 2022 Reverse Outline (Week 12 Wednesday)

1. Mrs. Sen experiences loneliness along with other negative emotions following her

immigration to America.
 2. Leaving India was a hard task for Mrs. Sen and being so far from her family as well as

her community caused her to experience deep feelings of loneliness.

3. Mrs. Sen lacks social interactions along with deep connections which causes negative

feelings to arise within her.

4. The removal of her cultural ties and the change in what is expected of her cause Mrs. Sen

to have a problem with her identity.

5. The author works to show that not all immigrants have a positive experience and uses the

experience of Mrs. Sen to show a negative experience.

This outline shows good organization by ensuring that all the topics are related and flow

smoothly. One thing I want to work on is showing the bigger picture presented by the author

throughout each paragraph. Another thing that I want to work on is the transition between the

third and fourth paragraph. I think that I kept all of the body paragraphs connected to the main

thesis and to each other pretty well. All of the negative emotions she experiences go hand and

hand together and I think I show that properly throughout the essay. I also believe that I need to

add in a counter argument in order to strengthen my argument even more. By disproving a

counterargument, my argument will be more persuasive to those who are reading.

20 April 2022 Reflection

The peer review I received said that I should add another paragraph to expand the internal

struggle Mrs. Sen is facing. I did not see any similarities in the reviews I received since I

only received one. My peer reviewer also noted the lack of evidence throughout my body

paragraphs. To fix this I added in research to help create evidence and to back up my

claims. I also added another paragraph detailing the internal struggle that Mrs. Sen was
 feeling. I connected this paragraph back to the other two so that my main claim would

become even stronger. I specified what the emotions were and detailed why she was

feeling that way while giving research that backs up the claims.

25 April 2022 Portfolio Analysis

Analyze the audience of the portfolio assignment (who are they? What do they need/not need from

you?):

The audience of this portfolio is anyone viewing the website to read my writing.

They need the website to be user friendly, easy on the eyes, and organized well.

They also need my best writings that are edited to be the best they can be.

They do not need anything to be confusing or unorganized.

Analyze the author/communicator of the portfolio assignment (how will you present yourself as an

authority on your portfolio’s subject?):

In order to present myself as the authority on the subject, I will include an introduction page to myself.

In this I will include a brief explanation about me and what is being presented. I will also include

this in my cover letter.

Analyze the message/content of the portfolio assignment (what do you need to include to persuade

your audience?):

I need to include sentences explaining how I completed each SLO in order to persuade my audience.

I also need to include writing that shows that I have completed each SLO.
Analyze the purpose of the portfolio assignment (what does your portfolio need to do?):

My portfolio needs to show that I have mastered each SLO as well as showing that i have

developed my writing over the semester.

Analyze the organization/design of the portfolio assignment (how can you make it reader-friendly?):

I can make my portfolio reader friendly by making it easy to navigate with a homepage and a

table of contents. I can also make sure that it is organized by creating different pages and tabs.

27 April 2022 Analyze sample cover letters’ argumentation

In the first cover letter the author does a good job at showing that they have completed each

SLO. They stated which SLO their paper had completed and gave a guide to show how they

completed and mastered each. This along with the explanation of how they mastered each within

the cover letter give a persuasive argument. The second letter is more persuasive than the first

because they go more into depth. They explain how they master each SLO in a detailed but

concise way. They tell the reader directly how they have completed each of the SLOs. I think

that the second one is better because they give examples on how they have completed each one

as opposed to just stating that they did.