Montemayor 1

Carlos Montemayor

Dr. Sharity Nelson

English Composition 1301 - 124

6 December 2022

Final Reflection

Revising Essay 1 and Essay 2 was more straightforward than modifying Essay 3 because

I had many resources in the first two essays. Peer review workshops, Supplemental Instruction

(SI) sessions, and Academic Center of Excellence (ACE) sessions, to name a few. While revising

Essay 1, I attended an ACE and a few SI sessions to help me understand the prompt and write a

practical genre analysis. While fixing this essay, I needed to figure out what to improve, so I

focused on grammar and punctuation. Essay 2 followed a similar pattern. I went to many SI

Sessions and attended both Peer Review workshops. Peer Review Workshops were by far the

best resource I had. My classmates gave me helpful advice to extend my essay without adding

fluff. I also focused on grammar and punctuation for the revisions, as I got little criticism.

Essay 3 was absolute chaos. I had to attend an engineering convention, so I could not

attend the class for a week, which caused me to miss the majority of the brainstorming period.

When I came back, Draft 2 was already due. I asked for an extension, and luckily, it was granted.

Essay 3 was the most challenging because the article I chose was 16 pages long. I attended ACE

and SI sessions but could not attend the Peer Review workshops. The ACE session was very

unproductive. I received very little feedback, and it was a total bust. The SI sessions, however,

were much more helpful. In addition to the ACE and SI sessions, I also received some feedback

from my sister, which was very helpful. Out of all the essays, this was my least favorite. When it

came to revising this essay, I edited a lot. My sister said I gave many examples but rarely
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touched on the rhetorical aspect. She recommended I add a second, smaller paragraph to each

point I made, connecting it to the thesis and the audience. Overall, the revisions went well. I

learned how to revise correctly using the worksheets in the portfolio folder. Some of my essays

are easier to read than before.

I took inspiration from the example website provided in the prompt and Dr. Nelson’s

portfolio, which she presented in class. I made it with the idea that I would continue to expand

upon it over the years, implementing the essays of my other classes. Thus, I added a summary of

myself. On the home page, I decided to use images related to my likes and a quote that impacted

me at the bottom of the page. The image shown when you first log into the page is an image of

the Pillars of Creation. I chose this image to portray my love for outer space. I summarized

myself in 3 small paragraphs with an image of Santorini, Greece relating to one of the

paragraphs. I described the clubs I was in and included a little gallery of the first SEDS

launching day.

For individual essays, I decided to make the picture in the background relate to the

essay’s prompt. I used a journal for the genre analysis essay, movie posters for the visual text

analysis essay, and a graphic showing the three rhetorical appeals for the rhetorical analysis

essay. Finally, I decided to go for a tower of books for the reflection essay page. I designed my

webpage specifically to allow for expansion for future essays.

The two main activities that influenced my rhetorical choices when creating this portfolio

were SI sessions and examples of other portfolios. As I mentioned before, I used the example

given in the prompt as a focal point for my portfolio. Examples of where I took inspiration are

evident when comparing the two. I took inspiration from the example portfolio by adding what

interests me as the background image on the home page. I also briefly described my different
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experiences with writing each essay. Some aspects that influenced my portfolio revisions include

SI sessions and my sister’s advice. I am slightly disappointed that not many students attended the

SI sessions, as it was mostly just the SI leader and me. My sister critiqued my writing when

revising the third essay, mentioning the lack of connection to the thesis and the lackluster

amounts of analysis, mainly focusing on examples. This, as a result, shaped and molded the final

result of the portfolio.

I learned many valuable lessons in English Composition 1301. I learned not to be afraid

to ask questions. It was my first semester in college, so I was terrified to talk to a professor. I

believe other first-year students share a similar sentiment, but nothing wrong can come from it.

An example was during the second week of class; I was too afraid to walk up to the teacher to

ask what she meant by genre when she mentioned it in the prompt. Luckily I attended an SI

session that cleared many misconceptions, which leads me to the second lesson I learned, use all

of the campus resources. I attended many SI and ACE sessions, which helped me immensely

with the essays. More students need to take advantage of these resources. The library has to be

one of the greatest places to study. It is quiet and has minimal distractions; the only unfortunate

part is that it closes at midnight. Another valuable lesson is time management. I struggle with

this, but I acknowledge that my time management skills could improve. I always put off essays

until the day before they are due and end up rushing them all. I always lean towards short-term

pleasure, like video games or sleep, and end up risking a failing grade rather than setting the

distractions aside and focusing on what needs to get done. Overall, this class has been a great

learning experience and has opened my eyes to what I need to change from now on.

I learned some specific things that I needed help applying to other courses in this course.

Most of these examples include things specific to my assignments in this course. For example,
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how to write a genre analysis essay. I am majoring in computer engineering, so this information

will never be helpful. The list goes on. Knowing how to identify different visual text elements in

a visual genre will not help me code an algorithm using Python. Additionally, there are a few

writing courses in my predetermined course pathway, there are English 1301, 1302, and

Technical writing. As far as I know, technical writing uses APA format more than MLA, which

also fits into the list. In conclusion, anything specific to this course, like assignments, will not

apply to other courses.

My writing strengths have changed drastically over the semester. I used to write essays

with little thought into them. That is what I did in essay one, and as a result, I received negative

feedback notifying me that I had a large amount of fluff in my text. I repeated the information I

had previously stated, and most importantly, the flow of the essay was very jagged. I now know

that writing an essay takes time. I must brainstorm, research, format, and consult my ideas with

someone else, whether a professor, SI leader, friend, peer, or sister. An outside opinion can make

a world of difference and can give me a different perspective on my essays. Additionally, reading

an essay out loud can give you insight into the flow of the essay. I never considered that the flow

would have such a significant impact on an essay before college. However, these experiences

have given me insight into becoming a better writer. One of the most significant improvements I

have identified within myself is that I previously thought I just sucked at writing essays. Now,

with all the knowledge I have obtained through this course, I can identify what specific writing

area I can improve.

A weakness in my writing that has been prominent for as long as I remember has always

been my tendency to steer off-topic and go off on something unrelated. Ultimately, I had to erase

half of the page because I strayed too far from the thesis; however, I have been staying on the
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topic most of the time. Nonetheless, I must cut out around twenty percent of what I originally

typed. I have also identified a significant weakness, procrastination. As I previously stated, I tend

to go the easy route, playing video games or watching youtube videos, rather than doing my

work. I have recently realized that I struggle to work on my assignments in my dorm. It has far

too many distractions, and the temptation to go to bed and “finish it tomorrow” is sometimes

overwhelming. I have already come up with a temporary solution, going to the library, which

closes at midnight, thus making it temporary. I often stay up until 4 am finishing assignments, so

I am currently searching for a twenty-four-hour workspace. One final weakness I have identified

is my short attention span. I would not call it a weakness but something I have to accommodate.

When working on assignments, I typically work efficiently for one hour, and afterward, I slowly

become less and less productive. A way to avoid this deterioration is to distract myself for about

ten to fifteen minutes. Then I am in full-attentive mode.

Constructing and assembling the website was the easiest part of the final portfolio, taking

only two or three hours to complete. The most challenging aspect of this website has to be the

revisions. Twenty-five percent of the original text had to be modified. More specifically, the

Essay 3 revision was the most difficult. My sister was the only one who helped me with that one,

and she left everything very vague. My mind does not operate like a writer’s mind does, so I do

not think she and I were on the same page. Overall, revising was a nightmare.

The least challenging part was designing the whole thing. It was fun to express myself

through web design. I did not initially watch the Weebly tutorial video; it seemed simple. Weebly

is a tool that I will use throughout my college career. The GUI is self-explanatory; the only

problem I had was figuring out how to highlight text. I was thrilled with the results as I had

designed it just as I liked it. I used a base template as a guide to different sections. However, I
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took it in a different direction than what the template depicted. I added my twist and personalized

it to fit my liking.

This course has changed my identity as a writer in various ways; additionally, my

confidence in writing has increased. I thought I could never write an essay because my

vocabulary was limited, I could not stay on topic, or I procrastinated. My problems can be solved

if I accommodate my weaknesses. The improvement is effectively shown in the essays, although

there was a slight drop in quality after the second one. While writing the first essay, the SI leader

helped me immensely, gave me half of its ideas, and helped me interpret the prompt. While

writing the second essay, most of what I wrote were my ideas instead. I understood what she had

taught me beforehand and used that knowledge to figure it out independently. The third essay

was more challenging than the previous two, which helped me develop my writing skills. I was

tasked with reading and rhetorically analyzing a 16-page article. I was mostly on my own since

more and more people were attending the SI sessions, and less time was spent helping me

individually. This final essay was a test to see if I had learned anything from my past

experiences, and there was still some room for improvement, but in the end, all of these tests

have changed me as a writer. Where before, I could never imagine myself writing a complete,

three-page essay, I did it nearly on my own, with some feedback.