Dear Neil,

Welcome to Trinity Teixeira’s Portfolio of Writing! This portfolio contains writing

project one and two we were assigned this quarter that have been revised to the final product. My

favorite writing assignment we did would be the first assignment since I got to choose a topic I'm

interested in which was K-pop where I found an interesting article about the positive

psychosocial outcomes that stem from being a fan of K-Pop. I put a lot of thought, effort, and

time into both assignments especially the first one. In the second assignment, I put a lot of time

into finding many articles on one of my weaknesses in writing which is Punctuation. The second

assignment helped me overcome my weakness and I liked translating the conversation between

different people into a podcast script. I hope you enjoy going through this portfolio and

appreciate the amount of time and effort I put into both pieces of writing.

I used one of the articles we read for class throughout the course and will continue to use

it in the future because it helped me break down and understand the articles I was reading. The

article I’m referring to is Karen Rosenberg’s, “Reading Games: Strategies for Reading Scholarly

Sources,” Reading this article and putting its strategies into effect really helped me through both

of these assignments especially my first assignment because the academic article was dense but

by using Karen’s strategies it really made a difference the way I read and understood the article.

For my first assignment once I found my article I had a really difficult time thinking of a

genre to translate it to. First I thought of a documentary, then a BuzzFeed article, and lastly a

BuzzFeed quiz. I thought to myself this will be really easy to set up an outline of a quiz for

K-Pop…WRONG! I worked on my first draft of it for hours and became frustrated that it looked

really bad and wondered if it would work out in the end. Thankfully however, I remembered the
article we read in class which was Ann Lamott’s, “Shitty First Drafts,” I read it again after

calming down and remembered that it’s okay if the first draft is “shitty” that’s how it’s supposed

to be since it’s a rough draft of trying to work out your thoughts. I’ve always had a problem with

trying to make my first draft really good because I don’t want to be criticized and it makes me

feel better if my first draft looks and sounds good. This article helped me to remember that it’s

okay if the first draft is bad and that it helps my writing rather than hurting it. I also referred back

to the same article for the second assignment to remind myself again.

When revising assignment 1 I referred to the comments you left me which were to play

around with the font and color, cite my article in my reflection, and include an ending in my quiz

that touched on the psychosocial outcomes. I added pink to my “yes” line and blue to my “no”

lines which I think made a positive impact on the quiz and made it clearer to follow. You also

recommended that if I could neaten up my quiz but I decided that it would be difficult to split it

up and create two separate quizzes and I think the end result looks great and is simple to follow

and understand. I changed the font for the group description and added a pop of color. Lastly, I

made an ending page to the quiz where I used color and found cute stickers to fit the theme, I

also included an ending statement on how listening to K-Pop can increase happiness, social

connectedness, and self-confidence. I felt happy with my end result due to the revisions I made

since it tied my discussion together and looked pleasing to the eye.

As for my second assignment, I found this one to be interesting and wanted to dive deep

into it since punctuation is a subject I feel I lack in. Funny enough I used an article that we ended

up reading and discussing in class which was Kevin Cassel’s, “Punctuation’s Rhetorical Effects.”

I chose this article because it helped me understand punctuation and writing from a different

perspective which is to think as the “writer” rather than the “reader” when trying to understand
how punctuation works. I also used the article he references in his own piece by Mike Bunn and

his strategies made so much sense to me that I realized if I didn’t take this class I’d probably still

have punctuation as my weakness and wouldn’t try to overcome it so I’m happy this assignment

let me turn my weakness into a strength.

Revising the second assignment I felt was easier than the first assignment since there

weren’t a lot of extra parts. I first used your suggestions which were to add a bibliography, talk

about the traditional ways to learn, and tie in the “big picture.” I first made the bibliography

since it was the easiest thing to start with. I then found a spot at the beginning of the conversation

where I inserted a piece about the “traditional” ways of learning punctuation which were

handbooks and memorization of rules. I felt this revision was important because as you read

through the conversation you begin to understand why traditional ways aren’t that great and you

focus on the newer ways that will be more beneficial. Lastly, to tie in the “big picture” I decided

the best place would be towards the end of the conversation where I already had a line referring

to the conversation coming full circle in which I added that it was to have a rhetorical

perspective. Overall, I feel that my revisions made my writing stronger and it really connected

what I was trying to convey in the conversation.

I’d like to thank you for making writing interesting and not a “chore” because I was

actually engaged and learned a lot through this course. You also made the class inviting and

never once passed judgment which is something that I’m scared about when it comes to writing.

My experience with Writing 2 was more informational and interesting compared to Writing 1.

My writing has definitely grown a handful due to these assignments and readings that helped

expand on writing techniques. When filling out the cards “What does it mean to be a good

writer” my ideas changed from the beginning of the course to the end when I realized it’s okay to
make mistakes in writing and to be more vocal when I need help or don’t understand a writing

concept.
 Works Cited

Cassel, Kevin. “Punctuation’s Rhetorical Effects.” Writing Spaces: Reading on Writing, Volume

3, https://wac.colostate.edu/docs/books/writingspaces3/cassell.pdf. Accessed 11 February 2024.

Lamott, Anne. “Shitty First Drafts.” Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life. New

York: Pantheon, 1994, pp. 21-27

Rosenberg, Karen. “Reading Games: Strategies for Reading Scholarly Sources.” Writing Spaces:

Reading and Writing, Volume 2,

https://writingspaces.org/past-volumes/reading-games-strategies-for-reading-scholarly-sources/.

Accessed 10 January 2024.