Dear Carrie,
I have never really looked at myself as much of a writer, but since I have been working on this portfolio I am starting to see that I am. I have noticed that writing takes on many forms and in this class we explored them all from letters, papers, forum posts and daybook writing. Taking English 1101 has given me a chance to change up my style of writing and explore the creative side of writing that I have always had. From all the writing prompts we have had I would say that they all shared one thing in common, which was the vagueness in content. That missing component of structure allowed me to explore different takes on writing that I have not been able to do until now.
The first paper that we wrote in your class was the Literacy Narrative and it took me off guard at first because it was my first official college paper that I was gone write. Once my fear of failing was gone, there was also a lack of knowledge that appeared of how literacy has played a role in my life. So it was a struggle writing this paper as a whole, but I got help from reading “Sponsors of Literacy” by Brandt. Brandt’s article taught me that literacy was any piece of writing or reading that has taught me something. Once I knew what the paper was on, I was able to think of how literacy has shaped me to become the writer I am today. In this paper I liked that I had a chance to evaluate and see how literacy over the years has influenced my view of English as a whole. My favorite part of writing this paper was sharing what I have been through as a writer in school and out of school. I would say that the biggest influence that I had was my ninth grade speech and my grandma constantly correcting the way I pronunciate words.
With my first paper being a success I learned to not overthink writing as much as I’ve done in the past. Before taking this class, I would dread any form of writing. I would be stuck at a computer for numerous hours with writers block and blank pages on every paper I had done before I came to college. Your class taught me to get outside my comfort zone and explore writing in different forms. The group activities where we would be in a circle and say the first thing that pops into our head when we hear a word helped me as a writer. It taught me to trust my first instinct in writing. Whatever comes to mind when I read a prompt is what I begin to start off with in writing my papers. I learned that once I get started on a paper, it’s easy for me to finish it.
My multimodal piece was the one paper that was easiest for me to write this semester. It also happens to be the most creative piece that I wrote this semester. You gave us the free will to pick a piece to describe and show our writing. This was to be done through different identities that we take on in our everyday lives. My first thought was how I can change my identity through writing because all the writing I do is in school or so I thought. But once we did the in class activity of brainstorming all the writings we do in school, home, work and our community the paper became clearer to me. In the paper I talked about how I write as a student, daughter, friend and employee. For my multimodal piece I chose to draw an armadillo because they can go from free to safe mode quick and that’s how I do when I write. I hope that my multimodal piece is easy to follow and one of my best papers that you read so far.
Your class has challenged me as much as it has taught me. The peer editing workshops were challenging because they called for me to get out my comfort zone by telling someone else what I thought about their paper. It is safe to say that the workshops have challenged me in a good way though. Now when I write a paper I am not quick to just turn it in and get it over with it, I actually take my time and get someone else to read it. They give me pointers on what I should do to improve it and I find very helpful. If it wasn’t for your class and the workshops I have been placed in I would not have been challenged and changed the way I write. Also the questions that you would put up on the board for us to think about when editing were helpful and I know how to use them when I write any paper now.
What also challenged me were the pieces you chose for us to read for homework. They were very wordy and hard to follow. I was not use to reading such articles that had me thinking the whole time I read them. But at the end of the day, the challenge was good because it gave me a look into how college will be from here on out. I need to be preparing myself by reading more to become a thinker. I use to think vaguely on every homework assignment I was given to read in high school. I have learned to analyze readings by asking questions. Questions such as why do I agree with this reading? Why do I disagree with this reading? And how does this connect with something in the outside world?
I have developed into a thinker by taking this English class too. When I wrote my Rhetorical Analysis paper I was forced to think differently. The paper was a difficult one to write for me because I had to explain why I chose the piece to write on and how its persuasive techniques were used to connect with the audience. Normally, I do not include specific details in paper nor do I elaborate. But once I started to remember what I learned from class, I took them and began to use my thinking skills. The commercial I wrote about was a trident layers commercial and in my paper I talked about how it sends it message through the people, song and background that was chosen. In this paper I took your advice of elaborating more on how the people look and the actions they were doing. I hope I took a good route on this paper because I tried to be as specific as possible.
I also did a lot of thinking when it came to the writing into the day. Taking at least five minutes out of class to write about the subject you chose for the day was very helpful for me. It made me think and gave me a chance to be creative sometimes. My daybook became to be a place where I would place my thoughts and lose myself in my writing. The various topics that you would give us every class person helped me as a writer. Writing as soon as we would come into class put my mind into a mindset to get work done. What I enjoyed the most was re-reading what I wrote towards the beginning of the year and comparing them. What I noticed in my writing was that I started off taking the short cut in my daily writing but progressed to thinking about what I was going to say.
The forum posts we did this semester were also helpful and taught me how to be a critical thinker. In the two posts that I chose to talk about in my portfolio, they were the ones that stuck out to me for being my most creative. In these posts you would give us weekly I learned how to express myself through writing and I also learned how to argue my point of view.
Overall your class has taught me a lot about myself and English too. I would like to thank you for all your hard work and dedication that you put into teaching us what you thought was just lesson plans but they ended up changing my life too. The dedication that I saw in your eyes when you were teaching the class put me in a mindset that I had to take away a life lesson from here. All the work that I included in this portfolio has changed who I have become as a writer. I have started to not overthink when I write, take advice from people for advising, think creatively and also enjoy writing as a whole. Your class also taught me the meaning of literacy and rhetoric and other terms that will help me in the long run. It has been a learning experience for me that I did not expect to get from an English class.
Sincerely,
Maya Lipscomb
