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Zahir Whitfield

Ms. Ingram

UWRT-1101


Portfolio Essay


The Subject Is Writing stated, If you havent already noticed, college is all
about adjustment. The biggest and most obvious change (which may be the one
youre going through right now) is the move from high school to college. Everyone
warned you that expectations in college would be different, but no one could tell you
exactly how. Now youre trying to figure it out for yourself. This is very true, when I
walked into Universal Writing & Inquiry 1101 (UWRT 1101) the first day it was very
different. UWRT 1101 is my first course where a final e-portfolio was required. The
e-portfolio consists of this essay, Literacy Narrative, Portrait of a Writer Essay, and
an Interactive blog. I organized these tabs in chronological order because as the
reader goes through they can see how I grew during assignments. The reader can
also see how I grew from one assignment to the next. I put the blog post as the last
tab because it is the least formal. The midterm is the only formal assignment in my
Interactive Blog When first constructing my e-portfolio the page theme was black
and red. I later changed this theme to a white and blue to make the portfolio more
user friendly. It now looks more calm and professional now. The modes I tried to
communicate through my website were linguistic, visual, and spatial. Overall the
portfolio was easy to construct and edit. I know some of my peers struggled with
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making there portfolios. I am happy that I am more computer savvy, it made this
experience much more enjoyable.
Coming in the classroom, I realized that this class would be nothing like high
school classes. As stated in The Subject is Writing, its not a sit-down-and-shut-up
class. No chairs and desks set up in rows nor did we have assigned seats. I did not
have any supplies besides my laptop. It was a pleasure to find out I could take all my
notes on my computer because I am a speedy on the keyboard. My handwriting is
not up to par so I bet you could imagine how much stress this relieved me of. I can
now use my resources to help with class. In high school the teachers did not allow us
to use electronics in class. In previous classes I had to rely on the teacher to answer
questions. I knew in college it might not be as many opportunities to ask questions.
In UWRT if I have question in class I can look it up instantly. I was taking a liking to
the rules of this class.

Impact on My Knowledge

I was nervous about doing this paper when I first saw examples of previous
classes papers. Select students had up to 12 pages! At the beginning of this course
the thought of having to be graded against someone who is writing a 12-page paper
would be very difficult. In high school, the most I wrote was a 6-page paper and we
had all year to complete this. The 6-page paper took me a long time when it came to
things such as planning and editing. The fact they had so many pages for their Final
Portfolio Essay discouraged me before I even knew what their approach was on
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writing this paper. I could feel the sweat drip down my back and now my mind was
rambling.
Questions that came across my mind were; Am I capable of writing that
many pages? What am I going to write about? I was so lost until I was given a
semester syllabus. This was like the key to the treasure box. The syllabus turned out
to be my best friend throughout the course. This helped me manage time
considering I had assignments due for two other classes. More time was spent
looking over the syllabus than studying. I learned in an article in which I forgot the
name and could not find on the class website that instructors are not looking for
perfection; they are looking for writers who are insightful, conscientious, and
engaged in learning. It relieved much tension. I knew all 3 of these things were
accomplishable. I could now visualize how I could form this final Portfolio Essay.
Theyre many assignments, workshops, and papers to choose from. So much content
covered over a little course of time. It actually turns out that there is more than
enough to write about. I used key concepts from the class as objectives for
achievement and improvements. Outside of this class some wildcards I grew from
were the memoir in my magazine class and RRL #1. The memoir in magazine helped
me with providing visual details. RRL #1 introduced me to how expressive I can be
in UWRT 1101.

Literacy Narrative

For my whole life as a student when I heard the word literacy I thought
either English class or the Literacy Novel we used in class. I also thought the
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definition of literacy was to be able to read and write. In class we defined literacy as
being able to evaluate and understand reading and writing. I remember Ms. Ingram
putting the guidelines up on the projector and saying, You get to pick your own
topic for this assignment. In my mind I was contemplating if you were serious or
not. In The Subject is Writing, Donald McAndrew said, Students told me the
teacher controlled the topic. This is exactly how my high school classes were
When I found out this was serious I felt myself smile inside. I cannot recall a time
where I was able to write about anything of my choice. The only guideline was to
make sure it related to literacy. This is when I thought; I have to write about my
previous English class? Again, I had the wrong answer. We were taught that there
are multiple types of literacy such as musical, transitional, social, functional,
cultural, media, computer, scientific, and technology. This was good and bad. I was
appreciative of all the things I could write about but I did not know which literacy to
choose.
The next day in class I thought about what is something interesting I could
write about. Then when we started talking about high school it hit me. I could talk
about my high school closing down and having to transfer to a new school. This was
perfect to write about because I remembered every step every inch of this
transition. My first draft consisted of a broad overview of literacy in high school
along with my transition. My final draft told of the transition only and contained
deeper detail and more meaning. This also was more emotional and I really tried to
engage the reader of my situation and how I felt. I wanted the reader to have just as
good as visual and understanding than I had. I loved telling this story because it
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parallels with a quote the past-bad memories, fact the present with faith and
confidence, prepare for your future and appreciate those who are always there for
you and willing to help you when you are in bad times or even good times. As
stated in my Literacy narrative I displayed transitional literacy with how I handled
my school being shut down.

Portrait of a Writer

The Portrait of a Writer assignment was a lot more difficult than the Literacy
Narrative. This assignment was not a free write; we were given questions to answer.
Since I came into UWRT 1101 with a high school mindset I thought, oh wow this will
be easy all I have to do is answer these questions. I was in for a rude awakening when
Ms. Ingram said, Answer these questions without answering the question. While
you were going over all parts of the assignment I was still stuck on Answer these
questions without answering the question. How was I supposed to do this?
It is hard to explain how I did it, but I managed to complete the assignment as
instructed. I answered the questions without answering them blatantly. Instead of
directly answering the question I more so gave examples of how I felt or experiences
I have had. In college I have things to look forward to after writing. I know after we
write a major assignment we will do peer reviews in small groups. This drives me to write a
great copy the first time because when my peers review it I want them to view my work as
quality work. We also read some of our minor assignments out loud to the whole class. This
makes me work harder as a writer without even noticing. I want my assignment to sound like
Grade A work when I read it aloud. The first time I heard we would have peer review in class
I made sure it was quality. I edited it twice and had a tutor from study hall to review the paper.
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Reading aloud to the whole class helped me recognize some repetitive errors I make. These are
errors I didnt notice even after proofreading the essay. This is from my essay and as you
can see, it doesnt seem like a question and answer response. Although I did struggle
with this and it did take a lot of time, I cant take all the credit for the success of this
essay. I got two amazing reviews, which helped me improve my essay. One review
was from a peer named Andrea and the other was from you. I put both of these
reviews in my e-portfolio because they were so much help when it came to
constructing my final draft.

Blog Post & Midterm
The blog post and midterm were enjoyable to do. The whole blog idea was
cool because we could submit the assignments online. I would always look forward
to seeing what comments people might put on my blog post and for the most part
they were always positive. The first blog post will always be one I remember. You
told us to Ask 10 questions we had about UWRT 1101. Then you said, By the end
of the course you should be able to answer all of these. I am looking at the blog post
as I am typing and just as you said I could now answer all these questions and even
elaborate on them. The Blog post let me express myself in this classroom and talk
about things a lot of people might have not of known. The Midterm involved a lot of
work and we, as a class, were given early notice on it. I did not stress over the
midterm like some of my classmates because I started working on it a week before it
was due. I can remember people asking me, Are you having trouble coming up with
content for the midterm. I would tell them no and the reason was because I gave
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myself enough time to go back and add on more information if needed. I feel this is
when the key concept forms the syllabus responsibility for your own learning came
into factor. I planned early because I knew how much work I had to do and what
questions I had to answer. This also hits on the key concept intellectual growth and
maturity. I have matured from high school to college because in high school I would
do assignments the day of and get a good grade. As you can see on the first page of
my e-portfolio, the assignment I rushed to do did not receive a good grade and that
was a learning experience.

My Grade
After reviewing my portfolio and the work and revisions I have done this
semester, I believe the grade I deserve is an A. Starting off this class I am not afraid
to admit that when it came to writing I was close-minded. I did not like to express
my feelings and I did not know how to give juicy details. I have grown so much from
then. I learned that when I express my feelings people really engage in my paper.
This was a big part of me getting out of my comfort zone. I have revised my papers
multiple times and I have revised others papers multiple times. I have had open ears
from the start of UWRT 1101 and the criticism has improved my writing
substantially. McAndrews from The Subject Is Writing said Students found response
from peers equally valuable, stating that it was beneficial to have your peers read
and criticize your paper because writers are simply too involved to realize an error
or another route to take This is true and I can connect with it. I used many quotes
from this book because they are easily relatable. At the midterm I received the grade
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of a high B, which was disappointing. When I talked to you about it you said if I
revised my papers then that could be key to getting an A in this course. I followed
your instructions and revised the papers and even had family members look over
them. This course helped me gain interest in writing and now that I have went from
not wanting to write to be confident about my writing, I am ready to use the skills
and techniques I have persevered on in my next writing class.