Davis Portfolio

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Bryclyn Alcorn

2001 N Perkins,
Stillwater, OK, 74075

Portfolio Committee
Northern Oklahoma College
615 North Monroe,

6 December 2023

Dear Mrs. Davis,


My parents and family taught me how to speak and they also used to attempt to teach me how to
read and write and write my name. I first began learning how to write in kindergarten when I
could recognize letters and three letter words. By this time I could read and write my name. In
first grade I was taught by my teacher to read all books. We started out reading these books
about a dog named Biscuit. First grade was the year I learned to read. Third grade was when I
learned cursive. I had been making a lot of progress in my early years until I got to sixth grade.
My teacher read to us and let us watch movies every day during English class. We did nothing
else. After missing out on a year of education I felt that I didn’t know anything. My middle
school teacher was the same for both years and although he taught well, his way of teaching did
not correlate to my way of learning. I still did not know much but my writing had definitely
improved. All four years of high school I had the same teacher. She was a great teacher and gave
me a great structured base for my writing. I had a pretty good foundation and since I have been
in college I believe I have just gotten better. My composition teachers have both provided me
with incredible feedback that has helped me entirely.
When I get a writing prompt the first thing I do is look over everything, and pick my topic. After
I pick out my topic I like to just write down all of my ideas, it is in no particular order and is far
from an outline. I write down everything I can think of in that moment that I want to touch on
and just keep entering until my mind is blank. After I come up with Ideas I try to spend a couple
of days preparing research that will backup my ideas. Once I am done with that process I like to
just sit down whenever I have the time and just write. I write a bunch of random sentences, a
bunch of long paragraphs, and a bunch of stuff that doesn’t make sense. Once I have all of this
writing down I use it as my outlined structure which I know is a little backwards. I then use this
structure and copy and paste it to another doc. I update this new doc and start to move stuff
around until it is in a good order for the essay or letter. I move stuff around and edit until I think
it makes sense and flows well. This is chaotic but that is my order.
If I had a toolbox I would definitely include lots of extra documents because in my writing I love
to copy and paste to new ones so I don’t have to edit my work and can always go back to read
what I had started with. I would also like to have a citation generator because I wouldn’t be able
to do all of my citations flawlessly. Another thing I would like to have would be an online library
due to all of the sources it provides for my papers.
This collection of Artifacts I have retrieved include pieces from my first and second semester of
my freshman year along with this semester as well. The First Artifact included my essay written
in composition II about being a good neighbor. I picked this essay in particular because of it
Bryclyn Alcorn
2001 N Perkins,
Stillwater, OK, 74075

Portfolio Committee
Northern Oklahoma College
615 North Monroe,

6 December 2023
being my best written one this semester. It is light and fun but also personal and professional. I
enjoyed writing it and am able to identify my strengths and weaknesses within it making it easy
to compare to my other artifacts. I picked this piece to be first because it is one of my most
recent pieces of writing. My next artifact is one of my last pieces of writing I did in Composition
I. I really enjoyed this essay and it taught me a lot about digging deeper into writing poems and
music being poetry. It taught me that some of my favorite artists are writing in their everyday
lives and my general education classes won’t be the end of my writing. I picked this as my
second piece of writing because it was fun, interesting, but also I believe it was one of my better
written pieces. My third artifact is another compositionI piece. I wrote this because it forced me
to identify what I had progressed on through the semester and what I still needed to work on. I
like that this made me force myself to identify my strengths. It is easier to identify you
weaknesses so recognizing my strengths really made a difference to me and my writing. I picked
this piece of writing to hold myself true through my portfolio and make a positive difference in
my artifacts. My last artifact is one I wrote in my general psychology class. I wrote this piece for
an assignment and chose to include it in my artifacts because I put a lot of research, time, and
work into this essay and felt it was under-appreciated since it was just a final. I like this essay
and feel as though I did a good job in writing it so I included it. These artifacts mean a lot to me
because not only have I shown progression in my writing, I think that these are all great pieces
and I like to go back and read my work. This project has allowed me to have to go back in and
read all of my old work to decide which is my best and that really did help me realize that some
of my writing is writing to be proud of.
My strengths when it comes to writing is that I make my writing sound like I am talking, I don’t
try to make it too out of touch but instead lean for more of a personal point of view unless
prompted not to. I also am able to cite better now after this year. Sometimes I will have good
transitions and other times I will not; leading me to my next topic, my weaknesses. My
weaknesses include having grammatical errors, struggling with transitions occasionally, and also
not having a structure to my writing. I think that if I structured out my papers a little bit better I
would have better written essays. I can only progress in my writing.
My next steps in writing will definitely be other classes. I am getting my bachelors so all of my
other classes will definitely include some type of writing somewhere. I am also majoring in
education so I foresee a lot of writing in my future. I feel prepared as I endeavor on these next
adventures due to what I have learned in not only this class but my last composition as well. I
think that I have been given every tool imaginable especially in this class and if I utilize the
things I have been given and taught there is no reason as to why I should not be prepared for my
future endeavors. I feel as though this class has set me up for success and the things that I have
Bryclyn Alcorn
2001 N Perkins,
Stillwater, OK, 74075

Portfolio Committee
Northern Oklahoma College
615 North Monroe,

6 December 2023
learned I will carry on for a lifetime whether I realize or not. I feel my writing has gotten better
in just this short year and as long as I continue on with what I have learned I do not see it getting
worse any time soon.
After writing this reflection I feel as though writing is a lot more important to me than I thought.
I am proud of my writing, open to change, and eager to continue. I feel as though my artifacts
represent me as a writer pretty well and do a good job showcasing my work. I am not the best
writer but I do feel as though I have something to be proud of. Thank you for all that you have
done and the knowledge you have given me.
Thank you for your time,
Bryclyln Alcorn

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