Final Portfolio/Semester Reflection

1. My writing process from the beginning of the semester to the end of the semester has

stayed consistent in some ways and has drastically changed in other ways. One way that I

have written for a while is through bullet points. On most, if not all, of my assignments

previously I start with the basic requirements for that assignment. Under each of these

bullet points I then start to outline the important topics that I want to talk about. This

allows me to organize my thoughts and write down important information that comes to

my mind without forgetting what I want to talk about. I continue to do this on most

assignments as it has worked for me. One area in which I have changed my writing

process is through editing. When we did peer reviews in this class I realized the

importance that editing has on an assignment because that assignment allowed me to

discover errors and mistakes that I would have missed otherwise. This is a new skill

which means I have not done it for every assignment but I have been working it into my

bigger assignments. It does take me longer to complete these assignments because it has

to go through the process of editing but it has provided me with fewer errors and

organizational mistakes, which is how I have evolved my writing process.

2. For this comparison, I wanted to use two similar assignments but one was written

towards the beginning of the semester and the other more recently. The two documents I

chose to compare were the Student Learning Outcome: Organizational Design and the

Student Learning Outcome: Written Communication and Content Development. The first

SLO was written in January and the second was written in April. One of the key parts that

I have noticed has changed when it comes to my sentence structure is the detail which I

can go into now. For example, in my first SLO, I stated that “The discussion posts helped
 me start to understand what a portfolio looks like for a professional”. This sentence

provided a board overview without diving into more specific details. In comparison, in

my most recent SLO, I stated, “I was able to understand how genre conventions impact

writing through the creation of my presentation and my proposal”. I have now utilized the

different sections of the SLO and incorporated them into my reasonings and explanations

of my learning. I have also changed multimodally because I have elevated how I

complete these videos. My first video about my portfolio was not scripted which made it

more natural but also made the tone unprofessional. Now my videos are scripted but are

narrated to give it that familiarity while being professional.

3. When I first entered this class my one main fear was the amount of freedom that this

course had. In my Portfolio Statement of Goals and Choices + Submission assignment, I

stated that I liked “having step-by-step instructions so that I can check off what I need to

have in my assignments and ensure I am fully completing the assignment”. This fear of

mine stemmed from my traditional way of getting my work done. Typically, when I start

an assignment I look at all the requirements and make a bullet-point list of what I need to

include, and then start writing from there. I feared that I wouldn’t be able to do this

especially when it came to my proposal. On most of my assignments, I was actually able

to complete them the way I like to by checking off each requirement, but there were times

when there was a lot of freedom and I surprised myself. Initially, I was overwhelmed by

the number of choices I had to make but this helped me develop into the student I am at

the end of the course. I was able to develop my creativity, which is not something that I

have had to use a lot of when it comes to other courses. I especially have seen this skill

develop when it came to my portfolio. I believe that I was able to do this because I started
 to focus on the needs, values, and attitudes of the audience at hand. Through my

assignments, I recognized who I was writing to, for, or about and was able to use this as a

guideline rather than specific steps. I have learned that I am capable of having freedom

when it comes to assignments and that fear has gone away.

4. The last two assignments were my written proposal and my PowerPoint video. Overall I

am proud of the work that I did during both of those assignments. I had previously done

other proposals in different English classes during college. However, those proposals

focused only on secondary research. I liked that this proposal highlighted the importance

of primary research. The primary research that I was able to conduct was taking pictures

of the park for evidence of waste and showing areas of the park. It also included talking

to one individual in the park about their experience. If I had more time I would have liked

to film a formal video with this interviewee. The conversation that I did have with this

individual was very informative and useful for both my proposal and the video, but I

think having a video of this conversation would have elevated my PowerPoint video

greatly. I was able to provide a picture that helped to engage the viewers, but a video

interview could have provided the emotion that my video could be lacking. That is the

main area that I would change about the past two assignments, but I am happy with the

work that I produced.

5. Throughout this semester, my portfolio has gone through major shifts that reflect my own

learning and evolving throughout the course. Originally I wanted my portfolio to be plain

and simple and creative. During my portfolio statement assignment, I stated “I believe

that this audience is looking at the portfolio from multiple angles. I think that they will be

looking and organization to see how easy the portfolio is to navigate, they will be looking
at design to see effort and creativity, and they will be looking at the content included to

see the development through the course”. I originally started out with a portfolio that

incorporated both creativity and easy navigation. However, because of technological

challenges, I had to switch my platform. I was then given options to choose from and

chose the simplistic one, Canva. Once I began to create my portfolio on Canva I realized

that this was not going to work for me because I was so focused on my audience

navigating my portfolio that I had forgotten the importance of design and creativity. Once

I recognized that this is just as important I was able to combine the two and have the

portfolio that I have now. In trying to have a less confusing portfolio I made it more

confusing because it was too simple. I then had to choose a new platform which is the

one I am using today, Weebly. I changed from wanting to use a simple for that way I

wouldn’t have to worry about the technology of it all to wanting to have one that was

more complex to better suit my viewers. I realized the importance that having colors,

designs, and pictures on my portfolio. This made my portfolio come alive and allowed

me to showcase my growth better than having a standard portfolio which was boring

which was what I originally thought I wanted. In my original statement, I said “ I wanted

to have a portfolio that was simplistic but still could show personality, and I believe this

template helps do that. For the secondary audience, I wanted to be able to include

different sections on the homepage so that the instructor could easily access the different

sections that would provide evidence of development throughout the course. For the

tertiary audience, I wanted there to be creative choices like pictures and videos that

highlighted different aspects of myself and the course, which I have yet to do but will be

doing.” I realized that I had said this but went in an entirely different direction. I think
that was because I was concerned that using certain platforms would be too difficult for

me to use rather than how it would impact the final product. Once I ran into trouble with

the organization I then realized that I needed to follow the original plan that I had which

was to combine the two; function and creativity. I’m happy that in the end, I was able to

get there, but it did take trial and error which just goes to show how much I have

developed throughout this course.