These past two months have given me the opportunity to understand and critique pieces of literature that I had never read before and, more importantly, evaluate both my skills in writing and my understanding of myself as a whole. Portfolio checkpoint 1 encompasses both standards 2 and 6, which I have shown in two writing pieces that I have incorporated in my portfolio so far. I understand that I have room for improvement, and I am looking forward to seeing how I continue to grow over these upcoming months.
Achieving mastery in standard 2 means that I am able to write an effective, critical nonfiction piece. Evidence of such mastery can be demonstrated especially in my Cinderella critical theory essay. Even prior to editing my essay, I demonstrated my ability to use effective words to connect or transition between ideas, such as "clearly" and "however". In addition, I also indicated my mastery in utilizing phrases such as "in addition..." and "as demonstrated..." in order to enhance my writing (2B, 6A). However, I realized that I lacked a lot of understanding on how to write an effective critical theory essay after I had already handed my essay in, even though I had peer-reviewed my draft with my friends and had made edits to that draft. After receiving a "developing" grade on that assignment, I had a conference with Mrs. Fusaro, where I realized that I needed to demonstrate the significance, consequence, or reason behind the elements that I wrote about in my essay and cite my sources correctly by adding citations only at the end of a sentence. Later, I revised the first paragraph of my essay and and rewrote the second to clear the areas that I did not have a strong grasp on prior (2A).
In my revised Cinderella essay, I explicitly state my thesis statement in the first paragraph when I argue that Cinderella stories can both undermine and support feminist beliefs by incorporating female stereotypes in their writing (2C, 2F). Evident by my claim, I identified and applied feminist critical theory as a lens to illustrate socio-political consciousness in my writing. I cited direct quotes from the works that I used in the Cinderella essay and used phrases such as “the story describes” in order to introduce them . Additionally, I used parentheses, story titles, and page numbers to correctly cite these sources and give credit to the author, and placed said citations only at the end of sentences (2D). I also used appropriate, unit-specific words in my Cinderella essay to demonstrate my usage and range of content-specific vocabulary. For example, I used words like “dichotomic” to demonstrate the way Catskin was treated when she was in her catskin as opposed to her expensive dress and “reinforce” to express how Lin Lan indirectly supports patriarchal standards (2E, 6D). After having a conference with Mrs. Fusaro, I understood that I needed to explain the significance, consequence, or reason behind the choices made when writing the Cinderella variations in order to fully convey my ideas. I did so in my revised version of my essay: in my first paragraph, for example, I state that the effect of Lin Lan attributing positive and negative characteristics to its beautiful and ugly characters respectively is that it perpetuates female stereotypes, especially through its target audience: children. After understanding and incorporating these two points in my Cinderella essay, I can now say that I have successfully applied critical theory as a lens in order to illustrate socio-political consciousness in my writing (2H, 2I). Additionally, my conclusion sentences in both paragraphs of my Cinderella essay serve to both make a prediction and extend my claim. In the conclusion of my first paragraph in my Cinderella essay, I state how perpetuating female stereotypes in fairy tales will influence what a child, the main target audience of said fairy tales, believes. In the conclusion of my second paragraph, I indicate how Catskin essentially sends a pro-feminist message because it satirizes . Finally, in both cases I do not use “This is why...” or “This demonstrates...” in order to begin these conclusions (2G). Finally, by citing Maria Tatar’s The Classic Fairy Tales using MLA format at the end of my Cinderella essay, I demonstrated that I can effectively attribute research and reference (6E).
Evidence of mastery in three standards in standard 6 can be demonstrated in my first blog. In my blog I used simple sentences such as “ I am looking forward to having more of these opportunities later on in the year”, compound sentences such as “Of course, just when I realized I had such a flawed mentality and had slowly started to change it, the pandemic hit”, and complex sentences such as “When in-person learning started again, I immediately got to work on my goal and after realizing how happy I feel after trying or meeting something/someone new, I am further motivated to achieve my goal" (6B). I have also proven, through my blog, that I keep my usage of commas, semicolons, and periods appropriate in order to prevent confusing readers. This sentence, for example, demonstrates how I used commas to order my sentences: "So while sometimes I feel that my goal will be worth it in the end, other times I feel that if I get too caught up with it, I’ll procrastinate or even neglect my homework, projects, and college applications" (6C).
My greatest hurdle towards achieving mastery was primarily a lack of interest in some of the works that I wrote. For example, I struggled with motivation when reading Cinderella variations for my fairy tale essay because most of the variations I read were hackneyed. In nearly all Cinderella variations, the antagonist is either Cinderella's step-relatives, such as in Brothers Grimm Cinderella, or biological father, such as in Charles Perrault's Donkeyskin. Regardless, in both cases, the antagonists end up abusing Cinderella in some way, ending with Cinderella leaving her relatives and marrying into royalty. Some Cinderella plots even seemed nonsensical to me: Catskin features a prince who falls ill with "lovesickness", which can only be alleviated if the Cinderella figure Catskin accepts his marriage proposal. In contrast to the Cinderella project, I loved writing my blog; I felt that I was able to let loose and express my uncertainties about the future through that piece. Additionally, I loved viewing some of my classmates' blogs afterwards. One blog that I viewed was from a student who wanted to be better at writing; their eloquent language pushed me to improve in some areas of my life that I have always wanted to do so in, such as drawing figures and playing the piano. In conclusion, I understand that there will be times where I do not enjoy writing a certain piece, but I have accepted that it is part of the learning process. This period has also taught me a lot about time management; spreading out my workload for assignments with a distant due date is definitely more preferable than cramming it in the few days prior to that date. After spending time on this portfolio piece, I understand that I would not have completed it in time had the due date not been extended. Going forward, I hope to take both of these lessons learned in order to further enhance my writing in the future.