Cover Letter
As I near the end of my time in ENC 1101, I am able to see a stark contrast in what my writing used to look like once upon a time, and what it is now. In completing multiple assignments catered towards introducing me to novel concepts, strategies, and ways of thinking, I have been equipped with the necessary tools to navigate any writing endeavor put forth before me. As someone who already enjoys writing, my eyes have been opened to a wide range of new learning outcomes posed by this course, and I have been able to identify how my skills and writing process have grown even more this semester.
My Unit 1 Project was an exploratory essay that delegated me with exploring questions I had about writing myths and assumptions which I sought to understand better. I most closely demonstrated reflective thinking strategies during the curation of my exploratory essay because I had to reflect on past educational experiences in order to formulate questions around the myths that came about in that time frame. My essay opens up with me looking back on a time where I was first taught that the personal pronoun “I” was not to be used in writing. I then went on to explain how this notion stuck with me for a while before I began to question its validity later on in life. As I progressed into my essay, I utilized metacognitive thinking strategies to analyze this myth and pose questions regarding how it has affected my own learning. In referencing numerous sources made available to me throughout the unit curriculum as well as other online mediums, I reveal how these citations served as an inspiration for my questions, and how they might have even sought to answer them. With this assignment, I not only exercised reflecting and metacognitive thinking, I learned about a new genre of writing which was totally different from the informative and argumentative pieces I was used to writing.
For my Unit 2 Project, I used effective invention, composing, and revision processes, as well as stylistic choices and content to curate a narrative. My narrative illustrated the evolution of my writing process from elementary all the way to college. Having just learned about multimodal strategies before starting on this narrative, I chose to utilize what I learned about these strategies as a way to demonstrate my stylistic choices. This pushed me to employ subheadings throughout my piece. The subheadings act as a guide through the timeline I created in my narrative by sharing my experiences. You may notice that each heading deploys the analogy of the life cycle of a flower, and I did this as a way to demonstrate the growth my writing experienced, as well as the obstacles I came to face along the way.
Using weekly assignments that helped me identify the sources I would be using, assisted me in formulating drafts for my narrative, aided in developing new ideas through free-writing, as well as guided me in developing strategies for writing. I was able to outline my essay and the sources I would be using, format ideas, create drafts, and revise my final product. The sources present throughout my narrative, further served to help me to distinguish the differences and similarities in my writing from my earlier days of writing and my present-day writing, not to mention, illustrate what my writing process looks like now. All of these aspects served as the foundation for my narrative, and are what allowed me to demonstrate effective invention, composing, and revision processes.
In the Annotating Marius assignment, I was tasked with annotating Richard Marius’s text, “Writing Drafts”. In this piece, Marius details things students should know about the type of writing they will encounter in college, which I was asked to identify and highlight. He also explains what students will need to do to succeed and I was asked to comment on these tips. While annotating, I was only able to approach the text in a way that was familiar to me at the time. I hadn't yet grasped the importance of the writing process, writing drafts, and other tips described by Marius. So, when it came down to jotting down my reactions to the tips Marius explains students should follow in order to succeed, and coming up with questions I’d like to ask him if I were a student in his class, some of my annotations consisted of me identifying the tips I believed could help me in my writing throughout the semester, and my questions were focused around what I would need to do in order to be able to incorporate his tips into my writing. With this annotating assignment, I was able to demonstrate what I've learned in ENC 1101 by identifying personal areas for growth in writing, thinking, and learning. Overall, this assignment was very helpful when it came to identifying how I would approach writing this semester, and it allowed me to fully gauge the importance of writing drafts. Now, I have added an essential step to my writing process that I know I will carry on with me forever.
The Need for Writing and Rhetoric assignment introduced me to rhetorical listening and acting, and I was asked a series of questions regarding these concepts. I was then instructed to provide a personal example that demonstrated how I understood them. This assignment allowed me to define and explain rhetoric which is a foundational concept of ENC 1101 and one of its course outcomes. Nevertheless, Professor Gregory noted later on that my response to the first question was left a bit unexplained because I hadn't really explained the ways in which hashtags, murals, marches, and opinion pieces are "ethical". By virtue of this, I reviewed the chapter and reanswered not only this question, but add a little more to the second and third response in hopes of receiving full credit and eliciting more concrete responses. Not only did I learn more about how rhetoric appears in everyday life outside of academic writing, I learned the importance of utilizing critical thinking as a way to approach questions with greater detail rather than just scratching the surface.
Finally, for the Genre Analysis of Literacy Narratives, I compared three literacy narratives, and analyzed what patterns in each genre's features I was able to identify. I chose to identify similarities in content and structure. For each feature, I compared two narratives and provided quotations and discussions that demonstrated what each narrative had in common in regard to the particular feature. I then included a couple sentences to explain my reasoning. This assignment is part of my portfolio because I believe it is one I benefited from the most this semester because it introduced me to a multitude of writing features that I feel will follow me long after I'm done with this course. I learned how to identify genre features and understand how they are able to enhance or build on one's story. While I only analyzed structure and content for the assignment, I was still able to explore sentence structure, diction, point of view, and a lot more features that can be used in writing. Referring back to this assignment, I was able to develop and outline my Unit 2 Project, and use my newfound understanding of subheadings, spatial multimodality, and so on to demonstrate awareness and use of strategic rhetorical and stylistic techniques.
In closing, I’ve learned a lot of meaningful information, and have adopted a multitude of strategies that I feel will stick with me for a very long time. While I’ve acknowledged only a handful of ENC 1101 learning outcomes met by the artifacts in this portfolio, I am positive that I have reached all of the outcomes at some point this semester. Still, there is always room for growth and I would like to work on my strategies for outlining as it is a crucial step in the writing process. I've learned a lot about outlining itself through studying the multitude of sources provided to me in this course as well as the assignments I've completed, and I think it would be beneficial for me to take the time to act on these suggestions and advice so that I can formulate an outlining process that is specific to me. As I move to ENC 1102 in the spring, and progress from then on, I plan to further apply the insights learned in this course by revisiting this portfolio and all my other assignments, as well as by looking back on the notes I’ve accumulated throughout the last few months. I think doing this will aid me in other projects that will be done in that course, and most likely in the other courses I will be taking. I believe that all of the knowledge I now hold about rhetoric, multimodality, annotation, metacognition, the writing process, peer feedback, etc., will greatly benefit me in any writing endeavor I find myself following.