Madalyne Beavers
November 29th, 2018
1210 13th Ave N
Fargo ND, 58102
Assessment Committee, English 325
North Dakota State University
1340 Administrative Ave.
Fargo, ND 58102
Dear Instructors,
In this final portfolio, I have compiled all of my writing from this past semester. I have collected the different projects from this semester to highlight the versatility of my writing. The main projects I have included are multiple discussion board posts along with responses to my peer’s work, a formal proposal, an annotated bibliography, a rationale memo, campaign ad, literature review, IMRaD along with an abstract, and lastly a patient letter. These projects are all aimed at different audiences meaning they are all written in their own unique ways. Writing these pieces has given me the opportunity to strengthen my writing and given me more experience in writing multiple genres.
Over the past semester, my writing has grown immensely from these projects. I was not familiar with many of the assignments that were given this term, making this a learning experience. Being given these new tasks widened my knowledge on different types of writing. This also brought me new research methods. While searching for topics to write about I had to consider the amount of information available to researchers. Having projects with so many steps and information needed, created some limitations on what topics I could cover. I had to take into account if I could create a whole unit’s worth of information from one topic which posed a unique challenge that changed my understanding of research. From this helped me develop more in-depth research methods and made me utilize data bases and Google Scholar more heavily than papers previously have.
To fulfill the general education outcome, I had to learn “To communicate effectively in a variety of genres for various audiences and situation”. I believe I have achieved this. I was challenged this semester with many different types of papers to tackle, all hailing from different genres of writing. I was expected to write papers geared towards professionals as well as family members which are very different styles of writing. By having to write in such different situations, made me learn new ways to effectively and appropriately communicate. The next requirement I fulfilled is the ability to integrate knowledge and ideas in a coherent and meaningful manner. In all of the projects this semester I was expected to compile information from multiple sources. I had to take this information and chose what parts were the most important to highlight and what parts could be left out. This made me able to integrate knowledge from multiple sources and display it in an appropriate manner, meeting the general education requirement. The last outcome I meet was the departmental outcome. This entails that, "students will learn to manage sophisticated writing and research projects, planning, documenting, completing, and assessing work on time and within the constraints of the project". I have met this outcome by completing all the projects assigned in class. By completing these projects, I have managed sophisticated tasks that have helped me meet the general education requirement.
During the course, I also learned how to successfully revise my work. Being in an online class doesn't give a writer many options for feedback. This made me become my own critic. The most important thing I learned in this process was to look over your work multiple times. I consistently read my papers over three times. Once in my head, the second out loud, and third to triple check for any errors. This process ensured that I had little to no errors in my work and that I submitted my best papers. I never have had a revision process before this class and now I have a sound system that will benefit me in the future.
Sincerely,
Madalyne Beavers
Madalyne Beavers
November 29th, 2018
1210 13th Ave N
Fargo ND, 58102