Nicole Kheyfets
Professor Koning
English 115
2 December 2021
ePortfolio Project Statement
Part 1: Content Reflection
When I was in high school, all we wrote were 5-paragraph essays. This structure has been drilled so much into my mind that it felt daunting not to do that when I entered college. Throughout each exercise, blog, and progression essay, I learned more and more techniques to improve my essay writing skills.
As I wrote the Progression 1 Paper, I wasn’t aware of fixing grammatical mistakes and writing everything in one tense. I also wasn’t familiar with formatting paragraphs and how to have a smooth transition between each section. As I read through the different prompt choices, I decided to format my essay as my thoughts as I read through Claudia Rankine’s Citizen: An American Lyric. I chose this as I wanted to steer away from the 5-paragraph essay format and challenge myself with a new writing style. I also felt a bit daunted by the page requirement as I had never written an essay that was between four-to-six pages. As I had a lot of thoughts to write about, to my surprise, not exceeding the page length proved to be a challenge. I spent most of this paper building up to the line, “The worst injury is feeling you don’t belong so much to you-” (Rankine Section VII). I felt this line summarized what the book was about and the effects implicit bias and microaggressions have on others.
When I received feedback from my professor, a lot of the feedback revolved around grammar and transitions. I revisited this essay in early December with a brand new lens. I not only went back to fix the issues she stated but decided to change most things within this essay. I felt many sentences didn’t make sense or didn’t have the impact I wanted them to have. I also went in to smooth every topic sentence within the essay. I thought this essay showed my growth as a writer the most as I had more time to work on it than any other essay. Therefore, I decided to include this Progression into my ePortfolio.
The second Progression I decided to include was my Progression 2 essay. This essay was by far the most fun essay for me to write. As you could probably tell from my ePortfolio, I love to crochet and was super excited when I read the prompt for this essay. I knew right away that I wanted to talk about how crochet is the ultimate form of art. At first, I wanted to discuss why crochet is better than knitting. As someone who does both, I noticed many people don’t know the difference between the two. However, after further consideration, I decided to keep the focus just on crochet, as in my opinion, I knew I had more to talk about when it came to crochet than knit. Writing this essay was also easy, if not more straightforward, to write than the first Progression essay since I already understood the subject.
When it came to grammar, punctuation, transitions, and paragraph formatting, I considered the feedback given to me by my professor in the first Progression paper. I let go of the 5-paragraph format and opted to start a new paragraph after every new idea. For example, one of my criteria in my thesis was that art starts new trends. I knew I wanted to talk about the rise of celebrities, such as Harry Styles or Taylor Swift, wearing crochet pieces and those becoming trends within the crochet world. Therefore, I split this section into two paragraphs, rather than one long one, so it’s easier for my audience to read it easily. I used this technique throughout this essay. I wrote each line slowly, carefully observing for any possible grammatical and punctuation errors. I also proofread the paper before submitting it to make sure I made as minor errors as possible.
As stated earlier, this Progression was my favorite one to write. Therefore, I decided to include this paper because it shows my enthusiasm and love for this topic. Also, because my ePortfolio has a lot of crochet themes, I felt this essay would fit nicely.
I wrote the exercise and blogs more quickly than the Progression papers. I felt these writings were less formal and shorter in content. As I put together my ePortfolio, I went back to each exercise and blog I included and checked for grammar, transition, and punctuation mistakes. I read them aloud, changed sentences that didn’t make sense, and worked on my transition sentences. Because of this, I believe I had become better at grammar, punctuation, and paragraph spacing. I have become better at transitional sentences but still feel I need more practice. Overall, I will continue to learn and grow by writing more and more in the future!
Part 2: Design Reflection
When I first started this course, I felt somewhat overwhelmed. I had never seen, nor created, an ePortfolio before. My biggest concern was I would make something that I wasn’t proud of. Therefore, I decided to attend different design labs to build upon the theme and structure of my portfolio. Overall, my ePortfolio demonstrates my growth as both a writer and a person throughout the semester.
When I first began designing my portfolio, I wasn’t sure what overall theme I wanted. After further consideration, I decided I wanted each page of my ePortfolio to have an individual style. I felt this represented me as a person, as I could show all aspects of my interests. I knew I wanted the home page to demonstrate my love of crochet, so I incorporated a picture of a ball of yarn and a crochet hook. The image also has some purple, which is a color I have recently fallen in love with. Alongside this, I created tabs at the top of the menu bar on this page. I decided that the “About Me,” “Outside The Classroom,” and “Goals And Outcomes” pages belonged within the home tab, as they describe who I am as a person. As these pages don’t have academic content, I decided to have the themes represent my interests. For example, the “About Me” page had a Halloween/Fall theme as that’s my favorite season and holiday. The “Outside The Classroom” page has a Harry Potter theme as I love the movies. Fun fact: The banner of this page has an image of Ravenclaw colors as my Hogwarts house is Ravenclaw!
Next to the home page is the exercise page. I decided to place this after the home page as the writings were relatively short and less formal. I knew I wanted to have an image that played with the literal definition of “exercise.” At first, I had a picture of a cartoon man doing a stretch with a dark blue background. However, I wanted to add more pizzazz to this page and put a gif instead. I found a gif of a tomato running and felt it represented how I felt and looked like when I ran in PE during high school. I love the peach-colored background more than the dark blue and changed this entire page to a light peach color. Each exercise page has a theme that represents the exercise’s content. For example, the progression 1 exercise is about how I received negative comments about becoming a math teacher. The rain in the gif depicts negative comments, and the girl under the umbrella symbolizes me not listening to said comments.
I decided to put the blog tab between the exercise and major works tab. I chose this because I felt the blog tab’s contents were more formal than the exercise, yet shorter than the major works. As usual, each page has a theme that centers on the overall idea of the written content. For example, I felt the content was serious on the “Citizen Blog #1” page; therefore, I decided I didn’t want to use any imagery or bright colors. I opted for a dark red banner and left the bottom white. I decided to have a watercolor theme for the “What Does Art Do Blog Entry” page as watercolor is a well-known form of art. Also, watercolor is light enough to use as the background for my text, so my audience can read the blog easily. I wanted to utilize a butterfly image on the banner of the third blog, "Becoming Me" Text Set, because I saw butterflies as a symbol of growth from a tiny caterpillar to a cocoon to a beautiful butterfly. The image just so happens to have purple, so I used it as a background for my text.
At the end of my ePortfolio is the major works tab. I decided to incorporate the personal reading and writing assignment and the progression 1 and 2 essays into this tab. I made this decision as these papers felt encompassed my growth throughout this semester. I also put them in order from when I finished writing them. The last page of my ePortfolio is this project statement. I felt this should be the last element of my portfolio because once the viewer reads through my work, they can understand why I created this portfolio.
Overall, constructing an ePortfolio is a creative way to showcase essays and other works. As I changed as a person, the portfolio changed with me. I have revised the images and writings countless times to produce the best product possible. I have learned new things, such as creating gifs to make this portfolio as easy to use as possible. Creating my ePortfolio has been a fantastic adventure that has only just begun. I can’t wait for this portfolio to continue growing alongside me. I hope you, dear reader, stick around for that journey.
Works Cited
Rankine, Claudia. Citizen: An American Lyric. Graywolf Press, 2014.