As the fall semester 2018 is coming to an end I would like to take some time and reflect on my experience in my  Freshman Inquiry Writing Seminar (FIQWS). Looking back on this class, I have realized how much I have changed as a writer. In this portfolio, I will show the progress that I have made from the beginning of the semester up until now by reflecting on the learning outcomes of this course.     

       During my journey in FIQWS, I got to explore and analyze a variety of genres and rhetorical situations in my own writing as well as in the writing of others. The first assignment for the composition class (The Literacy Narrative) is where I fulfilled this task more effectively. In this assignment I got to analyze two different pictures and their genres. On one hand, there was “The Problem We All Live With” which fell into the genre of nonfiction and empowerment. On the other hand there was, “Trying to Trash Betsy DeVos” which was a satire. Through the analysis of the two pictures I came to the conclusion that two different rhetorical situations led to the creation of those two pieces of art; because the audience, rhetor, and purpose of the two pieces of art were different, my interpretation of one was more critical since it was not directed for an audience of my race and background. After this assignment, I started to consider the rhetorical situation of each one of my writings before approaching the topic. The two piece of art which I analyzed in my Literacy Narrative can be found below.

         As the fall semester progressed, I developed strategies for reading, drafting, revising, and editing. One of the things that helped me become a better reader was the reading assignments for the content session. Some of the habits that I developed while reading were highlighting and annotating the text.This saved me a lot of time because if I wanted to review the readings I only had to look at my annotations and highlighted text to refresh my mind. My skills on drafting, revising, and editing developed through the peer review sessions that we had with the purpose of work shopping our papers. One specific workshop that helped me a lot was the one for the Literacy Narrative; With the help of one of my peers, I edited and revised a draft of my Literacy Narrative which allowed for my final outcome to be well structured and cohesive. In the two pictures below you will find my peer reviewed draft for one of my essays and my annotated reading for one of the lectures.

        My citations had a big transformation from my first papers to the last one. Before practicing how to write citations in class, my citations were not accurate because they were not in the right format. One big mistake that I made in the works cited page of my Exploratory Paper was citing them as pdf when in reality I found them in a website. Although it was not entirely my fault since the citation was provided for us in class, I should have paid more attention to what I was incorporating in my paper. My citation skills showed an improvement in the Critical Research Paper. Since I knew the MLA format, I was able to check my citations for mistakes even if they came from a trusted source like EBSCO.

        My first encounter with rhetorical terms was in the Literacy Narrative; that is when I recognized the different situations and possibilities. However, the first time that I got to incorporate the rhetorical situation in my own writing was in the Exploratory Essay. At first I struggled with determining how to approach the audience and genre but then I came to the realization that since my audience was a person specialized in the subject there were certain things like the freudian terms that I didn’t have to explain in detail because it was already understood.

      Towards the end of the semester Ms. Alyssa organized two meetings in which both sections  sat on a conference room and shared concerns about the Research Paper and Research Topic Proposal. By being able to hear opinions on the way I was approaching my topic by people who were in the same place as me, I was able to organize my writing in a more cohesive way. Through this activity I was able to collaborate with my peers in order to generate ideas that benefit the writing of both parties.

      Blackboard Response assignments are one of the many ways that I used digital technology in order to address a range of audience. Not only did I use it to submit written homework assignments to my instructors but also to give constructive feedback to my peers. The process of responding to each other’s responses started when we were writing our Research Topic Proposal and Research Paper; even though it started later on the semester it helped me a lot in the process of structuring these two assignments. Although we were all working on different topics, the structure and requirements for all of our papers were technically the same. By interacting with my peers through Blackboard discussion boards not only did we socialize but also helped each other in our writing process.

      The Research Paper was one of the most important papers that we wrote this semester because it incorporated all of the writing techniques that we learned in the course of the semester. One of the skills that I mastered in this assignment was locating research sources by using the library’s digital database. This was essentially the hardest aspect of writing the research paper; what was hardests about this task was that not many scholarly sources had been written on the topic that I chose. However, after I began the process of writing I had a concrete idea on what I was trying to prove through my Research Paper and that is when I came to the realization that there were other ways in which the sources could complement and support my argument without including the Freudian concepts discussed in my paper. After finding six potential sources, I evaluated them for credibility, accuracy, and bias and narrowed them to only two.
        From all the papers that I have written for this class the one that I am the most proud of is the Exploratory Essay because it is most well structured. In this paper I integrated my own stance on the topic which reads as follows:

When society represses the sexuality of women, it not only affects them emotionally and mentally, but it also makes them susceptible to danger such as sexual violence. The internal struggles that are ultimately created by repression could lead to women making unconscious decisions that have the potential of destroying their lives.

I came to that conclusion after analyzing Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? and Five Lecture On Psychoanalysis. Throughout my essay I summarized and analyzed both sources in order to reach my argument.       

       All in all, this class has made me a better writer. I have learned to trust my own writing and to not overthinking too much. The feedback that my instructors and my peers have given throughout this semester is something that will always stay with me through my writing. After taking this course I feel more confident in my writing. I will continue applying all of the information, techniques, and concepts that I have been given in this class in order to continue improving every day and become a stronger and professional writer.

 

Thank you for reading,

Nayeli Rojas