Inphinite S Saddler November 23, 2013 ENC 1102

Overview Upon entering English Composition II, I was not excited about taking this course. I absolutely hate writing and rhetoric, I had already endured enough from ENC 1101. If it was up to me then I would have chosen to not take the course at all, I am a math and science person. This semester I have become more insecure about my writing. I feel that no matter how hard I try, it will never be good enough. I felt confident and satisfied with my writing about the first assignment and then I received feedbacks was not well. I received a 75 and honestly I was shocked because I was told that this essay was easily graded. Everyone had pretty much received an A or high B, the grade mean online was a 90%. I definitely thought I did better than that. Every essay after that improved although I never received an A on any of my papers. The discussion posts I was ill quite often during this course the beginning of the course and did not do all the discussion post and this negatively affected my grade, unfortunately they cannot be made up. In addition, I missed one of the peer review for the portfolio reflection because of a family emergency and that also negatively effected my grade. Entering the course I wanted an A in the course, but I do not think that is even numerically possible or a B+. I would be disappointed if I received a B or B- in the course I would rather receive an NC then have it effect my GPA. In my portfolio I will demonstrate why I deserve a B+ in the class. Major Assignments The first assignment was the literacy narrative and on paper in seemed quite easy. I am not a personally person, I am private and did not like that idea of opening up to others. Even though, it was only about me learning to read it was still private moments from my past. Because I do not like writing I debated making a video, nut did not have the editing techniques or camera to record it. Initially, when I heard of literacy I thought of reading but it is much more than that. Through the Brandt reading I learned that literacy is tied to sponsors and includes

comprehending material and how well you can interpret what the author is saying. This definition brought back materials of the FCAT when we were asked to identify the main idea and the theme of the passage that we read. I rewrote my literacy narrative tried to include my sponsors and share more about how I learned to comprehend and write rather than just how I learned to read. The genre analysis was extremely confusing to me I understood what a discourse community was but genre confused me. Honestly, it is still confusing to me. I never fully comprehended the idea of genre, when I wrote my genre analysis it was hard for me because I thought I knew what genre was, but then I would second guess myself. Then I read others papers, mine seemed formatted different and what I picked as my genre was not in the same category. I am able to
define genre as a response to a repeated rhetorical situation in a discourse community, but thats about it. In my genre analysis, I talked about the importance of nursing journals in helping communicate and improve the goals of nursing. I thought my grade was fair, I did not include a definition of genre, and I could have related the goals of the genre more to the readings that I used my paper. In my revision I tried to accomplish these to receive a higher grade. Although, I do not have a complete understanding of genre, I do not think it is because of the teachings of the class. Writing jargon is not my strong point. The annotated bibliography was straight-forward and completely understandable. The only thing that made the annotated bibliography look intimidating was the amount of resources and time it required. You needed at least fifteen articles and it was hard to find journals that were similar to each other. I was interested to write about something that I was passionate about, especially a medical disorder. I choose a rare neuropsychological disorder, called Conversion disorder it was uncommon and understudied. Although research has improved over the years there was a lack of new findings in why the disorder occurs and treatment options for the disorder itself, not other illnesses that can cause it. This was the easiest assignment for me and I worked extremely hard on my paper, I had three different drafts not including my revision. The different examples and library meeting was really helpful, especially the instructor teaching us how to use the OneSearch system, and how to put in an order for a journal/book loan. While writing my annotated bibliography, I realized that I have a passion and interest in psychological aspects of the mind. This assignment helped me realized that I want to help individuals suffering for mental illnesses, especially adolescent and teens. Without this paper I would have not drawn that conclusion so this assignment was helpful to my writing skills and selecting a specialization.

Honestly, I thought I had an A paper but I received an 88 on the assignment. During Finally, the literature review was based off of my annotated bibliography, which made it a pretty simple assignment. Although I had a difficult time finding a research gap for conversion disorder, but through the handout that you gave us made it easier for me to find. I modeled my literature review after the literature review handout you gave us in class about rDNA. I worked hard on this assignment to try and identify a research gap in my finding of conversion disorder, in addition I gave a good deal of thought about my project proposal. I was very pleased with my assignment and I was surprised when I once again received an 88 again. I thought that my paper was at least a low A, but the feedback revealed that I made spelling errors, formatting issues, and uncited information.

Discussion posts The discussion post were too public, I would have preferred a private journal that we submit. I did not write much because others could see what I am writing. I did not find the other students postings that helpful, the format was bus, and there were so many different postings and comments to scroll through. I did find the articles themselves helpful, although there were extensive and hard to understand after the initial reading. They were beneficial to helping my write all my major essays for the course and understanding the terms that you used in class. I do not think they helped my writing outside the classroom much or will help me in my future career path. How did the class affect my learning and writing? Honestly this class made me loathe writing more than before, I have never been able to communicate through writing, and I am better at explaining myself verbally. I wrote to my best ability and the more I wrote the more disappointed I became with my grade. With my writing it all depends upon who is reading your paper, it is based on someones opinion. Although, in math and science there is usually only one answer and that is what you are graded upon. That is probably why I have never really been able to get into writing. My writing has not been affected by the class but I have learned how to synthesize and analysis information better, which will be useful if I decide to do research in the future. Connections to Future Classes and Careers

Overall, this class will not help me in my future career path. The different writing jargons may help me in my speech class next semester and if I have to write a research paper again. Portfolio In the beginning, a visual portfolio was not what I had in mind but I warmed up to the idea. It was not as hard as I thought it would be and saved me tons of paper. I think this portfolio was good for someone who is interested in writing and is creative, I do not know much about making a website or how to design one but I think I did a good job. This portfolio was a lot of work gathering all the materials and more writing. I did not keep track of all the materials that we had in class, so I had trouble finding handouts that had helped me throughout the year. I did try to include the samples that were given to us that does not contain my writing. My portfolio is not colorful or fancy, but I did try my best to organize it and keep easy to find my work from the year. I think my portfolio compared to others is a B, but based on my computer skills and personal growth/participation in the class is an A.

Sincerely,

Inphinite S Saddler