Yin Hang, Kwok ENGL1102-100 Ms.

Ingram 28 April 2014 Portfolio Essay

Unlike the last semester English writing course 1101, English 1102 give me more comfort in English writing and I can write what I want in front of my computer. In last semester is my first semester in UNCC, I tried my best to satisfy all lecturers request me to do. But it limited my creativity and my thinking. In English 1102, my last experience helped me to change my writing environment and it changed the whole situation. English 1102 make me finally find the way that writing in English is not only satisfy lecturer anymore, but also it improves my critical thinking and my English in each writing assignments. My e-Portfolio is a collection of my assignments of English 1102. Every works in my e-portfolio recorded what I did in this class and reflected every essays and writings. First page of my e-portfolio is home. It is a normal page that I want to introduce myself to readers. Second page is my portfolio essay. It is because my portfolio essay is a summary of my learning process in English 1102 writing course. Third page is my exploratory essay. Midterm is following to exploratory essay. Then I put my Annotated Bibliography and Multi-Genre Project follows my midterm. My organization of my e-Portfolio is base on the order of date that I finished my assignment. I put blog post, work artifacts, writers notebook artifacts and wild cards at the end of my e-portfolio essay. Blog post is my continuous assignment in whole semester and wild cards is a record of any English writing in other courses in this semester. Work artifacts are a

photo record of each assignment draft. Writers notebook artifacts are a page showed two reader response letter about mention the most useful page in text pages. For wild card, I choose my assignments in Western culture (LBST2101). It is because this course requires me to read some novels and fictions. These books help me a lot in English reading and Writing skills. In short, all assignments in my e-Portfolio is not only recorded what I did in class, but also reflected how I treated writing. In some of my writing, I used various modes of communication and Aristotle's Appeals. Aristotle's appeals is mentioning about the Pathos, Ethos and Logos. These three different writing skills improve my argument in different aspect and method. Also it helped my paper more reasonable and clear. For the various modes of communication, this circle included 5 different pieces. They are mainly about different writing method to draw readers attention in different situation. They are Linguistic, Visual, Aural, Gestural and Spatial.

Portfolio essay In my e-portfolio essay, I try to write what I got in every assignments and writing materials. In every assignment, I face different challenges in structure and contents. For example, in the multi genre project, I am not only design two genres and research an interesting topic to catch readers' attention (classmates and lecturer), but also I have to write an reflection to explain the major forces and how these genres works for whole topic. These different assignments give me different experience in writing. It enhances my understanding in English writing in different genres. In portfolio essay, I have to recall my memory in this course and write a summary about what I learned and what I wrote in this semester. Remembering lecturer taught in this course, lecturer gave me so many examples to show us how the Aristotle's Appeals can make our writing more reasonable and create an

environment to readers by using various modes of communication. Exploratory Essay This is my first assignment in this course. In this assignment, lecturer expects us to write a story to show our passionate and make reader feel our passion though our writing. I havent write many story but this assignment give me a challenge to change my writing style and let readers know about me by using words passing my emotions to readers. Remembering the first time I receive this topic from lecturer, I started to think and recall my memory. There is no one better than my story in early time in America to show my passion. My early time in America is little tragic and bitter. But my experience makes me strong and grows up. This is the reason why I choose my early American life and put it into my assignment. In this essay, I used gestural and visual writing method to enhance my emotion and draw readers attention. There is a sentence I wrote in my essay, Living in America, the big problem is not only the language, but also foreign students may feel alone sometime. Imaging stays in home every day, facing the wall and tries to talk English to cold mirror for improving my English. These days were hard to move. It grinds my passion and ambition. I tried to describe the moment of my bitter early American life and I used two various modes of communication. They are visual mode and linguistic mode. In this time, it was the beginning of this semester. We also learned some of key concepts. I made a risk-taking and tried satisfied my classmates because my last experience told me that my story is easy to draw their attention. Taking risk is not easy to make this decision because I never know how the readers response when I write something I unexpected.

Mid-Term In midterm, it likes the last semester of English writing course. We have to

explain two key concepts and the grade of this course I expected. Also we had to explain the rhetorical triad, Aristotles appeals and Kairos. In addition, we used the multi-modal to analysis example e-portfolio. At the end, we had to make an idea of our research paper and the group mates I expected to help me in English writing. In this time, lecturer hopes we understand these writing methods and explain these methods by using our way. In this midterm, I learned these writing skills and I prepared to use these skills in coming assignments and writing.000000

Annotated Bibliography When it comes to annotated bibliography, I learned the MLA format and used the library system to find similar research paper. In this assignment, lecturer required us to read the text book. The text book (start from P.181) pointed out the method of finding sources for research paper. As the text book mentioned, the source must have credibility data or professional quotation about our topic. Filing source is not easy as the text book said because it is hard to find credibility data and professional quotation in non-scientific topic. The method I used is using the library system and tries to find similar topic. Our lecturer required us to think five more questions about our topic. It is good for me because I can image a brief structure of my research paper. It made me filing source easier because I know what kind of source I am looking for.

Multi-Genre project This assignment is the most interesting part in this course. It is because we used the data and sources in previous assignments and lectures to create an essay. In the project, first time I want to write a topic about American dream but I changed my topic at the end to more interesting, real and public topic. Now my topic is men

grooming. The first step in this assignment is correct useful information from the annotated bibliography. After I received all information, I tried to make my own genres. In the genre, I used these data and various modes of communication and Aristotle's Appeals to make my essay more reasonable and draw readers' attention. There is a sentence I used in my genre, "Image a sitting in an office and wearing high quality business suit like Wall street bankers and popular movie stars. In this sentence, I used visual mode of multi-modal to show how metrosexual people look like. In my second genre, I tried to use some pictures to make a poster. Remembering those Pathos, Ethos and Logos, I used some photos to relate with those theories. Those theories are base on different situation to argue and persuade people that believe my evidences in men grooming, I found picture with data and fasts, professional people and popular people which are relating to men grooming products. Before we started this genre project, lecturer requires us to read the text book. In the book, the chapter of instruction of argument essay is useful. It is not only teaching me how to organize the essay, but also it is pointing out the best way to make readers trust my evidences.

Blog In ENGL 1102, Blog post is a continuous assignment. Also it covered snow day assignment. In blog post, It is a review some things we learned in class and rewrite it into our personal way. It is useful for my writing because each blog is helping me in learning these theories and writing skills. In blog post 2, lecturer required us to rewrite Pathos, Ethos and Logos and 5 multi modal communications. It is very important. It is because it is hard to understand and master these theories if I havent a chance to practice.

Work artifacts Work artifacts are a photo collection of draft of all assignments. Every time we finished our assignments, we shared with our group mates and receive feedback from them. It is because people have different aspect in same thing. Some time it helps us in thinking a new idea of writing. These suggestions give a concept to me and improved my thinking all the time. Also, we can help each other in checking mistake. After we submitted our draft to lecturer, lecturer gave us comments in each assignment. It benefited me in writing and critical thinking. Therefore, every time we receive feedback from classmates and lecturer. We gain and keep growing in our writing.

Writers notebook artifacts Writers notebook artifacts are a page recorded my RRLs and RRL in this course are usually a review of text book and summary few chapters from text book. In this page, I put few useful photos from text book. Also, I chose two best RRL which describe Aristotle's Appeals and making a strong point support my aspect. In my RRL, I tried to point out the important thing in text book and find out difference between lecture and book. Also, think the way of these skills in my further writing.

Wild cards In wild card, I choose two things I did in LBST (western culture). In this course, I read a lot of books articles and watched few cultural videos. Although the workload in this course is so high for me (because of six novels and fictions), but these books are fun. When it comes to how this course improves my writing, I could imitate and reference these famous novel writers' writing style through understanding and reading these books. Also, these books include many interesting Norse myth story

and modern popular comics in America. It reinforces my aspect in different genres and how these genre work in order to draw readers' attention. There is one book I recommend people to read. It is The Mighty Thor. It is a comic. The genre in this book is difference with other comic because this book combines two different styles of comics in different time. It makes the drawing style and characters tongues are so difference.

Key concept As the last semester I wrote in my portfolio, critical thinking is the most challenge key concept in my brain. In this semester, lecturer asked us to read the text book to improve our writing method in critical thinking and considering the pro and con inside our essay organization. The chapter is useful for me. Usually, when we are writing an argument essay, people find some evidences related with his side to argue the opponents side. But the text book pointed out this is not the best way to write an argument essay. It is because we have to show two sides in argument writing and provide some facts and example to support my points. In the text book (P.197), it mentioned that how to find a strong evidence to support our point and improve my critical thinking. Risk-taking is the key concept which helped me in this semester and changed the way I wrote. It is because the text book and lecturer was helping us to improve my essay in organization and evidences/points arrangement in structure in ENGL 1102. But sometime I have to think a unique way and wrote an essay in my own path. It is the reason why my lecturer encouraged me to take risk in our writing. The result may not be satisfy to the rule of text book and last experiment in writing, but it could make unexpected result in readers comments and find a new way to improve my writing.

My Grade After I finished my assignments and every work in this course, I always think about how the readers and lecturer opinions. Following the syllabus, I hope I could get B at the end. My attendance is good and I try my best to join all class activities. I submit my assignment on time but multi-genre project. It is because I changed my research topic and it cost extra time in this assignment. The last semester, I was trying to compare my work with other classmates. In this time, I would like to focus on my writing, thinking about what I learned in this course and find the way to improve my writing. Hopefully, I can write a masterpiece one day.