Myndi Smart

English 1010-40
Sean M. George
13 December 2015
Writing Metamorphosis
It is my hope that this essay will help guide you through this portfolio. Enclosed you will
find four essays: a personal narrative, content analysis, informative, and argumentative essay.
Each topic was chosen based on the requirements for the essay, as well as personal experiences.
Below I will describe each piece, the process I went through in composing them, and what I feel
their strengths and weaknesses are.
My purpose in writing the personal narrative Hick-ups was to describe my journey as a
writer. For this writing assignment I chose to focus on my insecurities with grammar. As a
teenager, I began obsessing over grammar and feared that people wouldnt take me seriously if I
sounded uneducated.
The introduction was my strength for this essay. My peer reviews all commented that
they were hooked from the very first sentence and found my introduction extremely compelling.
This was my first experience with incorporating details such as sounds and smells in my writing,
and I believe I was able to use these details appropriately.
Punctuation was my weakness. Looking back at this paper now, I am surprised by how
much of my high school English class I had forgotten. Still, the feedback from my peers as well

as my instructor helped me remember these rules, and I feel that I am improving in that area,
although semi-colons are still a bit of a mystery to me.
The second paper, Cut It Out, was a content analysis essay. The purpose of this
assignment was to increase awareness of the effects of advertising on consumers. Because of my
experiences as a self-conscious teenager I decided to write this paper on the topic of image
alterations in advertising.
This paper was rich in imagery, both by the images actually attached to the essay, as well
as my descriptions of the ads. I feel that I was very successful in describing the ads and the
alterations made to them.
At the time I wrote this essay, I was afraid that I was using too much emotion in my
paper. I believe this is the weakness in this paper. An analysis should be just that: facts about
what is seen in the advertisements. I am afraid that I let this topic become too personal and let
my personal emotions come across too strongly.
Piecing Together Polands Syndrome is the third essay you will find in this portfolio.
This is an informative essay about a rare birth defect that very little research has been conducted
on. I chose this topic because my two-year-old daughter was diagnosed with Polands Syndrome
in October and I wanted to know more about the disorder. This was a fun and terrifying paper to
research and write because of my personal ties to the topic.
Obsessed is probably an accurate word to describe my approach to the research on this
topic. I read countless articles, blog posts, research papers, etc. to find out everything I could
about Polands Syndrome. I believe it paid off both for this paper and as a coping strategy for my

anxiety. This paper is much more fact-based than my previous essay and I think that allows the
reader to learn about Polands Syndrome without feeling that they need to take a side on an issue.
This paper taught me about parenthetical citations and the structure of works cited page. I
was uncertain about the rules of parenthetical citations when stating information from multiple
sources in a paragraph. My instructor advised me to make sure I am thorough with my citations
so as to avoid plagiarizing the researchers work. I also learned not to rely too heavily on
Microsoft Words references function.
The final essay, Oh, SNAP, was an argumentative essay about the need for revision to
the food stamp program. The purpose of this paper was to argue in support of drug testing,
limiting the type of food that can be purchased, and allowing participants to purchase basic
household necessities with SNAP benefits. I chose this topic because my family has been on and
off government assistance programs for the past 8 years. While I am grateful for the help we
have received it bothers me to see others that take for granted, or worse, take advantage of the
assistance they are receiving.
I think this was the first paper that I was able to successfully keep most of my emotions
out of and focus on the facts and research. I believe that by doing so I was able to present a
logical, valid argument that didnt play on the readers emotions.
This paper has not yet been graded, so there may be more weakness in it than I realize. I
believe that my biggest struggle in writing this essay was my conclusion. That is one area that I
continue to struggle with in every paper I write. I am uncertain how to tie all my information and
my introduction into one final thought without sounding repetitive.

Every paper included in this portfolio is very personal to me. They each contain a small
part of the person I have become through different life experiences. They are far from perfect,
but I am proud of the work I did nonetheless. At the beginning of this semester my professor, Dr.
George, stated, It is my firm belief that writing is rarely, if ever, finished. I had never thought
about writing in this way. I have always written a paper and moved on to the next without
bothering to really assess improvements that could be made to my writing style. I now
understand why it is so important to revisit my previous writings and learn from them as I move
forward in my writing journey. I hope that you will enjoy reading these papers as much as I
enjoyed writing them.