Kenyaun Coney

Smith Building, University Blvd.

KConey@uncc.edu
Portfolio
UWRT 1101
University Blvd
Charlotte, NC
Tuesday, May 3, 2016
Dear Professor Knudson,
In my portfolio, it explains my new successes from previous failures in my university writing
class. I was very unprepared and unmotivated when I first stepped foot into college. Little did I
know, a train was coming to hit me hard. Going through high school, the teachers basically
held our hand throughout the whole process. This would change in college as I began to fail
early unnoticed in not only UWRT, but other general education classes.
In my first UWRT class I completed the first couple of assignments with great effort. As time
progressed, I quit doing assignments because of the level of difficulty and improper
preparation. Also my first UWRT teacher did not explain thoroughly and in great depth of what
we had to do on the assignments. I refused to deal with the amount of stress that the typical
college student faced. In order to minimize stress and depression, I decided not to do any more
assignments that were given in the UWRT class. This resulted in a failing grade at the end of
the semester.
Coming into the second semester, I obtained a new mindset, work ethic, motivation, and
attitude towards my attitude. I began to implement various strategies for myself in order to
succeed in my UWRT class in the second semester. The first and most important step was to
read the syllabus in order to see assignments with their due dates. In learning the due dates, I
would place the assignments on a dry erase calendar that was placed on my room door. Also, I
utilized more resources that were available around the campus. One interesting resource that I
used for my UWRT class was the research/subject librarian. There was a heavy amount of
information that was given to me in order to succeed and write a great portfolio. Good
strategies that helped with pieces in class were the in class discussions and workshop memos.
Unlike last semester, I didnt have the pressure to make multiple drafts that were completely
different. Instead, you gave us the opportunity to correct mistakes in order to have a great
final. This why I LOVED the workshop memos. The in class discussions were also very helpful
because it gave me insight on many pieces that I may not have understood while reading. I
then could read and analyze how the reading related to me. Some of these discussions lead to
reading responses on particular topics such as the Mobility Myth and What Every American
Should Know.
In this semester, there was various strengths in my writing. My greatest strengths were
passion, confidence, and creativity. The topics that I chose to write on related to me and my
lifestyle personally which gave me a lot of passion and opinions. In my cultural literacy and
ethnography, I wrote about the topics of Cultural Literacy in Hip-Hop and The Art of
Exercise. These are rituals in my lifestyle that I ESPECIALLY feel very strongly about. In hiphop, I feel that it is my most important work as a writer because I would love to pursue a
career inside of the music industry. Learning a great amount of literary elements in my UWRT
class helps formulate great raps. In doing my ethnography, it didnt feel like I was actually
doing work because of my previous knowledge and experience in my ethnographic area.

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When I first took UWRT, my thoughts on the work was very negative. With your help and care,
gave me high motivation to give you great work. My weaknesses that I worked on throughout
the end of my first semester were the non-expansion of details inside of my pieces, work ethic,
and attitude. With a change in attitude, came a change in results. These results are displayed
in the portfolio. I hope you enjoy and have fun!
Sincerely yours,

Kenyaun Coney