Katie Morris Ingram English 1102 5 December 2012 The Final Product What is considered good writing?

According to every teacher I have ever had good writing has many characteristics: proper grammar, effective organization, sentence variety, and a memorable voice. But to me this sounds too much like math. GOOD WRITING= (Subject verb agreement + I before E except after C) to be verbs Flow + (ethos x pathos x logos) You cannot define writing this way. This structural way of writing keeps a writer in a small space where they cannot reach the depths of their imagination. I presume that good writing can be found with how much progress the writer has made. How effective was the writer in communicating their points to their target audience? This is what my portfolio will show: the progress I have personally made as a writer. Each of my collective pieces will show my growth through the writing process. The first tab on my website is simply labelled Learning. This page includes responses I have received on drafts as well as the side-shadowing hand-out we used for our essays. I have grouped these together because they are all devices that helped me developed my papers more deeply. Something I look back on when I am having trouble writing for any class is my professors response to my WILTBY essay. Having a professor show interest in your writing is an extreme confidence booster. She also helped me grow as a writer as she critiqued my work, stating that I could add more sensory detail to add to my narrative voice. I took this advice and added it to my WILTBY essay (My final draft can be found under the last tab). I added sensory details to my paragraph about softball, which is a big part of what it is like to be me.

The smell of a freshly scented uniform out of the dryer, the spurts of dew from the morning grass hitting me while I took my warm-up jog, the sound of a softball hitting perfectly in the web of my glove, seeing the seams of a pitch and realizing it is a curveball-these are the things that I looked forward to every weekend. My second page consists of daily entries in my writers notebook. One item on this page is the first thing I wrote to my professor on the first day of class. A letter explaining what type of writer I am and things I would like to improve on as a writer. One of my issues I wanted to address was conveying a clearer message through my work. And as I look back on my argumentative essay, I think I have definitely improved on this. I learned that much of my problem was in the pre-writing stage. I needed to just sit down in the library and do all my brainstorming and all of my research before I came up with a thesis. For my argumentative essay I must have re-written my essay and introduction paragraph three to five times. But in my final draft my points are clear and solid. My next piece is the fish we drew in class as a warm-up. Maybe one of the silliest things I have done in an English class but made the point in independence. The task was simply to draw a fish. In the end no two students fishes looked alike. This is a powerful analogy for writing. A teacher may pose a prompt or topic for students, but in the end every student will write about something different. This fish taught me that a writers voice will always be heard in every piece they write. The most important part of my portfolio website is the last tab which includes my process work and final drafts of major essays. This page shows my intellectual growth as a writer. For my WILTBY essay I adjusted grammar and added sensory detail (as noted earlier). In this essay, I take a risk as a writer to question not only life but myself. In my concluding paragraph I lay it all out in the open.

Honestly, I am made up of mistakes, failures, and unanswered questions. I let people take advantage of me. I repeatedly make the same mistakes. I make bad choices knowing the negative impact they will have. These are all terrible things but a sense of security comes from these mistakes. Making the same mistake comes expectantly. I am nineteen and completely unsure about who I am. But sometimes I think about who I want to be. I want to have a sense of fulfilment and accomplishment in life. I want to do twenty good deeds to perfect strangers every day. I want to be able to walk up to a guy without losing my words. I want to find my passion in life and help others find their passion. I want to be able to have ice-cream and not worry about my butt. I want to make my mother proud. But most importantly I want to lead a happy life. This conclusion shows a very important, yet often overlooked, part of the writing process: Pure honesty. When one sits down at their desks and simply writes without stopping, and with no revision, they get pure honesty. This is one part of my essay that I never redid and never threw away. I also play around with an unfamiliar writing genre: Poetry. My poem at the end summarises my early upbringing but also shows who I am today in simple language. I liked trying to write a poem, but at first I tried to make it very deep and personnel and soon realized I was getting nowhere. So I wrote in simple terms with no hidden meanings because that best describes who I am and that was the topic. I did not have to pretend to be a scholar or expert writer or poet; I just had to explain to my audience who I am. I am simple, so therefore, my poem should be simple. Next is my annotated bibliography. The most important change I made between these drafts is the changing of my language. Simple things such as changing This source says.. to referring to the authors name. Because it is the author who is making the argument not the

physical source. My next work is the three-sided essay. This shows three sides to my inquiry question of whether or not PE should be removed from schooling. The important revision I made here was adjusting my citations. The period comes after my in text citation not before. Lastly is my final polished argumentative essay. Before my essay I put a rough draft and also an early brainstorming activity. This shows my stages of the writing process. My brainstorming shows a list of topics I was looking at for the argumentative essay. They range from feminist and liberal ideas to social media to alternative medicines. I think this is important because it not only shows the brainstorming section of the writing process but also shows independent inquiry. When the professor does not force a specific topic, a students imagination will show the depths of their curiosity. With my drafts you can see my messing editing process, then the final product my polished argumentative essay. I think this connects to my first letter I wrote to my professor where I stated I wanted to write more clearly and purposely. As one of the last assignments I think I have shown a great improvement in this area. My thesis is so clear in my introduction. Although educational reform is an issue needed to be addressed, this is an ineffective, and dangerous, way to solve the problem. As the obesity epidemic continues to rise, the removal of physical activity among our youth will be devastating. Also, a careful examination of case studies will show that removing physical activity from school can cause a negative impact on educational health and actually hinder academic achievement. This clearly shows my audience what my argument is. And I have the research to back this up. Through the writing process my paper actually turned into more than my original argument. Throughout the process I kept questioning whether or not I needed a solution to the problem. I stated the problem of students poor grades and that removing physical education would not help this, but I did not pose an actual solution to the original

problem of poor grades. Re-reading my essay I realized that I could make a solution. In my conclusion of my final draft I push that physical education is the solution not the problem. However, physical education cannot take the blame for our students academic test scores. We cannot punish students and take away PE in hopes that this will solve the issue. I push that PE isnt the problem in schooling. Through my research I have established that PE could be the solution to poor grades. More physical education would be beneficial for our students physical and educational health. On my home page you will not only find this final portfolio essay but you will also find more process work. I included a rough draft of my portfolio essay to sum up my thesis: that the progress a writer makes defines what good writing truly is. Even though it is my last essay written for my English class it did not just magically appear. Just because I am at the end of the semester does not necessarily mean I learned everything I need to know and am an amazing writer. I still have to write and re-write to get to my final product. The website was challenging but definitely not impossible like I was imagining it to be. I think it came out outstanding considering how terrible I am with computer. For my assessment I think I deserve a b+. I did above the average requirements. I participated in class and conferences. I always had extra copies of my drafts for my group mates. And I did an exemplary job when addressing my group mates drafts. I really did try to help them to the best of my ability. I probably had more drafts than most students because I felt I needed multiple revisions. My writing may not be exceptional, but I think my process work shows the progress I have made since the beginning of the year.

Checklist(not in this order on website) Required Work Portfolio Essay (home page) WILTBY Essay (last tab under WILTBY) Annotated Bibliography (last tab under annotated bib) Three-sided Assignment (last tab under 3 sided) Argumentative Essay (Last tab under argumentative research) Link to blogger (home page) Midterm (last tab under midterm)

Self Selections Process Work Brainstorming (last tab under argumentative research) Draft of argumentative essay (last tab under argumentative research) Cover letter (last tab under WILTBY) Portfolio draft (home page) Daily Entries Fish (under Daily writers notebook entries) Letter (under Daily writers notebook entries) Responses 3 sided response (under learning tab) WILTBY response (under learning tab) Other Artifacts Side shadow worksheet (under learning)