Portfolio Reader

English Department

Cal State Northridge

18111 Nordhoff Street

Northridge, CA 91330

12 December 2020

Dear Portfolio Reader:

In my portfolio I will present my work; two revised out-of-class papers and two

progressive exercises as follows: Final First Draft Essay #1, First Draft of essay #1, my Blog,

and my Progression Exercise. For my final and first draft essay #1 the title is E1.3 Gender Equal

Rights a Dangerous Idea, I discuss how the rights to gender equality isn’t a toxic idea nor action.

Gender rights is only a dangerous idea since it questions and challenges other people’s way of

thinking but it in no way harms them. My blog, Black Lives Matter: Power of Language,

explains how our voice is important in order to make a change in society and to bring about

awareness on the importance of black lives. Lastly, my Progression exercise 1.2: Argue and

Analyze will follow, explaining how sexualized behavior and aggression is not just co-workers

playing around. It’s an act of the employer taking advantage of the employee knowing that they

are defenseless and can’t do anything about it, as well as the employee feeling powerless since

they can’t do anything about their boss harassing them.

For my two essay drafts I believe that my strengths were response to the assignment,

organization, support, and grammar. For response to the assignment, I believe that I effectively
answered the prompt given, while also supporting my response with sufficient evidence from

various sources. I think that I organized my essay well, in a way which allows a flow when

reading it. I would say that this was done with the use grammar, where I provided many

transition words, strong and different diction use, non-repetitive words and proper punctuation.

I also think that within this class and while writing my essay I exercised logical thought, clear

expression, and the development of effective organizational strategies.

Within my writing, I feel like I need more work on providing a clear thesis, and providing

clear evidence to support my claims. That is, I am able to state my position in my thesis

however, I feel like I don’t make myself clear enough to the reader. With the evidence, I feel like

I provide enough to support my claim but I struggle to find sort, strong supporting evidence. My

persistent writing problems are the use of long concrete details from the sources and a struggle to

clearly state my thesis. One strategy that I sometimes use to make my writing more refined is,

doing freewriting where I just jot down all my thoughts to get an outline of how my essay is

going to be. Another is that I reread my essays three times while comparing it to an earlier draft

to see how I can improve it.

Moreover, an advice I would give myself for my future writing is to have sufficient

sources to get my evidence from. To write a successful paper, I think I would need clear, simple,

and strong details. Also, providing a thesis that will provide an overall idea of what my essay

will be about and act as a guide for the rest of my essay. In my English 115 class I believe that I

learned how to give out logical thought and clear expressions. For students that will take English

115 next semester I would say to focus on the topic provided and to not go off topic while

expressing your opinions and explaining what the topic is about. Remember to use evidence and

to provide an essay or assignment that easily flows.

Sincerely,

Gabriela S.