My name is Martin Corral and I am a student at the University of Denver

currently studying for a business degree. As someone who has always had an

interest in business, I have often pushed writing aside to favor science, math, and

business classes. Even though in high school I took college level writing for a year,

my focus was always toward everything aside from writing. Entering college I

realized that meeting the writing requirements would be a hassle for me. Typical of

me, I took my science requirement instead and pushed off writing. Now in my

second year I am finishing up WRIT 1133, the last of a three part writing sequence.

My experience was an unusual one. Most students that I have asked say they

finished writing in their first year. This leaves me stuck in a class full of freshman.

My experience has shown me that writing for the business school is really

underdeveloped. I have completed my second year as a business student now, and I

feel as though I was able to excel in my courses perfectly fine without the skill that I

would have developed in the first year writing sequence. Regardless, writing is a

requirement of the university and a vital skill to expressing yourself through text.

During my high school years, writing seemed irrelevant, and in my mind

editing was simply rephrasing and adding and removing periods and commas every

here and there. Fast forward into the future, I realize now that my writing is far

from being excellent quality, and that editing is a far more complex and in depth

process than changing grammar. One of the most important skills that I feel is

necessary is the ability to write for different types of people. This is a concept that is

only hitting me at the end of this sequence, but something that I will begin to dig

into the future papers that I write. Similarly, if the article of writing that I compose
does not suit the proper audience that I am trying to impact, then there will be no

response.

The second most important skill that I realized from taking these courses is

proper editing. Often times I find that my ideas flow perfectly in my mind, and while

applying them to paper, everything makes sense because it is formulated in my

mind, however it does not necessary make sense to anyone else. Proper editing to

make sure that your paper makes sense and flows properly to your audience is vital.

Perhaps even having someone in your target audience read it and give you feedback

on it would work well.

For this portfolio I have chosen four pieces of writing. Three pieces produced

in WRIT 1133 and one piece from WRIT 1122. I am including all three pieces that

were composed in WRIT 1133 because I do not believe that progress is shown

quickly, especially when it is not something that is practiced daily on a schedule like

the DU block style. Three pieces of writing provides a far deeper insight into how

much WRIT 1133 has actually done to my writing style, than trying to draw

conclusions from two pieces of writing. I picked the piece from WRIT 1122 because

it was a reference to what my skill level as a writer was when I finished the second

writing course in this three-part sequence. These pieces that I have chosen, are not

pieces that I am especially proud of or rather great work, however, they are the

average writing style that I have. This style is undoubtedly highly influenced by my

roots in business. I notice that I struggle to develop information because in the

business world writing is bland, concise, rarely takes the reader into account. Often

times I wonder if this was because I decided to opt out of my first year writing
sequence for business and science classes instead of first settling my writing skills

and then developing them in other classes. However, this will become more

apparent while you evaluate my writing style within the pieces I have selected.

Without dragging on much longer, I will begin my review of the pieces I have

selected. My first piece is a qualitative paper titled “The Classical Guitar: A Dying

instrument”. I chose this piece because it was a project that I had not done before.

Clearly the IMRaD format mimics the traditional scientific template to report

scientific investigations. The characteristic that set this piece apart from previous

experiences was that it was a paper in which I developed my own research based on

the knowledge of interviewees and then drew conclusions from the data. Writing

this paper was a new experience and I believe it shows my writing abilities in a new

area, while drawing conclusions from data.

The project asked students to develop a hypothesis on a question they are

interested and are passionate about. Then interview different people in that

community, report on the results of the interviews and discuss what this could

possibly mean in terms of the original hypothesis and question.