Ian Gonzales

Dr. Adam Kozaczka

ENGL 1302-103

2 December 2022

Portfolio Reflection Essay

When revising each essay, the rhetorical choices I made were choices I learned in English

1301. In English 1301, I learned how to think in a more open mindset when it came to writing

essays because your audience isn’t just the professor or classmates; it changes into the general

public, which means simple terms are no longer applicable in my essay. In my paper, I tried to

keep the format the same as possible so the reader won’t get lost and could understand what I

wrote. Another choice I made in the essays was keeping first-person pronouns out of the papers;

however, as the use of the word ‘I’ can be used in the essays under some circumstances, I

decided not to use the pronoun because it can quickly become confusing for the reader to

understand the essays. A rhetorical choice I also chose to use was cutting my quotes so it would

not make my essay long and tiresome to read. This can also be beneficial to my writing because

it can make it easier to get my point across to the reader without confusing the reader. When

designing my website, I also used rhetorical choices that could benefit the reader. The first page

of the website labeled ‘Home’ starts with a picture background of a pen and notebook because it

is well known in English to be associated with a book and pen, which symbolizes literature.

Below the image is a simple script describing what the portfolio is about. After the small script

goes into my reflection paper for this portfolio, which is very noticeable to the ready, with

underneath the essay being links to my other essays and documents that helped me write the
other essays. Following the home page or the other essay, tabs are all very similar in a simple

format so the reader won’t get lost.

What helped me create the portfolio were the comments and other portfolios of my group

members. Near the end of the semester, my professor put me into a group that helped a great deal

when creating the portfolio because they helped me calm down on the idea of how much was

going into the portfolio. At first, I was overwhelmed with what had to be done, but my group

helped me see that it wasn’t a lot and to take each part one at a time, which made it a lot easier to

get done. Another activity that influenced my revisions for the portfolio was class peer review

which showed me the mistakes I made and the comments from different classmates, not just my

group, helped me revise the portfolio. In English 1302, the knowledge I learned can be applied to

my other courses for starters my BIOL 1111 which is my Botany Lab course. In this course, I had

to grow a plant over a period of a month with additives to the water to see if what I added

impacted the plant’s growth and write a report. In this report, I had to use sources from other

scholars as I did in all my essays and help support my findings. This concept is applied to all my

other science sources, and it’s a tedious one, but this will help me in the future for my career

path, making it easier and less of a burden.

An unsuspecting course I thought English wouldn’t apply to would have been my statistics

course. Still, at the end of the semester, I had to turn in a report of a project I conducted with a

group and use sources to discuss what data analysis was. English 1302 also could be applied to

my history class, but it didn’t help as much for my history classes because I had to use the

Chicago format. With constantly using proper writing etiquette in English it did make it easier to

learn the Chicago format because I was in familiar territory and made the assignments a lot

easier. Another course that applied to what I learned in English 1302 was PSCI 2306, or
American National Government which required me to use the APA format. Even though I never

used it in English 1302, for the same reason as my history class, it made learning the new style

easier and more friendly, which was a great help. However, some courses didn’t apply anything I

learned in English 1302, one of the courses being my music class. In this course, I never read a

single sentence because all I do is read musical notes and play an instrument. If I were to be a

composer, then perhaps some knowledge of English could have applied, but that wasn’t the case

this school year. Another course where I learned in English 1302 would be economics. In this

class, we did have assignments that required us to write, but the answers that were asked didn’t

need any rhetorical thinking or specific formatting. The questions in this course had more of a

mathematical approach to answering, which is why I could not apply anything I learned in

English 1302. I also couldn’t use what I learned in English 1302 in some of the math courses

I’ve taken, one being Pre-Calculus because there wasn’t a single sentence I could remember. The

vast majority of the course consisted of only equations with a mixture of letters and numbers,

which was a pain to understand and remained the same for the remainder of the semester.

When it comes to writing, I have some strengths that I enjoy which are very easy for

anyone to learn. The first strength is being able to cite authors and sources because for some odd

reason, I enjoy doing this, and I think it has to do with the fact that it’s something I know how to

do. It is rewarding to understand and get something right that can help the writing process go

along smoothly and happily. Another strength that is also very easy to understand is

understanding different writing formats, such as the IMRAD format, which is, in fact, the one I

used for essay one. The IMRAD format is used for scientific papers because it breaks down your

essay into different sections, making it easier for the reader to read and get information if the

reader is trying to look for something in particular. Another format I like to use would be the
APA style which uses a title page with a subheading similar to the IMRAD format. Still, a big

difference between the two would be you can title your subheading rather than there already

being a universal way to do so in the IMRAD format. As these are my strengths, I have quite a

few weaknesses over the semester, one being not detailing enough information in my articles and

making the essay flow as I want it to.

An example is in my second essay, where I had to combine two sides of an argument and show

how each side is opposed to one other while also connecting the argument to show how it is

being portrayed to the world. This problem can be seen in essay three, where I discuss the same

topic as the second essay, but I take a side and discuss why I believe the side I chose is correct.

For the most part, I make my point across, but there are problems that take me some time to fix.

Another weakness I see in myself is writing my papers too fast, and I say this because I always

have minor mistakes which could have been easily prevented if I were to proofread my essay and

taken my time which is crucial when it comes to writing a paper.

When creating the website, the most challenging part was putting everything together I

needed to display. The most time-consuming part was going into my computer, finding the files

of my previous work and essays, and putting them all into a folder. This was very

time-consuming and quickly took around 45 minutes because I needed to be more organized

regarding computer files. It also took a lot of time to add the links to each file and attach them to

a button to click on to take you to the desired page. This was repeated three times for each essay,

taking around 10 to 15 minutes which wasn’t very fun. Another challenging part of the website

was fighting out the website to create the website, which took approximately 30 minutes to

figure out what each button does and what it creates. The least challenging part of this essay

would have to be adding the buttons on the screen for the link and getting the background picture
for my website. The controls were a simple drag and dropped onto the screen, and the website

has its picture interface built in, so I didn’t have to use google or safari to obtain the image. After

completing the English 1302 course, I would say my identity as a writer has changed by a long

shot. When I started this course, I was very nervous about going back into writing after English

1301 because writing isn’t my strong suit and has always been that way for as long as I can

remember. Coming from English 1301, I didn’t know a lot because that course taught me the

basics of writing which ranged from teaching me logical fallacies to learning how to identify a

peer-reviewed article. As I went on in my English 1302 course, with each assignment and group

activity, I improved with writing, and with every draft I wrote, I also improved. One of the most

considerable aids was my professor because he taught me what to do and made me ease into each

essay, making it easier to write than before. As I write this reflection essay, I think back to the

whole semester I had that I can’t believe went by so fast and what amazes me the most is that

everything I learned in this course is something I will be using for the rest of my life. The more I

write, the more I will get better and even more confident for future assignments, and as I look

back at this essay and portfolio, I will see all that I’ve accomplished over the many years of

writing.