Villarreal 1

Andres Villarreal

Dr. Sharity Nelson

ENGL 1301 - 119

5 December 2022

Portfolio Reflection Essay

English 1301 has been an experience with many new lessons that have helped me grow as

a writer. I went in without a thought of what to expect for the semester. I had always thought

myself as a good enough writer and have always excelled in writing and language arts, but this

course put those thoughts to the test. I learned about different topics such as genre analysis, visual

analysis, and rhetorical analysis, which were topics I had never heard of before. Through three

essays, peer review sessions, and homework assignments, I was able to learn how to think and

write to an audience that I was intending to write to. I learned how to analyze a prompt to the

highest level possible and how to construct an essay that is good and follows the form of the

specific analysis. I now feel more knowledgeable in my writing skills and better educated in

analyzing the world around me.

I remember writing my first essay for the course as challenging to the point where I was not

sure what I was doing. I eventually got around to it with assistance from my professor and my

peers as well as my tutors. When I revised the essay, I looked at the areas that I knew could be

improved to be more effective and get the point across to the audience. I found myself using much

of the appeal ethos, given that I was writing about a digital poster created by the United Nations

International Children’s Fund (UNICEF). I corrected the introduction, making it focus more on the

poster I was writing about instead of talking about posters in general. I made sure to describe the

poster clearly and incorporate all of its aspects including the website that was attached to it. The
 Villarreal 2

appeal to ethos can be found in areas that are giving direction. For example, there is a section that

says, “It then instructs that they should then go home, away from the public and wait for an

ambulance to bring a COVID test to confirm if the individual has the virus or not” (Villarreal, 2).

This is a sentence that is talking about the instructions an individual should follow in the event of

being infected by the COVID-19 virus and that they should go home and quarantine themselves. I

was able to include better sentence structure that makes the essay sound better and stronger as a

whole. Essay I is now better to read with all the revisions it has gone through.

Just as I revised Essay I, I did the same for Essay II. I took what I had written as a final

product and added what I believed could make it better. This was an essay I felt particularly good

writing about. I based it on a promotional poster that was advertising the 2017 film, Dunkirk. It

was a visual analysis essay that is supposed to explain what each aspect of the poster means. There

is much of an appeal to pathos in this essay because emotion and mood is discussed throughout. I

also revised the introduction just as I did for Essay I, making it have a better flow and a better build

to the thesis statement. There are some sentences that include the appeal to pathos. An example

sentence is one that states, “It consists of color variations of blue and black, which are usually used

to symbolize gloom in the characters or in the themes of the story” (Villarreal, 1). As a viewer

looking at a poster like this with these color variations, I feel the gloom and unpleasant feeling that

the character at the center of the image must feel, looking at the destruction ahead. The creators of

the poster took advantage of that and put it together in a way that would make the audience feel

this. Another great example can be seen in these sentences that read, “He is standing neutrally with

a rifle slung over his shoulder and holding his helmet in one hand while a thin dark shade covers

over him. There are many emotions that are displayed from this one person. Some people can

make claims saying that he is in shock or in a trance at the sight of what is in front of him”
 Villarreal 3

(Villarreal, 2). I wrote these sentences to help the audience think about the feelings this soldier may

have had when just looking over at the events occuring in front of him. I made sure to guide the

reader into this thought process. These key elements are made to help the reader think about the

image deeper than an average person would and give them the opportunity to feel the emotions it

has.

Essay III was, I believe, my most challenging task I was assigned all semester. I was not

really sure what to write for a rhetorical analysis. I had alway heard of the appeals to ethos, pathos,

and logos, but I never really used them in writing before taking this course. The most I had ever

used them was in analyzing poems for emotions and authority. This essay has definitely helped me

learn how these appeals are used in an article and how to find them. Revising this essay was also a

little bit of a challenge since I am still not the best at writing rhetorical analysis papers. I focused on

fixing the body paragraphs. I fixed the transitions moving from one paragraph to the next to create

a better flow throughout the whole. The appeal to logos is seen much in this essay than the other

two. This is mostly seen in the second paragraph of the body. An example of this is in this sentence

that reads, “Their statistics showed that,

‘...the number of social media users has almost doubled, increasing from 2.2 billion in 2015

to 4.5 billion in 2022’ (Nur -A Yazdani, et al, 2).

This is a large increase in population in this amount of years, and the number keeps

increasing rapidly.” (Villarreal, 2). This is evidence picked from the peer reviewed article that talks

about the percentage of increased social media addictions in the country of Bangladesh. There is

much discussion about the numbers from the research of the authors of this article. It discusses the

increase in the number of people using the internet over time. This evidence helps readers
 Villarreal 4

understand the situation more and can think about how they might be increasing their internet

usage.

To put together all the work I had put into this course, I had made a website portfolio that

documents all my essays that I had worked on throughout the semester. I wanted to include

something that could catch the attention of the viewer instantly, so I included a picture of the ocean

focused on a jellyfish. I added a section that talks about the course and my experience in it so that

someone who is planning on taking the course in the future can get a bit of information as to what

they would be expecting. This can be seen as an appeal to ethos for I am proving that I have gone

through an entire semester in this course and that my words are a trusted resource. I included a

table of contents to give direction through the website and give a better understanding where

everything is organized. There is a page for every essay which also includes all of their previous

drafts as well as their revised drafts and reflection essays. Everything has its place in the website

and it is fairly easy to locate each part.

Throughout the semester, I was given tasks to help me better prepare for the papers I was

about to write. The class was given assignments three times a week that would help us with our

thinking process and our writing skills. What I found most helpful and that better prepared me for

writing were the writing outlines (Nelson). They helped me be able to break down what I needed

to look for and how to structure my essay in the best way possible. I was able to brainstorm my

ideas and list them down and figure out what was good and what was not. It gave me the help and

confidence I needed to start writing my essays. Another contributor to my essays was the activity

of peer review where our peers give us feedback on our writing to further strengthen it (Nelson).

This was particularly helpful as I was able to get insight from another student in the class and I was
 Villarreal 5

able to give my thoughts back to that person. All of these activities helped me write better and

build confidence to keep on writing.

The ENGL 1301 course has taught me many lessons that I am for sure going to carry with

me for the rest of my life. I have used the skills I had learned in other areas outside of the course. I

have used them in my UNIV 1201 course when writing my final essay. I analyzed the prompt well

and put my ideas down and constructed my essay in the best way to get the message across. I also

incorporated my skills into my Pre Calculus class. There were times where we were assigned

writing tasks on math topics. I was able to put my knowledge that I had learned from the ENGL

1301 course into these writing assignments and create well written responses that were

understandable and effectively explained my point to the reader. These courses may not be writing

courses in general, but I was still able to use my skills when they were necessary in assignments

like these.

Although this is true, these skills are not necessary for every course. For example, I had

never had to do a writing assignment for my General Chemistry Lab course or lecture course.

These two courses focused more on science and math topics rather than writing. I spent more time

doing equations and conversions of units. I conducted experiments with chemicals and wrote

down reactions and results of data. I never used my writing skills for these courses. Another

example is a music course. I took a music history course this past summer which taught me much

about the origins of music. My assignments for the course were mostly short open ended questions.

At times they were just multiple choice questions. There were no essay assignments that required

critical thinking and analysis. The skills I obtained from the ENGL 1301 course are great tools, but

it does not mean that they can be used on everything.

 Villarreal 6

As I have stated earlier, I have always thought of myself as a good writer. I had always

done well on papers for as long as I can remember in my academic journey. My skills were tested

this semester with all these new topics that I had never heard of or fully understood at the time. As

I kept writing in the course, I discovered where I stand in my strengths and my weaknesses. I also

thought of myself to be good at introductions. This turned out to be my biggest struggle throughout

the entire semester with every essay. I realized that I can write good body paragraphs starting from

my first drafts. I have been told from feedback from my peers that I bring out the points well with

my topic sentences and throughout the rest of the paragraphs. I also discovered that my final

remarks in my conclusion are done well. I never felt that confident in my conclusions, but this

course has helped me build my abilities in writing them. I know that I should keep working to

perfect my introductions to give my papers a stronger and more confident start and lay a foundation

for the whole essay.

The task of creating the website was not particularly difficult. It was pretty straight forward

with the instructions of what was needed to organize my essays. What I would say was most

difficult was trying to figure out the build menu at first. I was having trouble creating a section to

insert a document, but I eventually figured it out in the end. All in all, creating this website was

most probably the simplest part of the entire project.

If I have learned anything in this course for this semester is that there is more than one way

to effectively analyze and write an essay. I feel that I have definitely grown as a writer in my time

in this course. I was challenged with difficult prompts to write about and learned how to break

them down and think about how to approach each one. I have gained knowledge and skills that I

believe can help me not just in school, but in the real world. I now comprehend and approach
 Villarreal 7

problems differently, in a more advanced way that helps me find a solution. I will continue to learn

to improve my writing and develop my skills for the future.

 Villarreal 8

References

Nelson, Sharity. “Peer Review Essay II.” ENGL 1301 - 119 7 October 2022,

file:///home/chronos/u-ba536dad2d95fa0d9ce152c574e083d25f39cc8e/MyFiles/Download

s/Peer%20Review%20Essay%20II%20-%20Google%20Docs.pdf. Accessed 5 December

2022.

Nelson, Sharity. “Working with Peer Feedback.” ENGL 1201 - 119 14 September 2022,

file:///home/chronos/u-ba536dad2d95fa0d9ce152c574e083d25f39cc8e/MyFiles/Download

s/Working%20with%20Peer%20Feedback%20-%20Google%20Docs.pdf. Accessed 5

December 2022

“Social media addiction and emotions during the disaster recovery period—The moderating role of

post-COVID timing.” PLOS, 20 October 2022,

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0274898. Accessed 5

December 2022.

Villarreal, Andres. “Essay I Revised Final Draft.” 5 December 2022,

file:///media/removable/ANDRES%20V/Essay%20I%20Revised%20Final%20Draft%20-

%20Google%20Docs.pdf. Accessed 5 December 5 2022.

Villarreal, Andres Villarreal. “Essay II Revised Final Draft.” 5 December 2022,

file:///media/removable/ANDRES%20V/Essay%20II%20Revised%20Final%20Draft%20-

%20Google%20Docs.pdf. Accessed 5 December 2022.

Villarreal, Andres. “Essay III Revised Final Draft.” 5 December 2022,

file:///media/removable/ANDRES%20V/Essay%20III%20Revised%20Final%20Draft%20

-%20Google%20Docs.pdf. Accessed 5 December 2022.