Lauren Gruber ENGL 1102-095 15 April 2014 Portfolio Essay Before we begin the journey through my e-portfolio, Id like

to point out the central theme that you will soon clearly recognize music. On the home page, I wrote a bit of information about myself that explains how I play instruments and will be pursuing music business as my major, as well as a minor in studio art. Personally, I think music and art mesh together, so the main picture on my Home page is one of myself posing next to my favorite painting The Scream by Edvard Munch. But since music is my big theme, I also included an abstract-looking picture of piano keys to tie it in a bit, and made sure my backgrounds and links matched the colors of the picture (Im a bit of an OCD-perfectionist when it comes to color matching). In fact, since Weebly doesnt allow you to change the individual title colors and the background color to links, I did a little CSS/HTML coding research to be able to change colors to match exactly the way I wanted to. I may have gone a little over-board, but this is a no-judge zone, right? But anyways, I also made the piano picture visible on each page of my site for consistency. Each page I edited the piano image to say Exploratory Essay, Midterm, etc. I also added little music eighth notes in front of each link on the left-hand side, as well as more music notes with the main title of the website. I decided to keep my Weebly site a bit simpler in order to maintain a professional look as well as an artistic one, just so that its not too overwhelming to look through. In this way, as two of the Five Modes of Communication, I used the Visual Mode and the

Spatial Mode well. For the Visual Mode, the colors match well, keeping it balanced and easy on the eyes, and the font is easily readable (no squinting your eyes or too big and overwhelming). As for the Spatial Mode, I have it organized well with clickable tabs on the left side of the page, making it easy to navigate. I also organized the pages to where there isnt too much stuff that could possibly overwhelm you. Too many words and pictures can distract the audience from the important stuff. Included in my e-portfolio are final drafts of major assignments. These are: Portfolio Essay (this one), Exploratory Essay, Midterm, Annotated Bibliography, and Multi-Genre Project. All of these are easily accessible, and in order, through the tabs on the left-hand side of my website. Additional items that must be included are: Blog posts, 3 Process Work artifacts, 2 Feedback artifacts, 2 Writers Notebook artifacts, and 2 Wild Cards. In fact, Im using the Spatial Mode and Visual Mode to organize this essay. The different colors used to highlight assignments are almost like a checklist. It helps not only you, but it helps me write this essay. There are a lot of items included in this e-portfolio, so I came up with a way to organize it all successfully. To make it easy, its in chronological order.

> Exploratory Essay

Included items: first draft (1st Process Work artifact), feedback I received from my second draft (1st Feedback artifact), and the final draft. > Midterm. Included items: final draft. > Annotated Bibliography. Included items: first draft (2nd Process Work artifact), an in-class warm-up (1st Writers Notebook artifact), second draft (3rd Process Work artifact), and the final draft. > Multi-Genre Project. Included items: fourth Reader Response Letter (2nd Writers Notebook artifact), feedback I received from my second draft (2nd Feedback artifact), and final drafts of both genre sources and reflection essay. > Blog and then (2) Wild Cards.

Lets start on the first tab, my Exploratory Essay. As our first essay, I was a bit baffled by the prompt.

What kind of prompt is that? I was confused, I knew there had to be more requirements. At least a page requirement, for Gods sake. I remember looking through all of the documents on moodle, and I found diddly-squat. I sat looking at a blank page, not knowing what to write about. I didnt know what to do with that kind of freedom. But eventually I started to write, and I decided to make it pretty personal. I like to be descriptive and use imagery, because my brain works like a constant movie in my head, so I included sentences like short stocky man with frizzy hair and ruffled collar, The house was very brown -- brown couches, brown clocks, and wood floors. The wooden upright piano almost blended into the wall, and adjectives like yellowing keys. I managed to type out a 2 and a half page paper, which I wasnt satisfied with. I wasnt confident with my first draft. During peer review in class, I was told my essay was great and no changes really had to be made (which is certainly a lie). I added some minor things more in-depth conclusion and wrote more about personal experience with music, and turned in my second draft. I received some great feedback that really helped, shown in the pictures: How could you weave some of your favorite lyrics in? What if you included snippets of sheet music somewhere? Or include a pic of your tattoo? Would you be interested in looking at music education in schools, since thats where your passion started? The feedback I was given was a lot different than I had gotten before. They were

suggestions and ideas. There werent loads of red marks saying, Fix this or Delete this. Ms. Ingram gave me ideas to better my essay and to help me be more creative with writing. My paper didnt have to be a boring, plain, 10-age essay. I could have fun. And I think that really clicked in my head, and I was excited to write more and be apart of a new way of writing process. Looking at my final draft, I spiced it up a bit. I included lyrics that Im getting tattooed (So often times it happens that we live our lives in chains, and we never even know we have the key), I included pictures of my current tattoo as well as a painting I did. I grew as a writer, and that was just the first assignment. Next up, is my midterm. I didnt have a whole lot of planning with this midterm. As I say in my paper, I need to work on the writing process and revision. I need to manage my time well. The way I typically write essays is I just knock it out quickly and then Im done, which is why I only have the final draft here. The midterm was essential to my learning because we had to rhetorically analyze a sample e-portfolio. This really helped put what we were reading into perspective, and later help us with our portfolios. I chose Lindseys, and I remember immediately liking the layout of her page. The title was Taking a Splash with Lindsey, and because a lot of her stuff was about lifeguarding, swimming, and helping others, it fit well. I liked that everything was related to each other, and the way it was organized. Looking back on hers, as well as my midterm, it helped me form my own Weebly page to make sure it was easily readable as well as easy to connect the layout to my actual work. Next, is my Annotated Bibliography. Theres a lot of stuff on this page, and theres a reason for that. I think that our Annotated Bibliography was most essential to my learning, because it was really different and transitional. I had never done something like

this before, and it was part of an entire process working up to our Multi-Genre project. As one of the key concepts of this class, responsibility for ones own learning really kicked into place for me. I did a lot of research on my own, and it really helped me learn about the writing process and revision. As you can see from my first draft, I only had two sources, and they were about music therapy. Music therapy was what I started out with as my topic. But then we had a warmup in class, which is right below the first draft on the page. I made a little concept map sort of thing, and the more I added to it, the more I realized that music therapy wasnt the topic I wanted to do. I had way more bubbles associated with music education. And plus, music education was a more controversial subject that I could elaborate on and form an opinion on. That warmup changed my topic completely, and it contributed to writing being a process, which I was horrible at making writing a process. This led to my second draft, which included five sources, and my final draft, which has a total of six sources. I had my spacial mode kick in with the final draft, since I realized that my sources were not in alphabetical order, which was extremely necessary. But our annotated bibliography helped me really understand that writing is a process and it is one of the most important things in writing. The next tab is dedicated to our Multi-Genre project. First on the page is a Reader Response Letter. I included this, because the reading from our book really helped. I say that its important to look at all sides of the argument, and I also explain how the readings really helped me understand exactly what we were doing in class. It finally clicked. Our annotated bibs were there to help us gather information and really form an opinion on it, and to discover more about our topic. I typed out a draft for our projects, and I received some really helpful feedback from Ms. Ingram. By saying things like

What other word choices or phrasing is formal? and explain why your argument is so important right now? It really helped me do some critical thinking, another class key concept, and really dig deeper. I did even more research. I really thought about audience, and whom I was trying to reach with this project. I liked the fact that it wasnt just a research essay, but we actually put our work into genres. In my final reflection, I state, This project really relates to every day life, and preparing for a career in which we are all required to write in different genres. Especially for me, in the music business, I will have to be able to communicate and write to many different people. This project really gave me a different perspective on research, audience, and considering all sides of an argument. It really clicked for me, and I was able to see the connections. I also did a good job in understanding and incorporating ethos, pathos, and logos by proving in my reflection how the formality of my letter established ethos and logos, by showing my choice of apparel in my news report video established ethos, and by giving logical facts in both established logos. I showed my growth and understanding to those appeals. For my blog posts, they really played a key role in developing an understanding for the course. It was a way to ask questions, and to get my thoughts out. I asked questions like how can I make a research essay my own? and if kairos was timing as in the organization of the text? Blog posts really were a way of brainstorming as well.

Lastly, are my wild cards. From looking at the first one, it might not make sense right away. I chose a picture from our textbook that says, just as a satisfying meal is composed of many properly prepared dishesan entire argument essay is composed of properly constructed paragraphs. Below the picture of that, are pictures of files in my computer. Organization is a huge thing that I got out of this class, and not only is it reflected through the organization of my e-portfolio, and through the way I constructed my essays, but I also am more organized as a person. I have a folder from English 1101, where I have no drafts, no brainstorming NOTHING. Just essays that I wrote out and was done with. On the right, I have my English 1102 folder. I have multiple drafts for everything, and its in a folder this new technology that I recently discovered. Before, everything was a jumbled mess. I always struggled with organization, but this class really helped me with it. My second wild card, has a little bit to do with the first one. I used this paper to organize everything for my portfolio in a way that I thought was effective. Overall, I learned a great deal from this course. I learned about organization (a lot), PROCESS and REVISION, using different modes to get your point across to your readers, and I learned about audience and looking at all sides of an argument. Throughout the semester, I have improved a great deal, and I really enjoyed it. I know that I can apply what Ive learned to other aspects of life as well. According to the grading scale, I believe I deserve an A. I think I illustrate my growth really well, and I quoted a lot of my own work. I organized my portfolio really well, and I really am proud of the connection between my layout and all of my work. Whether or not I receive an A, I will leave this class, proud of all the hard work Ive done and will apply everything I have learned to my every day life. As clich as it may sound, I like to think of this class as a song. Each piece

of process work and brainstorming I did, were notes. A project makes a chord. All of my projects come together in the end to make a beautiful song.