My name is Kyle Hendrix, and this is my electronic portfolio which contains just some of

my work in multimedia writing and rhetoric at the University of Notre Dame. The class started
out with the discussion of rhetoric, especially in relation to the many forms of media followed
and used by college students. Then, we went on to begin our writing adventure that consisted of
four major projects: audio narrative, rhetorical analysis, research essay, and TED Talk. Im not
going to lie, I had a lot more fun this semester than I was anticipating on having in a simple
writing class. This is mostly due to the students that were enrolled in this course with me, and
Professor Erin Dietel-McLaughlin who made this an engaging, humorous, and helpful course. So
to all of you, I would like to say thanks for showing me a good time while helping me become a
better writer all at the same time.
One thing that I have learned this semester is that writing can be a tiresome process. It is
not simply sitting down the night before and throwing words on a piece of paper and turning it
in. It requires hours of planning, brainstorming, and rethinking to create a successful written
work. This is evidenced throughout my portfolio by the documents I have added that are not just
the assignment. For example, my annotated bibliography and proposal for my research essay
have been included to show some of the steps I took before beginning my writing. In addition to
these, I used free writing to help come up with ideas and outlines to then organize these ideas in
a manner that I saw best fit. Some of my blog posts include these and the reflections detail those
processes even more. As you peruse through the tabs, you will notice that a lot more planning
went into the later works than my earlier ones. It is no surprise that this actually has a direct
correlation with the grades I received on each assignment.
As I mentioned before, the class started out with the various definitions of rhetoric. To be
completely honest, I could not have given a very precise nor accurate definition of rhetoric

before coming into this class. However, I now believe I have a firm grasp on the concept and this
will be helpful in any future writing assignments or projects I pursue. Being able to talk about
rhetoric gives off a sense of intelligence along with using words like pathos, ethos, kairos, and
logos. I think the principles of argument are most evident in my TED Talk because it combines
many forms of argumentation both verbally and visually. Voice inflection, body movements, and
visual aids all help me make my argument that fans have a responsibility in creating safer
concussion policies in the NFL. The various forms of rhetoric helped me make my argument that
I believe was a convincing one.
One thing that I think this portfolio demonstrates is my use of reading, critical research,
and thinking skills. I created a sort of pattern based on the outline of the course and used this
over and over throughout the semester. First, I would read the various assignments and become
knowledgeable about the various subjects we were discussing currently in the class. I would then
conduct research consisting of questions I had from these readings or research for my various
assignments and looking up ways of efficiently going about writing the best papers in my ability.
I would then use my thinking skills to synthesize all the sources provided to me and apply this to
the actual assignment or paper I was working on at the time. I repeated this process at least four
times for each of the assignments we had. As the semester went on, I was able to think critically
better and better and I think my blog posts demonstrated this as they become increasingly
complex.
Im glad that I decided to take multimedia writing and rhetoric this semester as opposed
to just regular writing and rhetoric. I think the multimedia side of things adds a new dimension to
rhetoric and is a lot more applicable in 2015. For example, rather than just going to the library to
conduct research by reading books, technology has added many more options that add variety to

the tools we had at our hands through the various databases and search engines the library has
graced us students with. I also really enjoyed the rhetorical analysis paper we wrote about Selma
and film is obviously another form of media that we were able to use in this course specifically
because it was multimedia. I enjoyed the variety provided by the multimedia aspect and I believe
this is the main reason I remained focus on this course over the whole semester. I enjoy variety
and get bored if each assignment is simply writing a paper on a book like my seminar was last
semester.
The first assignment we did was the audio narrative. This was probably my least favorite
assignment but I understand that it was meant to be a sort of lead-in into the course material. I
simply dont like talking about myself and have never been the most creative story-teller so
personal narratives like this are difficult for me. However, I do enjoy reading, so the audio part of
this narrative was intriguing. The next assignment was our rhetorical analysis on the movie
Selma. This started to combine the various rhetorical aspects we had been discussing since the
beginning of the semester. We looked into the use of rhetoric in the movie and various techniques
or strategies used by the director in the film. I never would have thought about rhetorical
practices used in the entertainment industry, but low and behold I realized how often and
intentional their use is. I chose to rewrite this essay as my second major revision for the
portfolio. I changed around the structure and tried to be more descriptive to the audience. I
revised my counterargument and believe it is much more related to my thesis. I added a few
points and trimmed down certain sentences that I thought werent absolutely detrimental to the
various points I brought up in the paper. Our third assignment was the research essay which I
enjoyed much more than I would have ever guessed. I chose a topic that I was interested in, the
NFL and combined it with rhetoric used by reporters to lead the league to more ethical policies.

This, I think, will be the most beneficial assignment we had this semester. I am in the college of
science and so research papers will be engrained in me over the course of my lifetime. I learned
how to write a proper proposal and annotated bibliography, two things I have never done before.
The final project was the TED Talk, which was based on the research we had conducted for our
research paper. I decided to cater to my new audience and make it for NFL fans by discussing the
responsibility fans have in keeping the NFL in check when it comes to head injuries. This was
my first talk in college and I was nervous, but persevered and made it through and will be less
nervous and more confident for the talks I have to give in the future. Although each of these
assignments was different, they all were intended to help me improve as a writer, and I think I
did just that throughout the course. My grades steadily improved and my revisions led to better
grades which indicates my ability to learn from criticism and apply it to future works. I think I
have become a much more fluid writer and am more focused on the point Im trying to get to,
one of my weaknesses coming in.
Out of all the assignments, I am by far most proud of my research paper. I think that it
was similar to the rhetorical analysis in that they were both papers based on factual information
and used source integration. I significantly improved between the two and think this is in part
due to hard work to learn from my mistakes in the rhetorical analysis. I think that research papers
are my best type of writing and that this is evidenced in my research essay that I created for this
course. I never expected that this writing course would help me grow so much as I writer, but I
am thankful that it did. I realized that I needed a lot of assistance to achieve my maximum
potential in terms of writing. I am nowhere near where I can be, but this class has helped me
make significant strides toward where I want to be. With more practice and revision, I am

confident that my writing will continue to improve. Thanks to multimedia writing and rhetoric I
am aware of what I need to continue working on and plan to do so.