Riley Williams

UWRT 1103

Final Portfolio Essay

For UWRT 1103 we were assigned to create an “E-portfolio” displaying our

writing throughout the semester. I had no idea how this would go over since I am

not “tech-savvy.” However, I have actually learned a lot about multi-modality,

getting out of my comfort zone and most importantly, I have discovered that writing

is a process.

ORGANIZATION AND DESIGN

For the overall website, I decided on that specific layout because it was a fun

and colorful design, which describes my personality. I wanted to add in a few

personal items so that my audience can better understand my writing choices and

feel more connected with me, hence my “About Me” page. This page contains a short

biography about me and also has visuals of what I have learned throughout the

semester in UWRT 1103.

The next most personal page would be the “Blog Spot” page, which houses all

seven required blog posts of this year. I tried to convey the overall message of each

blog post with the image I chose to pair it with. For example, for our last blog post

about reflecting on our previous posts, I added an image of a mountain being

reflected into a body of water. My favorite picture representation is for the blog post

titled Viewpoints and I decided to pair it with my favorite painting by Salvador Dalí

because many people have different viewpoints of what the image represents. On

my blog page I also decided to add three images of important people in my life. This

was to help the reader visually see what the writer looks like and may help them

connect to me since they know a little bit about my life.

For the less personal pages located on my website, I decided to use headlines

to name the pieces of my work. Multi-modality played a large role in deciding how I

was going to set up my website. I relied on the visual mode of communication by

choosing that specific font because to me its aesthetically pleasing to the eye and

isn’t too intense. I picked a grey font in the size 76 so it would be easy to read and

navigate. Spatial mode was a large factor in creating each page because I made sure

every artifact was lined up with center of the page and the subtitles were all equal in

their distances to each piece of work.

The page menu offers my work in chronological order they were assigned

except the final portfolio essay. I decided to do this so that when my reader reads

from left to right they can see my personal growth in my writing. Every page either

contains a draft or planning page paired with the final draft. I wanted to show my

audience how my writing went from one stage to the next because this is something

I am personally proud of. On my “Midterm” page I appealed to the linguistic mode by

putting the feedback before the essay because I wanted my reader to read that first

so they can see what Professor Ingram thought about my paper and read along to

see if they agree with her opinions.

GRADE I DESERVE

Coming into this class I thought for sure this would be the one class I would

not get an A in. Now, I think completely different about this. I believe that I deserve

an A because I have put so much time and effort into everything I have done in this

class. For the exploratory essay, I went to the Writing Resource Center and was able

to go over my paper with a gentleman who gave me so many great ideas. This

moment is when I realized I might actually do better in this class than I anticipated.

He told me that I had a great paper and I should be proud. I respond well to positive

feedback and he gave me that confidence I needed to be successful.

Every assignment I have turned in, I have turned in with confidence and

knew that was my absolute best I could do. I have re-read everything I have turned

in so many times I could read them from memory. In High School, I rarely put effort

into anything I did and this is the first class I have taken where I have given it my all.

I have realized that all my efforts get me the grades I want and for the first time I

found out that writing is a process. For my midterm examination Ms. Ingram said she

would give me an A if she had to give me a grade right then and that made me want

to do even better, which is where I am sitting right now. Everything I have done

since that evaluation, I have made sure it is better than my previous work. I have

only put in more time and effort after the midterm therefore I really believe I earned

an A.

My Choices

Home Page: On my homepage I included two pictures that contain quotes

that are important to me. One quote is by Bob Marley and it says “You just can’t live

in that negative way…make way for the positive day”. The other quote is by J.R.R and

says, “Not all who wonder are lost”. I decided to put these as the first things

available to the eye because they are mind-opening ideas and I want my reader to

have an open mind while reading my work. As well on this page, I included my

planning for what I was going to add to my website. This was very essential to show

what the most important learning tools were to me this semester. Finally, on this

page I included this essay because it explains my entire website and I would like for

the reader to read this first.

Blog Spot: This is the second thing I want my reader to view because they are

more personal entries and I want the viewer to get to know me as a writer. I have

my blogs in the order that they were assigned so that the viewer can see my growth

throughout the semester. Along the right side of the page, I have incorporated

personal pictures. My only purpose of this is so that the reader can feel that they

know me on a more personal level and it may better their ability to connect with my

blogs. Overall, the blog posts “have immensely helped me with what we are doing in

class by creating so many elements of prewriting that I have never done before and

they have also opened my eyes to alternate ways of thinking”(Post #7). Blog posts

have helped me better my planning process. Before taking UWRT 1103, I never

would have planned for writing a paper and would have most likely completed only

the bare minimum. Now I find myself planning for a blog post that is a planning

piece because writing is a process. For example, I have a blog post titled “Prewriting”,

in which I planned for in my notebook by scribbling down questions like “Who

would be affected by paper” and “Who would be interested in reading my paper”.

These questions helped guide me in that specific assignment in choosing all four

groups of different viewpoints.

Exploratory: This tab contains my second draft of my exploratory essay

paired with the final draft. This essay is the one I am most proud of because of how

different the final copy was from the first draft. I spent so much time on

transforming this essay because I have never had freedom with an essay before.

From the draft I have posted, I added subtitles, Spanish, and song lyrics to my essay.

This is very important to me because I want my readers to visually see how I went

out of my comfort zone in this essay and how I used both the feedback from Ms.

Ingram and my peer editor. For example, my peer editor commented, “you said ‘life’

a lot in this section. Perhaps find a way to eliminate repetition.” I went back and

highlighted how many times I said “life”. I ended up deciding that I did not say it too

much and I kept the three times I said “life,” however I appreciated the feedback. On

the contrary, my peer editor drew arrows in some of my sentences and wanted to

rearrange the order in which I listed items and Ms. Ingram followed up with a

comment saying, “Carson tried to help with parallelism here.” Since two readers had

a negative reaction to this I decided to flip them around and again I was grateful for

the feedback.

Midterm: On this page of my website I have included my planning process,

feedback to my essay, and my final essay. As the reader can see, my planning has

become more elaborate in this point of the semester. On the top of the page I

included the two questions I needed to answer and then briefly broke down the

project and listed off ways in which I have demonstrated the subtitled

characteristics. I thought this was important for my reader to see, so they can see

my personal growth. The feedback to this essay is so important to me because it was

very positive especially the first line where Ms. Ingram states that I had “A solid

midterm” and “If grades were due today, [I] would have an A”. This feedback gave

me the confidence to keep going and it made me want to do even better throughout

the rest of the course. Finally, on this page I have my midterm, which I was very

proud of.

My midterm was my first big assignment on self-reflection, which I am not

used to doing. I thought this essay would be difficult for me since I wasn’t familiar

with reflecting upon myself but when I sat down to write it; the words flew off my

fingertips. Critical reflection and getting out my comfort zone were the two key

concepts I wrote down as difficult and now those are the two that I feel I have

succeeded at the most. At first, I almost felt awkward critiquing my own work, but

now I have realized how important self-reflection can actually be. It helps me as a

writer by looking at what I think I have done well and what I think I could improve

on and then comparing that to what other people say. This ultimately helps me

move my papers forward using the ideas of all three editors, me being one of them.

Bibliography: I posted my planning sheet for this project for two reasons,

first so the reader can see how I divided up each section of my annotated

bibliography and secondly so they can see how writing is a process. At first, I wasn’t

sure if I was going to do the traditional style bibliography or use Prezi. I tried

planning how I would set up my Prezi, which is why they are in square blocks and it

is divided into sections. I realized that it would be harder for me to portray my

message and organize my information in a Prezi, so I decided to stay with the

traditional style. I was planning on color-coordinating my writing, which is why I

have colors next to every category, but after completing it, I thought it was too

messy-looking and it was not easy to read. Writing is a process. That is a huge

concept I have learned through UWRT 1103.

My Annotated Bibliography turned out better than I expected. I wanted to

have different fonts for every column so that I could navigate to the information I

needed easily. Also within the “Annotation” column, I further categorized my

information, which really helped me find what I was looking for fast. I hope that my

reader feels the same way by being able to see how and why I separated my

information.

Multi-Genre: This project was my absolute favorite and I believe it really

shows my efforts in this class. Right after reading the instructions I decided that I

would do the multi-genre project rather than a traditional essay because “usually I

would always pick the traditional style because it’s more concrete” (Post #7). I

really wanted to get out my comfort zone for the final project of the class. As the

reader can see in my planning process artifact, this is the most detailed planning all

semester. I also had many ideas and I wanted to do them all. I came up with three

multi-genre pieces; a PowerPoint, rap song, and cookbook. So I decided to add my

rap song I found into my PowerPoint presentation, since we were only required to

have two pieces. My second piece is a vegetarian cookbook that I created

incorporating my ten favorite recipes. For my planning of the recipe book idea, I

wrote how I would include vegetarian options at fast food restaurants. After getting

started on my project, I thought that I was trying to include too much information

and it seemed forced therefore I didn’t include this idea. Again, writing is a process.

The cookbook I created is a collection of 10 recipes that are some of my

personal favorites. I began with an introduction that simply states how I have

recently decided to become a vegetarian and my reasoning behind it. I then have my

recipes further categorized into entrees, appetizers, pasta, soups, and side dishes.

This allows for easier navigation for my readers. Although the recipes were taken

from allrecipes.com, I created this book on my own with a book-creating software

program on my computer. I chose the layout, font size, and what would be visible on

my index page.

My PowerPoint presentation is intended to be a very persuasive piece of

work about something I have recently became very passionate about. I have decided

to record my voice on each PowerPoint slide saying what I would say if I were to

actually give the presentation. I wanted to present it on my website in this manner

to add some variety with my linguistic mode. Another important reason I did this is

because I want the reader to actually hear my tone, rather than assume it from my

writing. I created this PowerPoint because “I needed a way to share a lot of

information with visuals that would help convey my message” (Reflection Paper). I

was happy with the way my PowerPoint turned out and it ended up being a lot more

detailed than I had planned in my prewriting. Writing is a process. My reflection

paper is also posted on this page, which I enjoyed writing because I was able to

explain all of my decisions and my thinking process.

About: On this page I have an “About Me” section and a section containing

pictures of what I have learned throughout this course. I felt that the About Me

section was necessary because I want my readers to know who I am as a writer.

Below I have a picture of the fish I drew as a warm-up in UWRT 1103. The point of

this warm-up was to realize that there are several ways to complete a project. This

made me realize I had so many options for my multi-genre project and helped me

open my mind to the endless possibilities I had. Next, I have a picture of the poem

about Monday’s. I really enjoyed this poem, which is rare, and that’s why I decided

to include it.

I wanted to incorporate the poem also because it contains my notes on multi-

modality, which I learned about throughout the course and how to use them. I

realized how important targeting the correct audience was to the linguistic mode

because I wouldn’t want to act like I am talking to one of my friends when I need to

really be aiming it towards a professional. Also Ms. Ingram wrote in the assignment

sheet how “readers typically read left to right and top to bottom”, so that made me

question my spatial mode when setting up my website. I had to think about what I

want the reader to view first and what to pair them with. Visual mode is also very

important because I wouldn’t want my reader to have any kind of conflict with being

able to see my content, which may result in them not wanting to view my website.

Then I have a picture of a warm-up I completed in UWRT that was my first self-

reflection. Self-reflecting has greatly helped me in everything I have done in this

class, therefore I felt it was important to share.

Finally, I have picture taken from the book “Who Say’s”, which shows the

rhetorical situation. For me, this was the hardest concept to utilize but after learning

each concept, I was able to use them to my advantage in persuading my audience.

This helped me in my writing process by realizing who my target audience is and

better target my work towards them. I came to the conclusion that my ultimate goal

was to persuade non-vegetarians to become vegetarians, so I had to create ways to

use ethos, logos, and pathos to convince them. One significant way I did this was by

using pathos to make my audience feel guilty for their actions, in hopes that it would

change their minds about being a vegetarian. For example, in my PowerPoint I show

three different pictures of animals being abused in a slaughterhouse and my next

slide says, “Are you okay with the images you just saw? Why would you continue to

support the meat-packing industry after seeing these horrific photos.”

Personal Growth

I believe that my writing has grown tremendously throughout this semester.

At the beginning of the class, as stated in my Dear Ms. Ingram Letter, I felt that I

wasn’t “very creative and writing has always been hard for me”. Now I feel more

confident in not only my final drafts, but also my planning process. As I have stated

throughout my paper, writing is a process, and it is a very important concept that I

have learned this year. I realized that conducting a final draft can take four or five

attempts to get where I want it to be. I have moved all of my first drafts forward

from where they began to where they are now.

In the first draft of my exploratory essay I was lacking a title and had a lot of

tricky wording that my Writing Resource Center tutor helped me point out. He also

suggested that I find some kind of connection between my first two positive sides

and a separate one for my two negative sides in order to create transitions.

However, revisions on my next draft from Ms. Ingram stated “it seems like a forced

transition to me” and she further suggested the use of subtitles. Also during this

second revision I had suggestions of adding song lyrics, a few more details, and

correcting a few grammatical errors. This led me to my third and final draft, which

now contains a title, subtitles, Spanish, and more details. I removed the transitions

pieces and added a subtitle for every subject I talked about. I added song lyrics and a

few of my favorite songs. The subtitles I added were titled Spanish, Music,

Government, and Flaky People. I also added how I have this “one song that I can

always rely on to cheer me up [which] is called Sun Models by ODESZA” I am glad I

added in songs and song lyrics so that the reader might listen to those songs and see

why that specific song cheers me up or how the “song by Future called 56 nights…

reminds me to keep shooting for my goals”(Exploratory Essay).

For my midterm, Ms. Ingram did not state that I needed another draft

however I did move forward a lot from my planning sheet to my final draft. My

planning sheet had short notes, for example “Coming to class/Taking notes” and

“never have had 4 drafts of an essay”. I then took all of the ideas I came up with for

each category and expanded on them. For example, I added to my short note about

four drafts and said “Before UWRT 1103, I never would have planned my writing or

even write down my thoughts first. I would always simply jump right into the essay

I had to write but now I plan every step out. I had never had four drafts of an

essay…” in my Midterm. This shows how I elaborate on my ideas that I plan and

expand them into bigger ideas.

In my first bibliography check, I only had five sources and nothing to

distinguish between all of the columns. However, in my final draft I have 10 sources

and I decided to make each column a different font. I did this to help the reader

easily access the information they are looking for. It also kept me on track by

allowing me to know what information belonged where. I decided to create subtitles

for each aspect of my argument in my “Annotation” column. I broke them down into

health benefits, reasons, environment, religion, and ethics. I believe that this will

help the reader and me access the desired information quickly.

In my multi-genre project when Ms. Ingram and I had our conference she

noted how she felt I needed more supporting information in my PowerPoint.

Specifically in my slide about the environment because she stated how I bring up

facts but my audience would want to know why they are true. So for my final draft

of my PowerPoint I made sure to include more background information to further

prove my points and not the leave the audience with questions. With my cookbook

portion of my multi-genre project I first just had the book itself with the recipes but

in the end I wanted to add a personal page. The personal page has why I decided to

become a vegetarian and what a person can gain from becoming one. The whole

point of my project is to persuade my audience to become a vegetarian.

Overall, I think that I have grown tremendously throughout this class and I

am able to feel more confident about my writing. Creating my E-portfolio has helped

me become a little more tech savvy and realizing there are many ways to get my

points across.