Intermediate Writing: ENGL 2010
Welcome to the section of my ePortfolio dedicated to my experiences and learning associated with my time in English 2010: Intermediate Writing.
Within this portion of of the ePortfolio you will receive glimpses of my growth and achievements through a combination of my reflections and examples of my work.
Now for some background. I chose to take this course in the Fall of 2013 as I completed ENGL 1010 in the Spring of 2013 and the natural progression into 2010 will complete my composition requirements for my chosen degree. It should also better prepare me to succeed in my future educational and professional endeavors.
Notebook Reflection: As I review the notebook I find my self thinking back to my initial reaction to a notebook idea which was not exactly a positive one but there are a few gems that I have gained from the notebook.
Prior to the notebook prompts I would not have thought to hit twitter or facebook with a question and see what reaction/inspiration I would get. From my previous writing course I had determined that I was a heavy planner when it came to writing. That is to say I think about it a lot before I actually start writing and I rarely put my thoughts to paper before hand.
Having had the opportunity to do both now I think I still prefer the heavy planning, but writing things down has allowed me to think of some other ways to present information or revise my information to become more appealing. I look forward to being able to apply those.
On Communicating & Collaborating
Reflection:
This semester we, as students, were tasked with selecting a social justice issue to be the focus of our writing. My choice was on the equal distribution of educational financial aid. My initial perspective came with a lot of bias and as you can imagine with than came quite a chip on my shoulder. Throughout the semester my perspective did change a little; I would not say that my opinion or thoughts are completely different but I think it is safe to say the chip on my shoulder is a little smaller. This change occurred in response to the research that I was able to conduct into my topic and it is likely that the greatest credit to easing my perspective is due to my finding many other resources who feel similarly.
I have found, between this class and English 1010 (my previous writing course), that my writing process involves heavy planning and from the outside could appear to be procrastination. In truth I spend an amazing part of my time contemplating what I want to say, how I want to say it, when and where I should say it. In this course I discovered some interesting methods of inspiration that I probably otherwise would not have thought of, for example reaching out to social media for responses to a topic.
For our magazine project, “It Takes a Village”, I selected to adapt a combination of my report and position into a presentation. This decision was made in large part due to a suggestion our instructor made in her review of my paper. As I was contemplating her comments I considered the challenge of morphing the report into a presentation and how I would be able to format that for the magazine. So far I have found it difficult to produce a version I am completely satisfied with. I think that this lack of satisfaction is due to a need for more supporting visuals and so the research continues.
My other pieces in the magazine are: a profile piece titled "An Educators View on the Availability of Education" which is the profile of a once non-traditional student now educator and her views on educational availability and my report on the distribution of Financial Aid and Education titled "The Distribution of Aid & Education" which is exactly what it sounds. Of the two, and actually of all my material contributions to the project, I am most proud of the profile.
Revisions and design of this magazine has not exactly been the smoothest of sailing. My first attempt at the profile genre was woefully unsuccessful and I basically scrapped the whole first draft to revise it completely. As we got to the magazine project I volunteered to be the Editor-In-Chief for our group knowing full well what the leadership the role contained. Things started off quite well as I introduced myself to our group and discussed with them my thoughts and ideas regarding group projects in general. All seemed to agree with my methods. Each of us left to our own devices with a common goal and common ideas knowing that I was here to offer guidance and support as needed. Then, in the middle of it all, Thanksgiving, my group disappears. I must say that I did see it coming. To everybody’s credit we pulled to together and I think it came off quite well. I sent lots of messages to the team laying out what I thought the processes should be and submitting material as it came due and I always had the support of the team.
For future students and future collaborations I offer this piece of advice. Always and frequently message your group or meet with your group to keep people up to speed on your progress. Also be certain that you know the requirements for the assignment, know what is due when so you can help your team be prepared for key dates.
The draft of my Memoir (right) could have also included statistics on the ratio of various groups of students receiving funding or could have also delved into a number of other equality vs privilege issues in which I believe equality has been reached and is now being surpassed.
I chose to write as I did because it is something that I am passionate about, the experience continues to frustrate me today. While I recognize that there are many fronts on which equality has not been reached I think it is time to recognize those that have been, and at least entertain the idea that the once privileged have be come discriminated against.
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Memoir Draft.pdf Size : 72.006 Kb Type : pdf |
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Memoir Revision.pdf Size : 118.067 Kb Type : pdf |
