The writing in this class was not that difficult compared to last year. I think I took English 11000 last year and we probably had more work than this year. It was pretty difficult for me last year but I learned a lot. Although there were some new concepts in this course, the amount of writing was pretty much the same as last year. And I did pretty well on the last year’s course but I was not focused and differently did not spend enough on this course. Of course, I have many excuses not to be very focused but I know I could have done so much better. The new types of writing I learned from this class are Memo, technical description, and collaborative proposal. I learned I need to communicate more and if you don’t start strong then it’s hard to keep up with others.
For this course, I did most of my work on time. The big papers were based on research, so I would say I did pretty well on finding valid and good sources, citing them, and well-written work in general. However, for some of the projects, I fell short on words, I felt there was not more to talk about. Also, I need to expand my vocabulary, it just takes a long time for me to form my thoughts into words. I want my work to say that It’s the writing of a person who was honest and tried. I think my work says that I am not a very attentive person and don’t like to write. This is kind of true, I get bored very easily while writing. My work probably says that it’s the work of a beginner and a lazy person. My English is ok but some of the sentences might not represent what I wanted to say. For most of the projects, I spend more time writing the actual paper. Also, It would have been a good thing if I read the instructions or the rubric more carefully.
Usually, I do not start working on my assignments just before the due date, but It changed a lot since I came to college. In many courses, when a big assignment is given, you have to submit the small parts before you submit the draft or final version, and It kind of helps my writing. For most of the assignments in this class, I had to start long before the due date since some of them were pretty big and it would have been impossible to finish if I started just before the due date. So I differently built a good habit but I sometimes do waste my time in the process. Also, before I used to work in the early morning and it used to be like 2 hours of purely focused work but my schedule changed a lot so I can’t work at that time. But as I mentioned, dividing my work into small portions and getting them done on time helped me to get through it. I am not very good at socializing so no I have not collabed with others, I did discuss a few times with the group members for the class discussions and collaborative proposal assignment. And I did not have any conference with the instructor, there wasn’t any urgency. Should have visited the writing center, but I haven’t.
My favorite assignment would probably be the technical description. It was something new and different type of writing, I probably had never seen this kind of writing. Also, I was able to choose the topic/device of my preference. Although I did suffer a little because I chose a printer from EPSON, it was very specific so there was a limited amount of information about it, other than that it was pretty fun since there wasn’t so much writing. I did improve my reading, drafting, revising, editing, and self-assessment. Had to read a few articles to understand how the label printing machine works and the history of Epson. This writing did improve my source use practices, especially paraphrasing and citing sources. My least favorite is rhetorical analysis. First, I was confused about the requirements or what it was actually about. Then I chose a topic that I had no prior knowledge about, also the text was pretty difficult. I think I also turned it in late, wasting so much time just worrying and thinking about it, instead of working. Also, I don’t think it was something important that I learned from this assignment.
I think my portfolio is appropriate and presentable for digital audiences and is well organized. If someone visits it, they won’t be confused, they will find out where things exactly are. The link for my website can automatically be opened. Yes, my portfolio is fairly simple and easy to go through. All the pages look the same and have the same format. Somehow I missed the first assignment (introductory letter), so I just wrote a couple of sentences on the website and for other sanctions, I downloaded the word documents and embedded them. I have not used many colors and contrast, I think it’s more simple this way. I think there are two types of images. One is the image from the theme, which I changed and the other one is the background image. For that, I just changed the color, if I insert an image the text will be hard to read.