Welcome. On this ePortfolio you will find my rhetorical analysis essay and how I went about revising it, my research proposal and the presentation that went along with that, and a reflection on the class. You will find links to these on the top of the page.

As an engineering student writing has never been one of my strengths. I normally write very structurally and struggle with understanding deeper meaning in writing. This led me to struggle with the rhetorical analysis essay. When writing the essay, I looked for strategies that were more surface level and very easy to see and understand. Once I found points I wanted to make in my essay, I looked for parts of the text that can back up my points. Then I combine my points, the examples, and addition text to smooth it over and make my actual paragraphs. This can make my paragraphs very rough with little to no transitions. I then read over my work and fix any obvious mistakes I can pick out. I can’t judge what is done well or not on my own papers so if possible I will have someone else look over my work and help me spot the mistakes I miss. After I learn the mistake I’ve made it becomes significantly easier to revise. Revising for me typically means making the changes that most people do in there first draft. It doesn’t take me too long as the changes I need to make are very obvious and once I know what I need to do I can do it quickly.

One thing that I do consider a strength about my writing is my ability to take the audience into account when writing. If the paper is research based I can lower or raise its complexity depending on the audience without compromising the paper. If the article is on a controversial subject I can write without offending anyone and if it is written for an audience that might not agree with me I can write to get my point explained to them from a neutral standpoint and try to make them understand the point rather than agree with them. Ironically, when analyzing other writings I struggle to understand exactly who a writer might be aiming at. I can think of a very general audience for them but very rarely can I find a specific group that might be best for a piece.

With writing being my worst, the oral, visual, and electronic portions are not as hard for me. I consider myself a pretty well-spoken guy and don’t typically find conversations to be hard and presentation go well as long as I am prepared. I don’t have stage fright (unless the crowd is particularly intimidating) so I don’t stutter or figit. Visual presentations or analysis isn’t as hard as writing for me because slideshows don’t need to be as eloquent as the essays they can be based off of. They can be very simple and the less there is on a slideshow the easier it is for an audience to follow along. Electronic forms (such as this Eportfolio) are fairly easy to do as I’ve never had any problems working with technology. The writing portions of it might struggle but the layout of it is easy for me to make.

(This picture was taking in Texas during a band trip to Hollywood)