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Welcome to my e-Portfolio website! In this site you will find examples of my work in communications throughout the last few months. At the top of the site, there is a menu with options to take you back to this page, a drop down menu with written, oral, visual and electronic communication pages and an archive page. The side bar on the left does something and it has a home button that brings you home. These two features are accessible from every page on this site.
The first assignment this semester was far from flawless. In the beginning of the year, I tackled assignments as I was taught to in high school; begin with a thesis and delve into my paper from there. The first assignment was on our phobias and that essay, though only 300 words long, was sloppy in organization and lacking in structure. Reading through the paper today, the sentence structures have a choppy flow and have questionable commas. For example, this is the second sentence in the paper: “Mind you, this fear is not something I constantly think about nor do I let it run my life, but out of all things this is the first thing that came to mind.” The last part of this sentence should have been edited for clearer word choice and the sentence as a whole could be restructured to make it more concise.
From the phobia essay, we graduated to analyzing excerpts from our textbook Monsters. In this assignment, I was to analyze part of Bram Stoker’s Dracula in 500 words. In class we practiced creating thesis around this time and we were given a worksheet to help us formulate a solid thesis. Neither helped substantially because when the time came to write the essay, I could not formulate a thesis. I sat for hours, rereading the excerpt dozens of times, taking short breaks to hopefully break through the writer’s block to little avail. Eventually I found myself staring at my notes feeling dread and despair towards the assignment, which in turn led me to think about the struggles to come since this was only my second essay of the year.
Lost, pessimistic and broken from the writers block, I decided that I have had enough and went ahead with the assignment. Starting down the assignment sheet, I began to write about Stoker’s writing style and word choice in the body paragraphs of the essay. The result was around four-hundred words strung together in a rough but firm manner. Being that this was the first time I had written an essay beginning in the middle and I was immensely proud of myself. Peer review for this assignment dropped me back into my place, grounding me and reminding me that even what I believe to be well-crafted can still be improved upon. Below is the original thesis I developed and the thesis I submitted on my final copy:
Original: “Bram Stoker, author of Dracula, portrays an air of dread and eeriness to demonstrate how people can be fooled by their own primitive instincts”
Final version: “Bram Stoker, author of Dracula, demonstrates how people can be fooled by their own primitive instincts to portray an air of dread and eeriness”
Looking at the final version now, I realize that this thesis is not much of a thesis. It is lacking a ‘so what?’ factor explaining how people can be played. Now when I compose essays, I always follow the same formula for drafting the first copy. First I read the assignment sheet to get a feel for my audience and substance, followed by gathering the information required for the paper. After acquiring content and revisiting the assignment sheet, I go ahead and start formulating the body of my assignment. Once the rough conclusion is completed I return back to the top and begin to form an introduction. More on this assignment
I pride myself in possessing an exquisite writing style. Since the thesis is derived from the body of my essays, the content provides a clear connection to my thesis since the thesis is derived from the content. Like driftwood in the Mississippi River, my way of drafting leads to a seamless organization which propels the reader onward from one idea to the next. After editing, my essays deliver to their audience an appropriate and eloquent fulfillment of the assignment.
This semester I discovered the importance and value of peer review and editing. Without it, I would not have discovered my old patterns of error and therefore would not have developed my new method of drafting. Peer review not only helped on my essays, it assisted me in producing fluid presentations. In the past, presentations were the bane of my existence; I could not construct an organized or substantial plan, nor could I present without tripping up often. Through practice my oral communication skills have evolved into something I can be proud of. From group discussions and presentations to interviews and peer review sessions, I can clearly convey a string of thoughts in an organized manner without falter.
Presenting went from being a fear of mine to just a minor chore after the visual rhetorical analysis presentation. The hardest part of preparing a presentation is the research and vetting of said research to validate its credibility and relevance. Researching for good sources and visual aids can be tedious and time consuming, but it is absolutely crucial to do so correctly. I have come to realize that I can create visual aids quickly once my research and preliminary outline is assembled. This strength of mine allows me to focus longer on the oral and electronic parts of the presentation.
Two of my most difficult accomplishments this semester were in oral and written communications. I discovered my potential to present and matured my writing process to accommodate my inability to forge a thesis from scratch. My goal for the future is to expand my vocabulary and further develop my research process in order to convey information in a clear and more concise way.