Introduction to my ePortfolio

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Throughout English 250, my writing and composing process has not changed very much. I have a very systematic and asymmetrical approach to composing works that has continued to serve me very well. My composing process may be odd and only understood by me, but it has helped me develop quality works in school, work and business. The way I go about the work changes – as I use different software, different media and different expectations, but the underlying process still stays the same. My process even works on a variety of different media, including papers, advanced presentations, manuals and even non-communications tasks.

My odd process blurs together editing, drafting and idea forming. Firstly, I organize my thoughts into ‘blocks,’  or paragraphs. At first, they are just an introductory sentence, raw evidence or just a simple thought – but each one is its own idea. None of these ideas flow or are even related to each other in the beginning. So, I would iterate through the work many times, editing each block at a time. As I go along, I expand, add, merge or remove blocks until I feel like the work is coming together. Eventually, the blocks weave together to form a coherent work. As I go along, I am still forming ideas and ultimately still forming the ultimate ‘answer’ that the work means to provide. This means even very late in the drafting process, my work can still receive major restructuring and rewriting. The work is ever-evolving as I compose it, always improving – or sometimes unimproving, until it reaches the end.

It is at the very end that the thesis is formed, something that is relatively new in my composing process. I always have a ‘background; idea of what I want the thesis to be, but I let the paper guide me to the underlying idea – ie. the entire process of writing the paper is the process of generating my initial idea. This may seem backward or odd, but forming the ‘opinion’ at the end allows me to put down my ideas and explain them in a manner that works, Eventually through putting down my ideas and revising them do I form the underlying idea. Many of the works I have composed didn’t require me to form a thesis and underlying idea – works like instruction manuals and technical descriptions. But forming a thesis has been a very difficult process in English 250, in my opinion the most difficult part –  so the backwards way of forming ideas has significantly helped me form better more coherent ideas.

But, I am not alone when drafting works. My peers, family and coworkers have been an invaluable resource in drafting. The ‘forced’ peer-revision we do in English 250 has been very beneficial. A good example would be Assignment 3, in which my initial paper didn’t even answer the prompt.

But, even though I have improved throughout English 250, I still have plenty to improve upon. One such thing being the confidence I have in my works. I have always felt that I do a poor job ‘answering the prompt.’