In this ePortfolio, all of my work done in ENGL 250 has been archived and can be found through the links in the ENGL 250 menu bar at the top of the page, or in the embedded links within the text here. It contains this introductory reflection, a brief “About Me” page, the documentation of five paper assignments, reflections for each of those assignments, a transcript of what I believe to be my best oral work in a presentation, the slides for that same presentation, a revision of one of the past written assignments, and a final reflection after taking ENGL 250.
In taking English 250, I have reason to believe that much has changed in many aspects of my composition techniques, styling, and quality. However, just as much, hasn’t.
Before taking this course, I have very little patience for writing. I find the process tedious and while I remain my stance on that, I have discovered that the reason that I did not care much for it was due to the subjective nature of it. Unlike math or physics, there is never really a right or wrong answer in English and that uncertainty scares me, I suppose. That said, when pushed, I begin the writing process by “info-dumping” bits of thoughts and ideas into a word file, and work my way up from there. Often, few if any of these ideas actually make it into the submitted draft but they give me a place to start. To me, more than anything else, the most important step in writing a paper is, simply, to start writing. That much, has not changed since the start of the semester. I would, however, like to be a more efficient writer and that can only come through practice, unfortunately.
Additionally, I charitably consider myself as a perfectionist at times, and I believe that sentiment is often reflected in my writing. I consider all of my work to always be in the “drafting”stage, and none of them are ever really “complete”, in a sense. I always think of new things to add or new ways to reword sentences, and as such I’ll be changing things to the minute of when the assignment is due or at burn out. Ideally, I believe this to be indicative of constant growth and improvement in me, which was not something that I gave much thought towards prior to ENGL 250.
When considering the audience when I communicate, more so than anything else, I consider their age and/or social status. In a presentation lets say, such as the one for Assignment 4, the audience that I was presenting to were largely peers, and as such I adopted a more casual tone and relaxed my posture to create a friendlier atmosphere and alleviate some elements of the anxiety that naturally comes from talking in front of a crowd. In a more professional setting however, I tend to straighten my back and speak more monotonously because I would feel that it was more suitable considering the situation. I do this in writing as well, where in Assignment 1, I didn’t care too much for sophistication and transcribed my unfiltered thoughts essentially. I did the exact opposite for all of the other assignments because those would have been graded.
Prior to this class, I have never considered myself to be a particularly good talker, and neither do I enjoy it when it isn’t absolutely necessary of me. However, there is a unique sense of validation in executing a presentation well, and I have been told that I have a good voice for it. Feedback from my peers have been particularly encouraging, as it took a lot of courage for me to talk in front of the class for Assignment 4. It was a euphoric experience to hear that I had done well, when my legs were on the verge of giving in the middle of the presentation. I either hid it well, or everyone had the courtesy to not mention it. I would like to think it was the former.
In short, I have grown exponentially as a writer and communicator. I acknowledge that I am still far from where I need to be, and much could still be improved upon, but I believe I am now miles ahead of who I was at the beginning of the semester, before taking ENGL 250.