Final Portfolio Essay

Design: Over all the layout of my e-portfolio is made to be very simplistic to reflect how
I work. As a person I am not a fan of flash and flair. Everything present should serve a
purpose. I chose to organize it in two ways. One with every artifact and document on
the same page. Another with separate pages for each type of artifact. While this may
sound complicated, I wrote instructions on how to navigate the site on the home page.
This method of organization utilizes special, visual, and Linguistic communication.
Contribution: The first thing that really contributed to my learning was my exploratory
essay. In my introduction to engineering class I was required to write a 3 to 5-page
paper about my passion. The exploratory essay gave me the opportunity to expand on
what that was before I began. I had never really thought about what my passion was
before these classes. And with these two assignments it has become abundantly clear.
What I viewed as my passion has come a great way since the beginning of my
semester. Starting out as storytelling has expanded to entertainment in general, and
given me a clear view of what I want to do with my life. It also helped me explore why I
like many of the things I do, and make connections I would not have otherwise made
before my exploratory essay.
The next piece that stand out in my mind is the exploratory essay. I really required me to
make connections in a much more in depth way than I have had to before.
My midterm serves as a reminder of what I needed to improve on most. It really
challenged me to think about where and how to fit quotes into my papers. This helped
me greatly in my research paper, as well as several of my engineering assignments.

The 3 column notes serve as a land mark for learning how to properly cite my sources.
Which, as the midterm did, helped immensely with many engineering papers.
All of the drafts serve the same purpose. They show my steps through writing a paper.
The 3 column notes draft show an outline, what will be written where. The traditional
research paper draft shows the rough-rough draft, a skeleton of a paper with notes
placed all around to be filled in later. The midterm draft represents the first draft, a first
attempt at a full paper, but still missing a lot of work. The exploratory essay draft is the
pre final draft. The closest thing to a final draft without being a final draft. It lacks a few
changes, but outside that just needs grammatical and spelling editing.
Similarly, the feedback I have posted both point out areas where I can improve, and
hopefully have. The exploratory essay (which I have titled as one of my ENGR
assignments for unknown reasons) points out where I am too redundant, and what I
need to add to improve my pathos as a writer. The midterm feedback helped me relax
when writing, and how to handle open ended assignments and questions.
The vaccine notes show my what happens before what the drafts show. This helped me
solidify my writing process and really got me excited about writing my traditional
research paper.
While it may seem like a joke, the drawing of the fish we made in class solidified what I
learned from my midterm feedback. The interpretation of a question varies so much
form person to person that there is no right answer when completing it.
The miscellaneous works or wild cards showed me the contrast between genres, and
reason for writing. When writing for scientific reason many of the things I learned in this

class help. Things like writing for a specific audience made writing these assignments
much easier, and more manageable.
The make-up work I completed are almost directly related to what I wrote in my
midterm. These assignments benefit me and my growth as a writer regardless of grade.
These assignments reflect how sometimes I still do an assignment sometimes if the
learning experience is important.
Analysis: Throughout this course I have noticed drastic change in my writing ability.
The biggest being the ability to write for an audience, which helped greatly in other
classes as well. The lack of this ability is what has left many holes in papers past, and
often lost me the grades I desired. I would regularly write and answer question to my
understanding, leaving the reader confused, and wondering where I am coming from.
This ability has helped me, and will continue to help me greatly as I progress through
college and into a career.
Key Concepts:
Taking responsibility for your own learning, as stated in my midterm, is something I
have struggled with since grade school. I had great improvement during the beginning
of the semester, but lost a lot of traction from several assignments in other classes.
My composing processes is something I have been developing through this semester.
It is displayed in my drafts section of the e-portfolio. Working form an outline, to a
skeleton, to a first draft, and finally a pre final draft. My best papers have been produced
with this process, and it is quite noticeable when I do not use it.
I am quite avid at making connections.

Grade: In all honesty I believe I deserve a C. This is due to the fact that I have put a lot
of effort into the work I have done, but not as much time as I probably should have. I
have not only organized my e-portfolio in a logical, and easily navigable manner, but
provided instructions on how to do so on the home page. However, my quoting could
probably use some improvement. Besides that, the only thing that could be missing are
unanswered questions, which I have a tough time finding, and was unable to have my
paper peer reviewed due to time constraints, other classes, and one day with a splitting
headache. Earlier in the semester I would say I deserve a B, but I still struggle greatly
with incorporating quotes into my works, without them sounding forced and out of place.
Given more time, thought and help I could even earn a A, but my responsibility for my
own learning had dropped as the deadline approaches. And this is a habit that I hope
to finally kick next semester.