Reflective+Portfolio

Jordan Melander's English 103 Portfolio

cover letter

Zero Draft Writing my zero draft was extremely helpful for me and my writing process. I got to write down all my ideas and thoughts without being critiqued on my grammar and punctuation. It was easy for me to write this because it was not something I have never seen before. Rather, it was a first-hand experience. It is not as stressful as having to start off with a rough draft being almost perfect. There was not a lot of pressure writing it which made it more laid back. I always perform better when I am relaxed and not uptight having to worry about making my paper just right. Zero drafts are beneficial because its all your free thoughts put onto paper that can eventually turn into a great idea. I definitely think it would be in my best interest to write my zero drafts in the future.

Memoir Paper My first paper assigned to me as a freshman student in college was a memoir assigned by my English 103 professor Mr. Hartman. I thought it was a wonderful paper to start off with at the beginning of the semester. We were assigned to write about something that was significant to us in our lives. It could have been a great or an awful memory, but it had to have been something that affected us in some way or another. At first I struggled thinking of what to write about, but I had the wonderful idea of writing about the day my grandpa gave me his war id bracelet at our Veteran’s day ceremony. It was the last gift he ever gave me and was really the experience that brought me closest to him. It was actually quite stress relieving to get out all my emotions of missing him and all about him onto paper. A memoir is a great paper to write because the passion and emotional levels can be much deeper due to the fact it happened personally to oneself.

Letter Writing a letter didn’t seem like it could be an actual paper or writing assignment. My opinion on that was definitely an off one. I wrote a persuasive letter to the Senator about increasing financial aid for students in need and how he should get a team to start researching to create more funds. I know this sounds not quite intriguing, but through this letter I was able to express how stressful the economy for a college student truly can be. This topic hits home, because it was so overwhelming that I received zero financial aid for entering college. My father was unemployed and I have a twin brother also going through school. Writing a letter made me feel somewhat powerful that if I put my mind to it, my opinions and ideas could be sent to and read by a significant figure. Letters don’t necessarily have to be persuasive and could just be a letter to a friend. Writing a letter to someone states all that you want to say, and I was very glad we learned how to write one properly. Writing letters will be something needed to be done throughout everyone’s lifetime so it was definitely beneficial.

Research Paper During the middle of the semester of English 103, I read up on the projection screen our next writing assignment, a research paper. My mood that morning went from cheerful to doomed and distressed instantly. All I could think about was the F some of my good friends and a numerous amount of students received when our English teacher accused them of plagerism. The paper I wrote was awful, as all I was doing was writing facts it seemed like with zero expression. I was sure my teacher fell asleep when he read it. We had to get in groups to find research about an arguable or debateable topic. There wasn’t that many ideas we could think of that would have a good argument and lots of support. Writing about whether violent video games can make the gamer more violent wasn’t exactly at the the tip of my interest. Reading through articles,blogs,websites was quite a task. The more I read up on the topic though the more I got interested in what I was talking about. Research papers may not always be something your absolutely interested in, but they are helpful in life to identify two opposing sides to an argument that may not have anything to do with you. There are so many factors, stories, beliefs that once you put effort into it, you are bound to connect with your paper.

Multi Genre paper The last paper assigned for the semester was a multi-genre paper. Honestly I had never even heard of it before and I was so confused with what the objective of the assignment meant. Figuring out that we were meant to use a various amount of different genres, and what a genre and all the different types are was the key. It was like building together similar ideas to make one purpose in a paper, It was as fun as making the perfect puzzle. I seriously had a blast writing this paper learning about different genres, and how to put them together to make a paper flow. This paper is where I laid all my writing skills and development on the table and meant business. I was able to express myself completely and felt I got the purpose of my paper accross better than I had ever done before. I definitely was very proud with my final product as I spent a lot of time adding and changing where some of the genres should fit in the assignment. The multi genre helped me as well to identify how many different types of genres are out in the world, and most people don't even realize how beautiful the writing is.

Psychology Paper This year I wasn't assigned too many papers outside of english class. Psychology I had two out of class papers that were very difficult situations to explain, and my first paper I received a very low C. I was disappointed, but my thoughts and ideas had really been all over the place. The paper attached I just got back last week, and i have never been so enthused before! Once agin this was like a research paper, the type of papers i dread and suffer during the most. All the work in english to help get my ideas together instead of a scatter plot, and use better expressions for visulaization finally paid off. Anxiously opening my email with the grade I was sure there had been a mistake. I got a 95% on my paper meeting almost each of the points and ideas that I needed to thoroughly explain in my own words. This was such a self-esteem boost in my writing and really was my most immense success so far in college.

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