mollyportfolio

= Online Reflective Portfolio =

Finding Friendship [[file:short_story[1].doc]]
This short story is probably my favorite paper that I wrote in high school. I actually wrote it for my senior Creative Writing class. I thoroughly enjoyed working on this paper because it was so much fun. It tells the story of a young boy who is constantly picked on at school and is called names. He has no friends but as the story progresses he makes a great friend under the most unusual circumstances. The whole story is ironic because you don't know that the main character is actually a clove of garlic until the very end. When I was writing this story I kind of let the words just flow and guide me, and I feel that it worked out rather well. I chose to include this paper in my portfolio because I feel that it is a rather good depiction of my writing before I took the English 103 course.

The Tooth and the Pliers [[file:Memoir.docx]]
This memoir was the first piece of writing that we did for this course. I really enjoyed writing this paper because it was just like writing a story. I have always loved to tell stoires, ever since I was a little kid I loved to write stories and share them with others. I chose this particular memory because it is kind of funny and very entertaining. Actually, if you think about it the story isn't that funny, however people's reaction to the story is quite funny. This piece of writing is important in my writing development because it represents what my writing was like when I entered the English 103 course. When I turned in this paper, I felt rather proud of the work that I had done on it, and the grade that I received reflected my opinion.

A Public Letter To My Friend, Kaitlyn[[file:Public Letter.docx]]
The Public Letter was the second piece of writing that we did for this course. I was very surprised when I received this assignment, who would have thought that writing a letter to my friend would be a homework assignment. However it wasn't a letter about just anything, it was a criticism letter drawing attention to something that we felt was bad. I chose to write a letter to my friend expressing my dislike for her online relationship. I chose this topic because it is something that I felt rather strongly about, and while I never said anything to her in person it was nice to be able to express my feelings and say on paper what I was saying in my head. I chose to include this paper because I had never really written a letter before and I feel that I did a pretty good job, all things considered. It also helps reflect how I have learned how to write in different styles during this course.

The //Real// Cost of College Textbooks[[file:research argument.docx]]
I was very nervous about writng this research argument, I have never been particularly good at writing these. Research papers and argument papers I'm good at, but when you put the two of them together nope, not my thing. This was also the first time that I had ever worked with a group to come up with a topic and find research together. I wasn't sure how this was going to work out because in the past I haven't had teh best luck working in groups. For some reason I am always stuck in a group with people who don't do anything, luckily that did not happen this time. We decided that our research argument would be about hte real cost of college textbooks. This was a topic that we all felt passionate about and knew others in the class could relate to. I chose to include this piece because it was something that I hadn't had much experience with before. It helps to show how this course has helped me improve in this style.

Surviving Senior Year of High School[[file:GENRES_FINAL.pdf]]
This paper was completely different from any other paper that I have written before. However, it was lots of fun to write. It was a different approach using different types of genres to make a point and convince the reader of something that you feel is important. I liked that rather than stating something like you would in an essay you gave proof through examples and let the reader come to the conclusion on their own without actually having to state it. I decided to write about my experiences during my senior year of high school. I think my favorite piece from my paper was the extened metaphor poem that I wrote called "Senior Year is...," it was so much fun to create. Another thing that I really enjoyed about this paper was organizing it. I decided to place all of the pieces in chronological order. I felt that this allowed the reader to follow me through my senior year. I included this piece in my portfolio because it was a piece of writing that I had never experienced before, and since it was the last paper it shows my progression throghout the course.

 Influence of the Merchant Elite [[file:Hall Paper.docx]]
This is a paper that I wrote for my History 150 class. It was supposed to be a comparitive analysis of three chapters from our textbook. The professor stressed that this was not to be a report, but rather an analysis of how networked relationships thrived. I found this paper to be extremely difficult to write, mainly because I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. The guidelines that the professor gave us were not very clear, so I kind of had to wing it. I either understood the directions better than I thought or did a fabulous job winging it because I got a much better grade on the paper than I expected to receive. I decided to include this paper in my portfolio because it is a representation of how I write outside of an english class, which I feel is rather important.