Mac's+Reflective+Portfolio

=Mac's Reflective Portfolio=

__Research Journal-__ [[file:Research Journal.docx]]
The reason why I decided to use my research journal for my portfolio, was because it really represented what I thought helped me progress as a writer this semester. I felt like the reflection on our work during and after a paper helped me progress a lot. This was a key example as to what I thought helped me improve. I recorded the process I went through while writing my unfamiliar genre project, and used it after to see what steps I took to get to my final product. While I was writing my multi-genre project, I found my research journal, and noticed that I pretty much took the same steps in my unfamiliar genre project as I was taking in my multi-genre project. But for me, it really was all about the reflection process and how i learned from it.

__Unfamiliar Genre Project-__ [[file:Bears news story.docx]]
The was the final product of our unfamiliar genre assignment. I included it, because I wrote a news story about the Chicago Bears. It was a sports opinion article; something I never looked into writing before. I had never really written a news story before, but I learned how to write one in my high school journalism class. I thought it would be something new and fun, so I gave it a try. Overall, I didn't do too bad on it, and I learned a lot more about the genre while researching and writing it. It was something new for me, because I had really stepped out of my comfort zone by writing something different than an essay or something like that. But I also really enjoyed it. I think it opened my eyes to the different ways people go about writing and expressing feelings or ideas.

__Persuasive Letter-__ [[file:Head Hunting.docx]]
This was my persuasive letter I wrote to high school administrators and athletic programs across the country. In the letter, I talked about the devastating effect helmet-to-helmet hits have on high school football players. I decide to include it in my portfolio, because it was something that I put a lot of effort and research into. I knew it was the perfect topic for me to write about, because it was something that effected me personally, and I could easily express how I felt about the topic and use research to backup my facts. I also did very well on this paper, and feel like it is one of my best writings from this class.

__Memoir-__ [[file:memoir final draft.docx]]
I wanted to include my memoir, because it was by far the most meaningful assignment to me. I was able to discuss something that was very personal to me, that I was never given the opportunity to share before. I think it was I knew would be easy to talk about and I could write forever about it if I had to. I came to you with my rough draft, and I had an ending in there, that my have been confusing to the readers, or a little too suspenseful. After meeting with you and discussing what we could do to change it, I added more to the ending. I described the outcome of the situation, and gave a meaning to the title. I believe this paper is a great example of how well I can apply my thoughts and emotions to my writing.

__Multigenre Project-__ [|Mac's Multigenre Project]
I wanted this project to be a part of my portfolio, because I believe it was the most fun assignment we had all semester. It gave us a huge range of creativity, and we could basically make it into anything we wanted. I decided to write about my experiences with playing guitar for the past few years. I was able to create a website and design it however i wanted. felt like that was something that set it above all the other projects, because it wasn't something that we had to write down and turn in on paper, it was something that we could create from scratch and make our own. It was something that I had never done before, and when I heard about the opportunity I really wasn't sure if i wanted to make the website or not. It seemed like it would be a lot of work and hard to do, but it actually turned out to be a lot easier and more fun than I made it out to be.