Hello and welcome!

This website is a showcase of essays and artifacts I’ve crafted throughout my journey in my Composition for US Experience FIQWS course. Each piece shows a unique exploration of ideas and perspectives that I’ve developed during my time in this course. From analytical critiques to reflective narratives, these pieces capture my growth as a writer and thinker. Now to dive into each piece of information on this website and how they helped me develop as a writer that prompted me to include them in this profolio.

To start with the highlight of this collection, The Semi-weekly Reflections. The primary goal of these reflections was to encourage me to look back at my work, analyze my thought process, and build a deeper understanding of how I could improve in the future. By doing so, The reflections helped me develop the habit of asking myself important questions during the writing process, rather than waiting until afterward, allowing me to better formulate and build my papers as I wrote them. The reflections aided me in practicing key rhetorical strategies that have been key to improving the clarity and purpose of my writing.   This process required me to think critically about the purpose of each essay—ensuring that my main point or purpose was clear to my audience and evaluating its relevance within the context of the piece. By engaging in this reflection, I’ve been able to craft more effective writing that resonates with readers.

The learning narratives contain three separate instances within my life which I felt impacting my growth as a person most and turning those three moments into three separate paragraphs or vignettes, requiring me to reflect deeply and convey these experiences with clear, vivid detail. This approach ensures the reader can fully understand what I felt at the time and why these moments were so impactful. Then taking those well developed paragraphs and questioning if the reason those moments were so important and impactful was because I learned something in those moments and later attempting to develop a learning analysis outline that basically takes the three moments takes then out of the separate paragraph format and combine them into a cohesive essay with a clear thesis and conclusion. that both provide a clear argument; In my case,  My argument, in this case, was that I learn from the mistakes I make, using them as opportunities to improve in the long run. Once the outline was completed it was on to the Learning Analysis Draft which was just converting the Outline and the Vignettes into one readable semi-final piece. All three of these steps, the Vignettes, the outline and the Draft, were my first real moments trying to write about myself.   I struggle with writing about myself in a way that others can because, from my perspective, I already know what happened. Going into enough detail for the reader to grasp the experience has always been a challenge. Additionally, revising and editing my work is difficult because I often overlook my own mistakes. But I was able to challenge those issues and overcome them in the process of developing those three artifacts. 

However, the learning analysis draft was just that—a draft. So the final piece was where all of my work on the before mentioned vignettes all came together on formal paper, something I had never done professionally before the Learning Analysis Final Paper. This connected to my growth as a writer not only because it was my first time making a professional paper but also because I was required to integrate an argument that I had to prove to my reader and support using examples which were my moments. It was challenging to make sure that these events were not only important, but also properly utilized to support my point. This taught me how to write a more coherent and convincing essay, consequently boosting my ability to communicate complicated ideas simply and effectively. 

Moving on to the final module of the course, the research module. Right from the start I had to begin an annotated bibliography however, I stumbled across a major issue: I didn’t know how to find reliable academic sources that passed the CRAAP test. This was an important challenge, as finding credible and relevant sources was key to producing a strong research paper. Developing the skill to identify, analyze, summarize, and cite texts became essential in improving my academic skills. Learning how to evaluate sources critically and ensure they met the right standards was a turning point in my academic career, gaining me a skill set that I will continue to use in future research projects.

Of course the next artifact to touch on would be the Research Outline. Because I have to convert the information gathered in the Annotated Bibliography and other research outside of that in order to take the mock sketch of how I want my paper to be long and what information I want my paper to contain. All the information provided in my scores was far too much so I have to strengthen my ability to compress the important information in articles and paraphrase the information into my own words. Additionally also remembering to and learning how to give intext citations to the appropriate authors so as not to plagiarize. The Outline had to contain a clear and motivated argument that public schools need to work on integrating better reforms that apply to their minority students. This argument translated to my final Research paper to which I also had to maintain a credible standing on by providing clearly cited sources that were relevant and beneficial to my paper. Ensuring that my sources were not only reliable, but also directly supported my argument was essential for improving the overall quality of my paper. This strategy emphasized the significance of utilizing credible evidence to support my ideas and helped me establish a more organized approach to research and writing.

The final assignment and my final artifact, the Multimodal translation and Rhetorical situation which by far was the hardest assignment I received throughout the year. This was because I was tasked with taking a complicated and depressing topic such as systemic racism in the US public schooling system and converting it into something that is visually engaging and accessible like an infographic. The goal was to present the topic in a way that showed attention without undermining the seriousness of the issue. I wanted to create something that could reach and persuade a wider audience, including those who might not be inclined to read my full research paper from start to finish. This process taught me how to balance presenting important, thought provoking content while maintaining the integrity of the subject. And then going a step further and explaining the rhetorical situation, which provided me with the ability to look into text to think about the motivations, the credibility, or the intended purpose or message the author wanted for me, the reader to gain out of writing. Applying this to myself was simple but thinking about how the translations altered the view of my work is amazing.

To recap This portfolio highlights my growth as a writer throughout my FIQWS course. It showcases a variety of assignments that helped me develop critical writing, research, and analytical skills. From strengthening my writing process through reflections to learning how to analyze sources and show complex topics in easy to understand formats, each project only added to my development. Overall, these works demonstrate how I’ve evolved as both a writer and thinker, with a focus on improving my ability to present my ideas clearly.