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Chris Loftin
Ms. Ingram
Uwrt 1103
9 December 2015

Final Portfolio Essay

Over the course of the past semester, I have learned a lot from UWRT 1103. I have
applied the things I learned to all of my writings, allowing me to reflect and see the growth of my
writing abilities. I have setup my e-portfolio in a way that showcases my work in a clear and
organized fashion. I created tabs for all major assignments and have included artifacts of work
done in class as well as feedback I have received. As I progress through this essay, I will examine
each of the works I have completed and reflect on key concepts that I employed in my writing
such as rhetorical knowledge, composing processes, and knowledge of conventions.
E-Portfolio
Firstly, the setup my e-portfolio greatly impacts the way readers view it. With this in
mind, I kept things simple and straightforward and made navigating my site pretty selfexplanatory. I utilized the visual mode of communication to capture my readers attention. I
chose a streamline layout to make the site aesthetically pleasing. In doing this, I incorporated the
spatial mode of communication, making sure my e-portfolio isnt too cluttered with images and
documents. I organized each page in order of the assignments we received, beginning with our
semester long blog posts.

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Blog Posts
The semester long blog post assignment is one of the major features in my e-portfolio. All
of my blog posts challenged me to critically think about the questions being asked and helped me
to better understand assignments we were doing in class. Blog post #5 specifically helped with
my research paper as it helped me establish my research paper audience. This viewpoint is
crucial to my round table discussion because NFL players feel the first-hand effect of new NFL
regulations. This quote from my blog post #5 is referring to the opinions of current NFL players
who I cite often in my research paper. I discovered through this blog post that they would be my
main audience. The blog posts also challenged me to learn from our class textbook. Blog post #2
required me to read the early chapters of Who Says? The Writers Research which taught me
about how to create a unique voice in my writing. Although you are looking to researchers and
scholars to help you construct your argument, this is ultimately your work and your research
writing should represent who you are both as an academic and as a writer, (Holdstein, p.15).
I took what I learned from chapter 2 about my writing voice and applied this to my inquiry
paper as well as this FPE. The blog posts made me responsible for my own learning as I had to
apply what I was learning from the textbook and from class and put it into a concise, wellthought response.

Exploratory Essay
The first major essay included in my e-portfolio is my exploratory essay. This essay
challenged me with thinking about a passion of mine and then elaborating on its importance to
my life. I struggled to find something that I was passionate about so I took the other route and

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wrote about something that I hate with a passion. That thing which I loathe so passionately is
country music. I enjoyed the challenge presented by this essay as it asked me to step out of my
comfort zone. I dont typically like writing personal essays that require me to reflect on
something in my life or exaggerate about something I dont really care about. However, the fact
that I was able to exercise some freedom in my writing with this assignment allowed me to
employ some humor in my writing which is one of the few things I enjoy in writing. Its the
perfect background music for someone on the verge of a mental breakdown. This quote from
my exploratory essay displays a small speck of enjoyment that I found in this writing
assignment. I was able to challenge the clich what do you like to do? essay topic by writing
about something that was actually therapeutic to put on paper.
Midterm
My midterm paper was helpful in terms of critical reflection as I looked back over my
work through the halfway point in the semester. One assignment that I reviewed in my midterm
was my exploratory essay. I wrote about what my peers had said and how I used their input to
better my paper. After reading what my peers had written about my exploratory essay, I revised
my paper to add more detail. The exploratory essay was the first time we began workshopping
which was helpful in constructing all of my final drafts. The midterm also made me question my
rhetorical knowledge. Although I displayed rhetorical knowledge in my exploratory essay, I feel
it was limited and did not include all three rhetorical categories (ethos, logos and pathos). My
rhetorical knowledge includes my writing voice which is something I initially wanted to improve
on. I feel I have improved on my use of rhetorical knowledge since my midterm which shows
growth in my writing abilities. I also received feedback on my midterm from Ms. Inrgam which

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let me know my status in the class and what I was doing right/wrong. I included this feedback
later on in this FPE with my writers choice artifacts.

3-Column Notes
We were allowed to choose from two options for our bibliography for our inquiry project.
These two options included a visual bibliography and 3-column notes. I chose to do the 3column notes because I felt more comfortable with simply writing annotations about my sources
rather than having to make a visual presentation. The 3-column notes option was a good choice
for me because it allowed me to create a column containing my own thoughts on my sources.
Through this thoughts column, I was able to begin creating my argument for my research
paper. I support the idea of making football safer for everyone, however, I feel that there should
be a limit to the extent of which these safety regulations are applied. This quote came from my
thoughts column in response to one of my sources which discussed a lawsuit filed by former
NFL players against the NFL. I was able to transfer these thoughts to my research paper making
the 3-column notes a useful tool for my inquiry project.
Traditional Research Paper
My traditional research paper was the most time consuming paper however it contains
some of my favorite writing. I thought I would struggle maintaining interest in my research topic
(Is the NFL getting worse because of new safety rules?) however, through continued research, I
found myself fairly immersed and concerned with the NFL concussion controversy. I was able to
establish my voice clearly in this paper using my growing understanding of rhetorical
knowledge, making my argument clear that the NFL has gone far enough with their safety

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regulations. NFL players make a sacrifice to try and achieve something great and I, like many
fans, admire and respect their sacrifice and hard work. I hate to see their efforts diminished by
the regulatory agenda of NFL officials. This quote is a great example of how I used pathos in
my writing voice to convey my argument to my audience as I tried to relate my argument to fans
of the NFL as they are important to the NFLs success. I also implemented logos in my research
paper to show that the NFL has already done enough to reduce concussions. I thought back to the
textbooks definition of logos which was appealing to the audience on the basis of logic,
(Holdstein, p. 9). I accomplished this by giving statistics such as concussions in the NFL
dropped from 270 in 2010 to 170 in 2012. In order to establish a solid argument, I had to rely on
a lot of research. The research I did for this paper gave me much needed practice in finding
quality sources as well as citing those sources. I specifically struggled with parenthetical citation
but after my conference with Ms. Ingram, I learned the proper way to cite sources within my
paper. This understanding of essential skills such as proper citation ties in with my knowledge of
conventions. This will serve me well with future research papers that I write throughout college.
Process Work Artifact #1-2: Exploratory Essay Drafts #1-2
My initial exploratory essay draft was short and lacking of detail. After our first
workshop in class, my peers gave me some great advice on how to revise this draft to make my
exploratory essay more complete. On my artifacts page, feedback from one of my workshop
group members can be seen on my 2nd exploratory essay draft. Try to expand on this like how
the repetition made you feel. This was feedback from my classmate in response to my
discussion of country musics repetitiveness. My classmate was basically telling me to add
more detail which I did in my final draft by adding a couple lines from a Blake Shelton song:
Yeah the boys 'round here, drinking that ice cold beer, talkin' 'bout girls, talkin' 'bout trucks.

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This quote is self-explanatory since it supported my opinion of how simple and repetitive
country music is. Through the workshop with my peers I was able to advance my essay and
complete a final draft.
Work Process Artifact #3: Inquiry Project Conference
I chose my third research paper draft as one of my process artifacts because it was the
draft I read during my workshop group conference with Ms. Ingram. This draft was almost
complete; it required some citation and formatting corrections which were pointed out to me by
Ms. Ingram in the conference. The changes I made to my citations can be seen in my final draft
in examples like the following: Research such as a study done at Johns Hopkins which dealt
with retired players revealed that they undeniably experienced brain injury as a result of constant
collisions to the head (Johns Hopkins Study). Since many of my sources didnt have specific
authors listed in the citations, I learned through my conference that I can give a short phrase from
the title of the article for my parenthetical citation. As mentioned earlier, this ties in with my
knowledge of conventions because proper citation is an essential writing element that I need to
master for future writings.
Work Process Artifact #4: Midterm Paper Prep
For my final work process artifact, I selected a piece of paper that I wrote notes on in
preparation for writing my midterm. In these notes I wrote down the key concepts that I wanted
to discuss in my midterm reflection. These key concepts included critical reading, critical
reflection, rhetorical knowledge and independent inquiry. I went on to write about all of these
concepts in my midterm reflection making these notes a good example of how I mapped out my
writing.

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Feedback Artifact #1: Warm-Up 10/22/15

The prompt to this warm-up was about our visual bibliography/3-column notes (in my
case it was my 3-column notes) and asked us if we had any questions. I was questioning my
usage of quotations in my 3-column notes so I wrote in this warm-up I used a lot of quotations
in my bibliography so I hope that is acceptable. I received feedback on this warm-up from Ms.
Ingram who responded with I think a lot of your annotations are your own summaries. This
feedback allowed me to feel comfortable with my 3-column notes, knowing that I hadnt relied
too much on quotes from the sources I was annotating.
Feedback Artifact #2: Midterm Feedback
When I received my midterm paper back, it came with feedback from Ms. Ingram. In this
feedback, Ms. Ingram talked about the key concepts that I discussed and gave me advice on how
to improve on those concepts. She wrote Maybe one way you can challenge yourself-and
perhaps stretch out of your comfort zone a bit-would be to treat each blog assignment as a
rhetorical challenge. I took this advice and applied it to all of my future blog posts. I gave
specific attention to the rhetorical choices in all of the blog posts that followed this midterm,
making this feedback very beneficial.
Writers Notebook #1: Genre Worksheet
For my first writers notebook artifact, I chose a worksheet we received in class that dealt
with different types of genres. Each group also received an example of a genre whether it be a
website link or, in my groups case, an advertisement for goldfish. We had to examine the genre
given to us and the rhetorical choices the author made for that genre. For our goldfish

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advertisement, we looked at the visual mode of communication as the advertisement contained

images of goldfish which would appeal to the authors audience. We determined the goal of the
genre was to inform people who eat goldfish about a special discount they could receive through
this advertisement. This activity helped me learn to identify the rhetorical choices writers make
within specific genres which made me think about how I approach my writing and how I should
appeal to my audience using the five modes of communication.
Writers Notebook Artifact #2: Warm-Up 9/10/15
This artifact is a warm-up that asked us how I would begin writing my exploratory essay.
I chose to include this warm-up because it ties into the key concept of getting out of my comfort
zone since I didnt really know how to approach my exploratory essay. This warm-up was also
important because it displays the process that I go through in preparation for writing papers.
Wild Card #1: Warm-Up 12/1/15
In this warm-up, we were asked how we felt about the progress of our FPE. The only
question I have for my group today is how many key concepts they incorporated into their
paper. After working in our groups, I gained feedback from my classmates and decided that I
would focus on just a few key concepts to keep this FPE straightforward.
Wild Card #2: Fish Drawing
I felt the need to include our fish drawing warm-up in my artifacts because the lesson it
taught helped me change my view of writing. Ms. Ingram asked our class to draw a fish on a
piece of paper. After this, we were asked to compare our fish to everyone elses. The point of
this, according to Ms. Ingram, was to show how we all do things differently. She told us to think
about this when we approach our writing. This was eye-opening since I had always thought of

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writing as a methodical, calculated process. Drawing a fish helped me see that writing is about
what you feel and cannot be molded by a set of predetermined writing guidelines.
My Grade
Although there were some assignments that I was skeptical about, I feel my work in this
class is deserving of at least a B. I didnt miss any assignments nor did I miss too many classes. I
spent a lot of time on my e-portfolio to ensure that it meets all requirements. I have been working
on this FPE for a while now as well, trying my best to make it as quality as can be. My efforts in
this class are worthy of a good marks; if the amount of growth I experienced through this
semester is any indication of my grade then I think I will be alright.

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Sources
Holdstein, Deborah H., and Danielle Aquiline. Who Says?: The Writer's Research. Print.