Introduction

As a high school senior with an unusually high ACT score in Reading and Writing, I
wrongly assumed that I wouldnt need to work hard in my first college English class because I
was already good enough. The baseline essay of this portfolio, a final essay which I wrote
during my first year of college, is representative of my work as an incoming freshman. This
essay provides the backdrop for my development as an English Literature major, my growth
from a mediocre writer, barely grazing the surface of the text, to a more sophisticated writer with
a particular style and a literary critics perspective. Although the baseline essay on Henry James
Turn of the Screw is lacking in organization, smooth transitions, and textual evidence, it does
have a clear argument. This baseline essay reveals my determination as a freshman to analyze
and critique the text. In contrast with the final essay in this portfolio, the baseline will serve as
the starting point, the point of comparison.
At the beginning of my college career, I struggled to use literary criticism as a tool to
interpret texts. I did not understand literary theory correctly, and I failed to see the point of any
critical lens other than the traditional reader-response approach. It wasnt until my junior year,
after I finished the literature survey courses, when I truly began to grasp the merits of differing
critical approaches in literature. After developing a personal interest in feminist theory and
gender studies, I discovered the importance of a critical lens. By examining gender roles, power
dynamics, sexuality, politics, or any other issue at work within a given text, literary critics can
create a framework for an argument and then analyze a text for a particular interpretation or

perspective. Theory allows for the exploration of these different perspectives and aims to answer
the why? of literature. Once I was able to understand literary theory, however imperfectly, I
was able to develop my analyses and push to interact with the text on a deeper level by engaging
with current scholarship and generating my own critical view.
In addition, I have learned approach texts with a critical eye. It wasnt until my junior
year of college that I began to consistently read with pen or pencil in hand. Marking up the text
is an essential part of noticing what you notice while reading. This form of active reading has
considerably improved my critical thinking and analysis because I am able to trace my
interpretation back to specific instances in the text. Furthermore, marking the text while I read
helps me record my initial perceptions.
This collection of essays reflect my personal best in organization, research, fluidity,
integration of scholarly sources, syntax, style, and rhetorical schemes. Combined, these essays
showcase the artful, coherent arguments I have constructed and supported with persuasive,
effective textual evidence. Furthermore, these essays are a reflection of the topics that I find
most interesting. For example, two of the three essays are analyses of Shakespeare plays
because I took a Shakespeare seminar both my junior and senior year. Topics such as religion,
race, sexuality, and gender roles are frequent in most of my analyses because these are most
important to me.
Although the baseline essay has a concrete argument with a strong thesis statement, the
argument is not supported adequately. The majority of the body paragraphs are quotes from

literary critics in academic journals rather than my own original critique. For example, almost
immediately in the second paragraph of the baseline essay, I include in-text citations for four
consecutive sentences without pausing to explain the quotes or offer my own analysis. This
continues throughout the essay, particularly on page five and six. Without stopping to
contextualize and analyze each quote, my writing seems fragmented and my argument is
underdeveloped.
Another flaw in this beginning essay is the organization and overall structure of the
argument. Particularly on page six, I did not include clean paragraph breaks. Instead, my
paragraphs tend to be too long, which significantly impacts the effectiveness of my argument. I
often felt the need to cram one point into an entire, page-and-a-half long paragraph, rather than
using more than one paragraph at a time to develop a portion of my argument.
In revising the essay Anxious Masculinity and Women as the Other in Shakespeares
Much Ado About Nothing, I had to break up several lengthy paragraphs into smaller, more
manageable paragraphs for continuity and clarity of argument. Specifically, in my introduction, I
combined two points to make one large paragraph. Thinking that I had to get through my
introduction and thesis statement in one paragraph, I packed as much detail as I could into the
first section without realizing that the length of the first paragraph exceeded one full page.
Although paragraphing seems like a small detail, the overall organization of a paper is key to
forming a tight, narrow argument without summary. This also helps to eliminate any
unnecessary fluff.

The essays in this portfolio reflect a sharpening of my analytical skills. I have learned to
focus on a particular interpretation of a text and ask why? and how is this accomplished? In
order to deepen my understanding of a text, I challenge myself to reread and look for supporting
details in the primary text and in secondary sources. This skill comes across as particularly
strong in the essay Anxious Masculinity and Women as the Other in Shakespeares Much Ado
About Nothing. This research essay focuses on male perception of womens fidelity in the early
modern period, specifically in relation to Shakespeares romantic comedy. I am especially proud
of this essay because of my discussion on reading female characters as texts, and the
vulnerability that early modern men experienced in their obsessive jokes about cuckoldry.
Similarly, the essay Reading Costume and Setting as Racialized in Adaptations of
Othello was heavily researched. However, in this essay I analyze both the written text of the
play and the visual aspects of various performances of Othello. In writing multiple research
essays on Shakespeare, I have gained valuable experience in identifying and studying
Shakespeares style and the common themes woven throughout his work. In order to unpack
each of these themes, I have read countless scholarly articles and sought the advice of my
professors in my research. I have found this to be especially helpful in my Shakespeare classes,
and I consider my progress in understanding Shakespeare to be one of my greatest
accomplishments in college. As a freshman, Shakespeare intimidated me because I struggled
through Hamlet and Julius Caesar in high school. However, my knowledge of Shakespeare and
my familiarity with early modern texts has dramatically improved over the last two years of my
college career. I credit this increased understanding to my professor, whose obvious excitement

and enjoyment of these plays inspired me to persevere through the antiquated language and
motivated me to develop a deeper appreciation for Shakespeare plays.
As I grew more confident in my ability to read and interpret texts, my essays became
more sophisticated and my arguments better-supported. The scopes of my essays have grown in
maturity, and that is reflected in this portfolio as contrasted with the baseline essay. Specifically,
I have attempted to integrate lenses from different disciplines into my work. One example of
this interdisciplinary approach is the essay entitled Colonialism, Law, and Religion in Chinua
Achebes Things Fall Apart. This research paper uses a post-colonialist approach to examine
law and religion in Achebes novel. I wrote this paper in the spring of my junior year and, while
it was difficult for me to integrate three distinct pieces of my argument, I learned quite a bit
about the power of language in law and religion. I continued to cultivate this interdisciplinary
approach, which fascinated me so much that I eventually decided to take an interdisciplinary
approach to my senior honors thesis on ragtime music and race in James Weldon Johnsons The
Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man. I believe that an interdisciplinary approach enriches the
overall content of any essay, just as it has enriched my education.
The biggest change in my academic writing since freshman year is my ability to frame
and express my own ideas and provide scholarly support to strengthen my argument. Rather
than regurgitating the ideas expressed in class, I have matured into analytical writer with my own
critical interpretations. As evidenced in the Turn of the Screw essay, my analytic skills as a
freshman were adequate, but underdeveloped and lacking in originality. I often copied ideas or

interpretations voiced in class and used these to frame my thesis. As a senior, I feel that the
essays in this portfolio showcase that originality and creativity that I lacked as a freshman and
sophomore. These aspects of my writing improved with time, effective teaching, and lots of
thorough reading. By reading countless peer-reviewed, scholarly articles, I have broadened my
overall understanding of all that research entails. Engaging with scholarship has improved the
quality and fluidity of my writing. I often try to imitate the tone and academic nature of these
articles. Furthermore, reading the commentary and discussion of literary scholars has
significantly improved my own ability to sustain a sophisticated textual analysis.
As a future educator, I hope that my academic writing will continue to grow and mature.
My experience with North Centrals English department has been incredibly enriching; I have
been exposed to a wide variety of texts which have enhanced my knowledge of literature. The
jumpy, choppy writing and shallow analysis I produced my freshman year provides a stark
contrast to the deeply analytical essays I wrote later in my college career. This shift is a
testament to the extensive reading, writing, and researching I have been fortunate enough to
experience over the past four years. Although the baseline essay is unsophisticated, it represents
my starting point, however rough. Experience with research and literary criticism refined my
writing and helped me sharpen my own critical lens.