Cody 1

Thomas Cody
Mrs. Jizi
UWRT 1103-006
26 April 2018
Overall Reflection
The main purpose for creating this digital portfolio is to reflect on all the amazing writing
that I have done throughout the semester. This shows all the things that I have learned and how
they can be applicable to other classes that I will take in the future. Simply moving all my
writing into one location has allowed me to see all the progress that I have made over the course
of the semester. As I was compiling all the data included I was blown away by the shear quantity
of assignments that we were able to complete in this short semester.
As you progress through this portfolio I have organized all my writing into their various
assignments. Within the assignment tab the assignments are in chronological order and all the
assignments included are included with the intent to show the process that I went through to
arrive at the final copy of the assignment. It is designed to flow into the supplemental
assignments. The supplemental assignments section is designed to compile various smaller
assignments that were completed throughout the semester that were not specifically related to the
four major assignments. The overall portfolio, however, is designed to be comprehensible no
matter where you begin reading. Read what interests you!
Throughout the semester we have demonstrated multiple student learning outcomes in
our writings. The first outcome that we have demonstrated is rhetorical knowledge. Rhetorical
knowledge is the ability for an individual to apply strategies across different writings. Writer’s
processes include things such as intention, audience, and purpose. In this semester we have used
our rhetorical knowledge in our genera project. We have shown rhetorical knowledge in our
genre project because they were created with a specific purpose, to inform or persuade. In
addition, we had to design our final product to reach a specific audience. Utilizing these two
factors have shown our mastery of rhetorical knowledge.
The second outcome that we have demonstrated is critical reading. Critical reading is the
ability to analyze, interpret and evaluate the ideas that you read. These abilities were mastered in
our annotated bibliography assignment. While completing the bibliography it was important to
read through hundreds of sources critically to narrow them down to the top five most important
ones to actually include. Reading with the ability to analyze the information was vital because
there was a lot of information to sift through and understand. After completing this assignment, I
have become a much better critical reader.
The third outcome mastered throughout this course is the composing process. A writer’s
process and look different depending on the style of writing but they typically are composed of
pre-writing, drafting and finalized projects. This skill was introduced and refined throughout this
semester in every written work that was completed. Composing processes was used specifically
 Cody 2

in our past authoring essay because it was brainstormed, drafted and peer reviewed our writing
before generating a finalized copy. This is just one of the many examples incorporated within the
portfolio.
The forth outcome demonstrated throughout this course is knowledge of conventions.
Throughout this course I have learned that conventions are the rules that define genres. This
includes things such as content, style, graphics and document design. All of these concepts were
utilized throughout the semester, but they were all brought together at the end with the genre
project. The genre project allowed me to take all of the information that I had been collecting and
turn it into a creative work that caught the attention of my intended audience. The mechanics,
graphics and document design that wee utilized in my genre project really allowed me to show
how much I have grown throughout the semester.
The fifth and last learning outcome is critical reflection. The ability to reflect is vital for a
writer to be able to grow and generate quality work. Reflection allows the writer to express what
they are feeling. Throughout the semester reflections were completed on each major assignment
that was completed. These reflections allowed me to look back on my writing process and see
my strengths and weaknesses. Overall, in my opinion, critical reflection is one of the most
important way to get better as a writer.
In addition to these learning outcomes I have also grown in my openness, creativity and
metacognition. I have grown in my openness through the genre project. It is very difficult to talk
about traumatic events that happen in your life, but the genre project gave me an avenue to go
outside of my comfort zone and open about my past. I have become more creative throughout
this course because when completing every assignment, I generated ideas that allowed me to
look at the task at hand differently. This was present specifically in my future authoring essay
because I was able to design a future that I wanted and that really opened the window to
creativity. Lastly, I have utilized metacognition after every major assignment through reflecting
on my process and results. This helped me examine the purpose of the writing that I have
completed throughout the semester and helped me improve on issues that I did not notice at the
beginning of the semester.
In the process of preparing this portfolio I learned how much of an impact my collapsed
lungs had on my life. I came to this conclusion because it became a large part of who I am as an
individual and became influences my writing heavily. If I had to do this semester again I would
try to focus more on other aspects of my life that have shaped me into who I am today. This
would be interesting because there are a lot of other positive things that I would have liked to
reflect on. In addition, I would probably keep the same work ethic and effort that I put into my
work throughout this semester. I enjoyed this class because it spread out the work and allowed
you to plan time to spread out each assignment. This allowed me to put a lot of time and effort
into each thing that I completed. Before going into this semester, I thought that I had a fairly
basic story and that I wasn’t that unique. After this semester I have been able to reflect on a lot of
events that have happened to me and I have realized that I am special and that nobody has quite
the same story and every story is worth hearing.