Anthony Muscato
Dr. Li
Eng 101
14 December 2016
Dear Portfolio Assessment Committee,
Final Reflection
Throughout
the semester, I’ve really enjoyed what we’ve learned. We’ve had many different
assignments covering an array of topics and I think this aspect has made the
course so interesting. In most English classes, the assignments are very
structured. However, in this class, I feel as if we were given a sense of freedom
where we could write about something we are passionate about. For example, I
have been able to write about our family’s traditional “seven fishes” dinner in
a blog post and traditional Pittsburgh foods from the Strip District that my
family loves in my food blog. I’ve even been able to write about my favorite
summer nights in the Allegheny National Forest in my photo essay. I’ve never
been able to write about either of these topics in previous English classes so just
these assignments alone are enough to put this English class above all of the
rest that I have taken. In addition, I really like how we watched short films
and clips like Eat Drink Man Woman and Como agua para Chocolate and analyzed
them. I’ve never really done this in a class before.
As for my
own personal development, I felt as if my creative writing skills heading into
the course were lacking. Dating all the way back to high school, it had been
almost two years since I was given a creative writing assignment. Before this
course, my writing assignments had been all research based where I read a text
or interviewed someone and then analyzed. I was never able to put my own
creative touch on any of it. With that said, it wasn’t nearly as hard to get
back into the flow things as I thought because of how much more I enjoy
creative writing. I believe some of my best creative writing can be seen in “my
meal for the class” blog post where I describe what kind of meal I would
prepare. In addition, getting to write about the strip district in our food
blog assignment was something I had been wanting to do for a long time and also
served as a solid example to show off my creative writing skills. There is so
much rich culture hidden within the city of Pittsburgh that no one knows about
and this assignment was perfect for getting all of that information out for
everyone to see.
I enjoyed
this assignment so much that I didn’t even consider it as an “assignment”
because it was something I enjoyed working on so much. The food blog allowed me
the opportunity to further connect with family and friends and even learn more
about what the Strip has to offer. If you find yourself passionate about food
and film like I am, you will have ample opportunities to write about all your
favorites in this course. It is my only hope that other classes had more
assignments like this one to take the stress out of school work for a change.
Lastly, I
believe my editing processes have improved tremendously over the course of the
semester. With all of the writing assignments we have had in this class, there
has been a lot of editing that we have had to do as a result. I realized this
quickly when I turned in my first blog post describing audience and genre and
received a check minus. From there on out, I never took for granted the editing
process again. I fully participated in all of the peer reviews, used Dr. Li as
a resource, and then ultimately thoroughly checked my work myself. Having so
many writing assignments, I developed a system that I believe turned out to work
pretty well as long as I understood the assignment correctly. First, I got all
of my thoughts down on a piece of paper. Second, I checked to see if my work
made any sense; did it flow properly? Third, I found every adjective in the
paper and checked to see if there was a way I could make the word stronger. Dr.
Li loves detail! Then finally, I read over the assignment one last time
checking for small grammatical errors or misspelled words. I will definitely be
carrying this editing process with me for my future assignments.
In
conclusion, not only do I feel as if I have learned many valuable techniques
and strategies from this course, but I feel as if I will be able to take these
and apply them to my everyday life as well as other classes moving forward. With
that said, this semester has taught me four major lessons. First, the significance
of knowing key terms like audience and genre and how to effectively incorporate
them into my writing so I can get the most out of it. Second, how to evaluate
and synthesize through the many blog posts that were assigned as well as the
multiple reviews we had to compose. Third, write both academically in the way
we presented our formal reviews and then expressively in the way we presented
our food blogs. Then finally, how to reach a final product. This class has made
me realize just how important the editing process really is and for that, I am
very grateful. This has truly been the most beneficial writing
course I have taken to date and I would recommend it to
anyone.
Blog Post: Not Your Average Cookout
original.docx (Original)
Printed Assignment: updated night blog post.docx
(Photo essay, using as my printed assignment)
Research Log: updated
research blog.docx
Proposal: Food Blog
proposal.docx
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