My Portfolio

            Throughout the course of the semester, I have become more comfortable with my ability to write a professional paper. If you were to ask me to complete any of the Projects we have been tasked with in the last semester, I would have looked at you dumbfounded. My first free-write is a perfect reference point for how far I have come in my writing, specifically in the sense of my grammar and sentence structure.

             Project 1 was the most daunting task but ultimately helped me develop my ability to compose a discussion piece, which helped me maintain a sense of neutrality. I also furthered my ability to analyze sources and apply them in the most efficient manner when trying to develop my paper, something that I have often struggled with in the past. Going into ENC-2135, I had never written a paper of that magnitude, so the word count was the most intimidating part. But as the course progressed, I found myself becoming more comfortable with larger wordcount requirements. In my initial draft of project 1, I found myself attempting to structure it like any other paper that I had written, which never exceeded 1000 words, which made the structure of the paper undesirable. So, it also helped me become more comfortable with writing longer papers and adjusting the structure to maintain their readability.  

             I have learned how genres influence different audiences and how they use varying rhetorical strategies to accomplish this.  I honed this skill this by not only going into extreme depth exploring the different genre conventions which can be seen in the notes for my second project we completed, but also developing different genres of our own, while maintaining awareness of the audiences we intended on reaching. This not only puts us in the perspective of the processor of the information but also the developer, giving me insight which I have never had before. I hadn’t considered the influence that one seemingly insignificant detail of an artifact could have on its perceived audience. 

I had heard of rhetoric before this class, so it wasn’t an entirely new concept for me. But throughout the course I was able to understand the impact of rhetorical devices on its intended audience, and how different rhetorical devices are more suited to specific audiences. A professional paper for example would be more akin to maintaining a logical appeal when developing its arguments, while a love letter would contain mostly empathetic remarks. I learned how wide a range there can be when it comes to rhetorical appeal, and the uniqueness of each paper because of that fact.  

            Most importantly, we were able to write about a topic that pertained to our future careers, giving me not only writing skills to carry into my profession, but also insight into how I would accomplish my goals within my future profession. The class not only helped me develop my skills as a writer but furthered my knowledge of an undeniably important topic in the field of engineering. This allowed me to maintain interest in my topic, making the writing process interesting and insightful.