Writing Portfolio
Falise - ENC 1101 - 2014
Discussion Posts
Peer Discussion Posts
Personal Discussion Posts
This discussion post was very relatable in the sense of the time requirements of making drafts versus skipping the drafts and attempting to create the final copy on the first try. I, too, find that it ends up taking more time to try to compose the final draft directly. I believe the reason for this is because of my fear of the red pen of graders. I feel the pressure of having to be perfect right away. However, with a first draft that I can just throw my raw thoughts onto, aside from being formed quicker, the end paper is often of higher quality.
I feel as though this discussion post really agreed with my findings from the reading. I used to always feel as though because I could summarize an article, I completely understood it and its purpose. However, I would generally get the "main idea" questions wrong on my different practice and standardized tests. This is the reason for why I have doubted my abilities in English; I didn't realize that I just needed to learn how to use different techniques to look deeper into the text itsel.
This particular discussion post was important to me because I received a grade of 2 out of 2 and a comment mentioning that my last paragraph was especially accurate. I was starting to produce more in-depth discussion posts that I was proud of and I noticed a change in my writing. This change was a particular turning point for me because I began having more confidence in my writing. My first few posts and comments let it be known that I wasn't completely comfortabe in English or my wrting, and in this discussion post I was able to connect with the reading because of my clear understanding of the material. This was very encouraging for me as a worried student.
By the third unit of this course, I was able to make deeper connections with the world around me. Noticing the reason behind why Sigma Alpha Pi required me to be active before inducting me as a member was clear once I related the organization as a discourse community. I was also able to connect the material to my future profession of medicine. Lexis is in every community, as stated by Swales, and in my future field in is present in the different acronyms that we must learn. I am very comfortable in saying that my discussion posts have improved and my understand of connections, as well as the text, has drastically improved since my first discussion post.
Grant - Davie was able to help show me the why behind writing rather than the what or the how. I was able to see that people write because they feel they have the capability of changing a scenario with their words and use of rhetorical strategies. In the unit about rhetorical analysis, I was easily able to connect with the material because a lot of it was common sense to me. For example, constraints are understandable because there are always limitations to different scenarios. The other point that Grant - Davie was very clearly able to explain to me is that sometimes an audience can be no one other than yourself. Diaries or journals are not being intended to be read by others. Although this reading wasn't easy to apply in my assignment, it made the entire assignment, concepts, and meaning behind the assignment much more relatable. This discussion post was important to me because the reading itself impacted me and my understanding of the material drastically.
