Isaac Valley

December 2, 2014
ENC 1101
Portfolio Reflection

As I look back over the past 15 weeks I realize that I am not the same writer that I was
before. I have learned the importance of revision and audience understanding. In past English
papers I had 1st drafts but never 2nd drafts. In this class I have learned that the perfect paper
doesnt begin to show until it has been rewritten two or three times. For example the 1st draft of
my Sports Illustrated magazine article was terrible. I wrote with the intention of bashing UF, the
SEC, and ESPN for the hypocritical condemnation of Florida State. I allowed my personal
opinion to skew the article. So in other words, I didnt pander to my audience. I was writing for a
national magazine with the local bias of a FSU fan. My article suffered because I didnt
understand my audience. Although once I started writing with my national audience in mind, my
article was relatable and relevant.
Another big lesson that I learned this year was that poetry can be fun. The poetry
assignment place me outside my element. Its true that I studied the work of poets in high school
but I did not have a lot of experience writing in traditional verse. My Petrarchan sonnet, Much
More Than a Sport, was particularly difficult to write. Initially I struggled with the complex
rhyme structure of this poetic style. But this assignment was yet another shining example of the
overlapping lesson for the value of revision. My best sonnet was not visible until I rewrote it
three times.

My final poem about Michelangelos painting The Final Judgment was the most personal
poem that I wrote. Creating that poem took a certain level of introspection, I had to evaluate my
Christian relationship with God in order to respond to this painting. I had a similar thought
process when I wrote my crots for the first assignment. In the beginning I was unsure what the
overall theme was, that came later. It was only after I finished my third crot that I realized that I
was writing about times in my life where I learned something about myself. In Colorado I
learned that I had a passion for snow and skiing. After injuring myself with a dumb bell as a
child and destroying my phone years later in a pool I learned that Im inherently careless when I
allow excitement to overpower a sound head. From these two examples I learned the value of
inspiration from introspection. The most meaningful essays are born from personal information.
A deep paper that exposes the narrators hopes, dreams, insecurities, and fears is the most
effective way to grasp the interest of a reader,
So from now on throughout college and in my career, I plan to write from a more
personal standpoint. I will personally invest myself in every paper because that always produces
the best result. When writing, whether for a class or a magazine, the concept of understanding
the audience is key. If you as a writer dont understand the interests of the reader then your
words are useless. Its like explaining to a 6 year old why the construction of the U.S. railroad
was a powerful tool for connecting the post-civil war North and South. Of the three assignments,
the article was the most enjoyable because I not only wrote a magazine article but I also learned
a lot about college football. I knew that Florida State wasnt the only school to have a football
player get arrested but I didnt know of examples like I do now.