UWRT 1102-026

Jim Lee
Ms. Ingram
UWRT 1102-026
April 26, 2015

Final Portfolio Essay: The Past, Present, and Future

Diction does not dictate intelligence; therefore, simple accusations of plagiarism based solely
upon diction is ignorance. Jim Lee

Preface
If each person is unique, I once asked my English instructor, does that validate the
existence of 7 billion equally unique genres? I cannot recall her response; however, I held firm
to the ideology of individualism. This ideology transcends the American coasts; it is clear that
each human being gray, white, yellow, black, red, brown simply cannot be replaced with
another, and that each of us have own story to tell, our own genre to convey. And so, I will be
presenting my UWRT 1102-026 e-Portfolio directly from my website (Jim-Lee) from a bottomup, chronological approach. Please take your time to assess me, as a genre and as an individual.
Background of the Author
My culture is the fundamental foundation for my e-Portfolio. As I have said before in
Blog Post 8 and shall reiterate, Yin-yang is a common belief held by the Hmong peopleand
may only be achieved when nature subjugates the will of man (Blog-Post-8). However, with the
roles reversed in the modern age of man, nature is declining at a tremendous rate with mankind
booming exponentially. In that manner, gestural communication is conveniently displayed

Lee | FPE Page 1

UWRT 1102-026
through the reference of my cultural heritage. Gestural communication, according to the
definitions provided in the UWRT 1102 syllabus, is the interaction between people (Syllabus).
And, my heritage is relatively rich with numerous folklore and community. Hmong people,
specifically my family, pride ourselves in being nature cultivators, people of the forests who
thrive on natures plentiful bounty. Drawing from my ethnic heritage, I believe it is my duty to
expound upon the process of deforestation and the suggestion for alternative energy sources in
hopes of reducing or replacing the usage of wood (Blog-Post-2).
Design of the e-Portfolio
Thus, as if dedicating an ode to nature, the front cover of The Giving Tree, a childrens
book written by Shel Silverstein, became the background theme for my e-Portfolio. The Giving
Tree illustrates and narrates the retrogressive relationship between an everlasting tree and everchanging human as time progresses and the gap between the two species widens. This book
epitomizes my inquiry question because it denigrates mankind and upholds nature. With
independent inquiry and curiosity in mind, the previous, undeveloped inquiry question in Blog
Post 2 had transformed into a more engaging question: how may we effectively reduce and/or
control deforestation in developing countries, ultimately reducing the rate of destruction and
usage of wood fuel (Blog-Post-6). However, I had chosen The Giving Tree not simply due to its
aestheticism but also because its contents were emotionally moving. In regards to the selflessness
of the tree, my mother had undergone a similar treatment. Her first husband physically and
emotionally abused her every single day until his demise. Her second husband forsook her before
my older sibling had been birth. She then met and married my father with whom I would soon be
birth; he eventually abandoned my mother as well. This is absolutely tied to my topic of
deforestation, in that humans are intrinsically greedy who, when rounded down to their base

Lee | FPE Page 2

UWRT 1102-026
values, give no regards to anything/anyone save themselves. Though, the chief focus of said
paragraph is that I have proved the usage of visual and linguistic communications in the
[design of my e-Portfolio]. Visually, the aestheticism of The Giving Tree provides a clear image
of the selflessness of nature and warmly welcomes passersby, whereas, linguistically, the harsh
reality that my mother and the everlasting tree endured will remain indefinitely in our hearts,
ultimately, aiding in the overall pathos of my e-Portfolio.
Organization of the e-Portfolio
Accordingly, as aforementioned in the Preface, I will thoroughly discuss each slice of
my e-Portfolio, one-by-one, in a chronological and proximal approach, with closely-related
sections situated adjacently and presented in a timely fashion. Spatial communication, the
proximity between people or objects as defined by the UWRT 1102 syllabus, is virtually
omnipresent in my e-Portfolio, most evidently in my multi-genre brochure. Everything and every
word has been set in place to fill a specific role and purpose. For instance, Annotated
Bibliography immediately follows Blog because everything else succeeding the blog and
bibliography were largely drawn from findings and revelations produced by both of these crucial
slices.
Blog of 2015
Our weekly blog, which we held for the entirety of the 2015 spring semester for UWRT
1102-026, was heart rendering for me, personally, because the skill difference in sentence
structure and quality from the first and final blog posts were noticeable. In Blog Post 1, for
instance, 12 lines of text with minimal descriptions had been written to compensate for three
questions whereas in Blog Post 9, more than 30 lines of text had been fully developed for a
single question. Here is a section of a paragraph from Blog Post 1 (Blog-Post-1):

Lee | FPE Page 3

UWRT 1102-026
The invention of the circle contributes to an astounding number of everyday
commodities - wheels and tires, gears and nuts, telescopes and cameras, etc. The
list is endless.
And a section of a paragraph from Blog Post 9 (Blog-Post-9):
No longer was my research project rated-E for everyone, no longer was I
targeting interested folks. In lieu, green organizations would become my target
because I believe they, more than individual citizens, have more say-so in
political affairs.
Examine the first paragraph, and you will eventually notice the inborn nature of freshman
ignorance entrenched within; the paragraph is relatively broad and offers zero explanation for
any key significances. Take several steps back and examine the second paragraph. Maturity has
transcended immaturity and diction has become much more firm. You will never truly realize the
extent of your growth until you pause, take a step back, and ponder on your past and present.
Speaking strictly in terms of idea development my inquiry question has been an everchanging subject that becomes more developed the further I delve into deforestation. For
instance, rewind and reexamine my inquiry question in Blog Post 2 (Blog-Post-2). Of course, the
inquiry question was perfectly fine, until the research I had done for the multi-genre project
brochure disproved that question and confronted cattle ranching and agriculture as the defining
causes of deforestation in developing countries such as Brazil. Due to this rhetorical awareness,
my inquiry question evolved into the one posed in Blog Post 6 (Blog-Post-6) and once again
evolved just presently to how may green organizations more effectively and successfully
advocate green policies to politicians in developing countries in hopes of reducing deforestation
and overall wood destruction and usage? Unconsciously, intellectual growth and maturity

Lee | FPE Page 4

UWRT 1102-026
had begun ripening as late as Blog Post 2 and continues to ripen well beyond Blog Post 9.
This ripening effect had begun from the interaction between myself and the comments I
received from classmates. One such comment from Mark Stevenson, a fellow classmate, on Blog
Post 2 was: I cannot make a full connection of how deforestation and wood itself is fueling
these acts. And, Stevenson was absolutely correct. I had yet to realize that not everyone
understood the current events surrounding deforestation, which led me to become increasingly
thorough with my explanations in Blog Post 3 (Blog-Post-3). Evidently, I provided a background
of myself, my mission statement, an explanation of current events, and my course of action(s) via
support from three organization-affiliated website sources. However, a similar problem ensuing
classmate dissatisfaction recurred during Blog Post 6 in which Brandon Rotimi had advised
limiting your audiencehelps your overall paper by focusing it. If you had to appeal to
different audiences, you will have a more sporadic paper Again, with the case of Stevenson,
Rotimi was absolutely correct because I had 4 audiences that I had previously intended to appeal.
With Rotimis advice, I limited my viewpoint to a single audience, green organizations, which
streamlined and strengthened my aims as evident from this sentence taken from Blog Post 6:
I must appeal to the concerned individuals who have made it their mission
topreserve the integrity of EarthIbelieveI will be able to bolster their
sphere of influence and reach out to others...
Annotated Bibliography
Altogether, I collected 12 sources: 8 websites, 1 book, and 3 online articles. That is to
say, my multi-genre project was entirely produced via secondary sourcing, as I have previously
claimed in Blog Post 3, Throughsecondary sourcesIwill sway concerned individuals into
action (Blog-Post-3). Unfortunately, the multimodality that I had sought (3 websites, 3 books, 4

Lee | FPE Page 5

UWRT 1102-026
online articles) was not realized due to the difficulty in locating viable sources that would meet
my strict, personal filters. Consequently, my multi-genre project had been produced with a
devastating 67-percent website-based spinal cord. Nonetheless, I believe each source I have
gather thus far were equally significant in terms of depositing a wealth of knowledge into my
understanding of deforestation and alternative energy sources (Blog-Post-4).
Midterm Reflection
Undoubtedly, the midterm reflection serves as both a checkpoint and a guide for the
remainder of your semester. It is a checkpoint because from here onwards, your grades may
either suffer, maintain consistency, or even soar above all others largely depending upon your
efforts. It is a guide because it calls for you to identify your strengths and weaknesses and how to
harness them more effectively.
My initial draft of the midterm was unsatisfactory largely due to the lack of evidence
supporting my academic and intellectual growth in UWRT 1102-026. In turn, through the
writing process and revision, I dove back into my initial draft and tidied up the three key
concepts that I excelled in (Midterm). With responsibility for your own learning, I replaced any
information regarding ETGR 1201, an introductory engineering course that I had enrolled in last
semester, with this course UWRT 1102 and smoothly transitioned into explaining how exactly I
was being responsible for my own learning in said course. With independent inquiry and
curiosity, I expounded further on this key concept, calling for individuals to think outside the
box and circumnavigate around other ideas to achieve your aims. With the writing process
and revision, I explicitly presented an example of a grammatical error I had made on Blog Post
4. The remaining two key concepts, which I disagreed with, would be better represented through
the multi-genre project, where I may more effectively harness my skills in said key concepts.

Lee | FPE Page 6

UWRT 1102-026
Multi-genre Project
In my midterm reflection essay I had mentioned two, dislikable key concepts. Getting
out of your comfort zone was the giant leap for mankind sort of deal for me because, as I had
stated in the midterm, I despise change and alterations to my daily rhythms. Multimodality of
print and digital texts was not new to me, but I generally disliked this key concept due to the
innovative callings that it required. To meet this key concept for this course, I settled upon a
brochure and photo-gallery. I stumbled upon the idea for a brochure whilst browsing through the
collection of previous UWRT 1102 e-Portfolios that had been legally permitted to us (TessGriman). Additionally, I had borrowed ideas from a fellow classmate as well (Keylee-Brown).
On the main page of the multi-genre project I had pasted the last page of The Giving Tree,
hoping that this symbolic narration would impose hidden emotions amongst readers and fueling
pathos into my project.
Brochure
As aforementioned under section Organization, spatial communication, along with
visual communication, dominated my brochure. Following a simple and logical organization,
my brochure consisted of two pages with the first page defining deforestation and drawing
connections between its causes and effects, and the second page offering reductive alternatives to
deforestation in Brazil and Kenya. Furthermore, I had specially selected images arranged near
sections of the brochure that I deemed the most invaluable to green organizations, e.g., the image
of the half-clothed man felling a large mahogany tree with a simple axe near the definition of
deforestation, or the image of a corporate hand seizing the trunk of a tropical tree near the section
titled The Quest for Gold. Personally, the brochure required more innovativeness than the
photo-gallery due to the challenges presented by the limited space.

Lee | FPE Page 7

UWRT 1102-026
Photo-Gallery
I believe aural communication, much more so than even visual communication, worked
cohesively and the most effectively with the photo-gallery because of the silent nature of a
slideshow. One would ponder how a simple slideshow with simple captions could evoke such
thrashing emotions. Place yourself in a setting where mankind has vanished, and cities and towns
lay in ruin. Listen to the air as nature slowly but gradually consumes these once populated
metropolises. You began hearing once-unnoticeable sounds or picturing once-unimaginable
images. Awe at the power of silence (Photo-Gallery).
I found the photo-gallery to be extraordinarily difficult to construct simply because
finding images that pass your filters were uncommon, and it proved to be even more so when
you must seek satisfactory images, ones that p-e-r-f-e-c-t-l-y convey your grievance(s). One such
comment from Rotimi and Stevenson advised: The pictures are great and are great examples
but still leave your topic a little fuzzy. Perhaps addingan explanation for the pictures Under
the auspices of providing and receiving feedback, I also felt compelled to aid Rotimi and
Stevenson on their writing excursion as they developed their research project. Consider
expounding further, I insisted to Stevenson on this multi-genre project, on the prospective job
outlook of Construction Management. I also offered a statement of consideration towards
Rotimis traditional research essay: I believe the education system and the local government
around these poor, mainly-black and latino communities must be rehabilitated to better serve
their community. In the end, their advice aforementioned was well received, and I immediately
implemented their ideas, revolutionizing my photo-gallery and making it more informative and
engaging.

Lee | FPE Page 8

UWRT 1102-026
Multi-genre Reflection Essay
Rhetorical awareness is a key concept that typically, if not always, accompanies any
kind of reflection-type writing. Rewind to the section Blog of 2015 and re-read the closing
statement of the second paragraph: Youneverrealize the extent of your growth until
youponder on your past and present. What I had intended to convey to my readers was an
important lesson that I had learnt from my Liberal Arts professor Dr. Brenda Tindal when I was
attending UNCC, that history is taught so that its casualties may be corrected and/or avoided.
And, the exact same concept may be applied to my multi-genre reflection essay as well
(Multigenre-Essay).
Retrospectively, the initial draft of the multi-genre reflection essay was quite lacking,
most specifically with the audience, sources, and modes as pointed by my instructor on a side
note, Introduce quotes. Be consistent with green organizations and perhaps define this
audience. With the audience, I was noticeably contradictory to my idea of a non-state, localbased affiliated green organization. I consistently attached federal, state, or local to my
definition of green organizations despite previously claiming that my aim would exclude any
federal intervention as evident in Blog Post 9, where I stated that I couldappeal to the federal
level, butmy voice would drown out. With the sources I had collected in the annotated
bibliography to breathe life into this project, I was particularly lacking in direct quotations that
would be sensible to the readers. My sentences in the Sources section were choppy, runny, and
uncooperative as demonstrated by the splatter of highlighting that dominated said paragraph.
And, with the modes of communication I had implemented in the essay, I had failed to legitimize
my claims with quotes of my own writings. Though, the final draft was a major improvement
and covered all aspects of dissatisfaction. The audience, sources, and modes were thoroughly

Lee | FPE Page 9

UWRT 1102-026
elaborated upon, with actual quotes from myself and other writers (Multigenre-Essay).
Writers Choice
Multitasking is biologically impossible. Science has even proven the nonexistence of
such a concept; it is simply a task-switching scheme that lowers your attention each time you
switch. Thus, I grouped all the writers choice artifacts onto a single page for ease and
convenience due to the extreme difficulty in simultaneous counting and reading documents
(Writers-Choice).
Process Work Artifacts. I included 4 process work artifacts: the first draft of my
midterm reflection, the second draft of my multi-genre brochure, the first draft of my multi-genre
reflection essay, and the second draft of the FPE. Allow me to expound on the significance of
these pieces in correlation to my overall growth in UWRT 1102-026. First, I included the
midterm reflection because as I was constructing said piece, I had genuine feeling(s) that I had
wished to convey to my instructor. These feelings amounted to my excellence and failure in
certain key concepts, and how I had TRULY intended to better them along the remainder of the
course. Second, I included the multi-genre brochure because I spent more time with its format
than construction. The only way that I could actually present my brochure to the world was
through screenshots and a slideshow. What I truly wanted to show my readers with the brochure
was my tenacity, i.e., the will to do whatever it takes to accomplish a goal. Third, I included the
multi-genre reflection essay because it was a summation of one of the largest, most significant
projects of said course a project that contained my cultural heritage, my passion, my mission
statement, and... Fourth, I included the FPE because it would be the greatest culmination of my
growth that I could possibly present to my readers. Involved participants would be given credit,
and each piece of course writing would be considered. Connections would be made, thoughts

Lee | FPE Page 10

UWRT 1102-026
shared, feelings conveyed, and goals met. The FPE was the true demonstration of my growth.
Feedback Artifacts. Both pieces of feedback artifacts heavily influenced the direction of
my multi-genre project during the initial stages of construction. The first feedback artifact, the
email, was issued from my group members Brandon Rotimi and Mark Stevenson following my
absence on a workshop day. Their advice, which I had further expounded under section PhotoGallery, commented on the lack of captions and explanations for the images in the slideshow. I
immediately set out to implement their advice (Photo-Gallery). The second feedback artifact was
a teeny, tiny note written by my English instructor as she browsed through the initial draft of my
multi-genre reflection essay. Her feedback was well received because as an English instructor
she is well versed in the rigor of the language. As aforementioned under section Multi-Genre
Reflection Essay, her feedback allowed me to better represent myself in the reflection essay, and
to streamline my focus to a specific audience. Truthfully, without her teeny, tiny note, I would
have found it difficult to define what green organizations truly were.
Notebook Artifacts. The first notebook artifact I included, coincidentally, was the first
assignment imposed upon us during the first day of this course. I felt a deep attachment to this
artifact because almost everything I had listed on this assignment changed over the semester. For
instance, my major is no longer Civil Engineering Technology, my passion no longer involves
Driving, and I am no longer 19-years-old. This artifact demonstrates the physical and mental
change that occurs within yourself within a simple timeframe of a single semester. The second
notebook artifact was the Roundtable Dialogue we had devised to better engage with our target
audience. Dialogues between certain involved individuals with your topic would be fictionalized.
This artifact greatly narrowed my choices of audiences, ultimately, allowing me to choose green
organizations as the primary target.

Lee | FPE Page 11

UWRT 1102-026
Wildcards
The first wildcard was a thick package from The National Society of Leadership and
Success (NSLS), a chapter for esteemed students in colleges that introduced prospective
inductees to the life of leaders. I included said artifact because this Chapter has some dubioussounding tips and advices that actually work to make your college life more successful and
enjoyable. One tip that I will always remember is to sleep at least 8 to 9 hours a day. After
implementing this tip for several weeks, my performance in several courses increased. For
instance, in this course UWRT 1102, you will notice in my e-Portfolio that each and every
writing piece I have done, thus far, have been lengthy and thorough. Its all thanks to the energy
that my 8-9 hours of sleep have revitalized. The second wildcard was a homework assignment in
my civil engineering course ENGR 1202-C01 that required students to identify their best
learning style auditory, visual, or tactile. The only way to legitimately identify ones learning
style was through an extended experiment spanning the latter half of the semester, in which you
were to challenge yourself in accomplishing a certain goal. Unsurprisingly, I found my dominant
learning style to be visual learning. And, in correlation to this course along with making
connections, you will notice just how visually dominant my e-Portfolio truly is - my brochure
and photo-gallery incorporate heavy usage of images, and take note of The Giving Tree.
Culmination
Exerting yourself and affirming your goals does not necessarily indicate condescension
or noteworthiness. In this closing paragraph, I will be as evidently truthful to my readers as my
conscience will hold me accountable for. I have retained all the necessary elements of a complete
e-Portfolio, and I have customized its navigation to be customer-friendly with quick forward
tabs; in my FPE I have extensively quoted from my own writings as well as from at least 5

Lee | FPE Page 12

UWRT 1102-026
other sources from this course to better engage myself and my readers as evident from my
lengthy sections; and, hopefully, I have succeeded in answering all the questions my readers
have had including any questions regarding my heritage and beliefs (Grading-Scale and JimLee). All my blog writings, bibliographies, reflections, writers choices, and wildcards are
excessively lengthy, visibly demonstrating my fervor, and I believe I have offered all that Jim
Lee is capable of. And so, with this humble offering, I encourage the gods to bestow upon an
honorable A.

Lee | FPE Page 13