Tamia Powell

Suzanne Ingram
UWRT 1102
April 28th, 2015

Final e-Portfolio Essay

Well, here we are, at the end of a great semester in UWRT 1102. It has been a long,
drawn out process that, I believe, has produced a great outcome. But this is my final e-portfolio
essay designed to help you, the reader and/or viewer, navigate throughout my e-portfolio with
ease. To start out, my page does not have too much meaning in its design/layout. The final eportfolio comes first because its purpose is to show the viewer how to view my website and
understand why I chose the artifacts that I chose and how they contributed to my progress in
writing this semester. After the final e-portfolio essay, the artifacts are listed in order of
importance. My traditional research paper is the report of all the research I have found about my
topic/thesis, which is how beneficial physical therapy can be for cancer patients, and it was also
the ultimate goal for the semester, therefore making it the most important document. The threecolumn notes come after the research paper because that is basically where all of my sources are
listed and where most of my support for my thesis comes from. Listed next is my midterm paper
because it helped me see where I stood as far as in the class and also how efficient my research
was. Next up is my blog page. Many of these blogs helped me brainstorm ideas and make
conclusions about where I should head in my research. Lastly, are the writers choice artifacts.
These choices may include major assignments but its not a requirement. They are simply
documents that I personally feel helped in my growth in writing this semester. I made my
website easy to navigate by including all the different categories mentioned previously in the

More tab and also as buttons on the home page. Finally, I included pictures of writing to relate
to the class overall and also pictures of cancer cells to relate to my specific topic.

Traditional Inquiry paper

Lets start with discussing my traditional research essay. I chose to write a traditional
essay because I thought that it fit my topic, how physical therapy can benefit cancer patients,
more appropriately, rather than the multi-genre option. I chose to do my essay, references, and
in-text citations in APA format because this is a health related topic. While its hard to make a
traditional paper effective any other way than linguistically, I believe I added visual effects by
adding pictures within the paper. Adding those pictures can possibly keep a readers attention
longer than reading a paper without anything visual to look upon while reading. Requiring the
paper to be typed in double-space also adds in the spatial mode of communication. Also, I
believe writing this traditional research paper aided me in the key concept, the writing process &
revision. When writing this essay, I had about 3-4 drafts before coming to my finished project
when, before, I would have only written my first draft and been done with writing and revision.
Ms. Ingrams decision to push things such as deadlines to bring in drafts to class in order to
participate in peer review was very effective in this also. On her Improving Peer Review
document, she says, You cant improve your writing unless you talk about it, work with it, play

with it, explore with it,, and We need to shift our understanding of the GOALS of peer review.
The goals are to read, discuss, brainstorm, bounce ideas off each other, have a dialogue, offer
suggestions, and leave with ideas. One example of me demonstrating the writing process and
revision can be seen in the draft I showed Ms.Ingram of my traditional research paper where she
said my thesis, which is a highlighted change in my final draft, In my personal opinion, which is

supported by thorough research, more patients should be required to see a physical therapist also
because it may be beneficial for more cancer patients in such a way that it may increase survival
rates of cancer cases overall, was wordy and confusing. I revised this in my next draft to simply
state, In my personal opinion, which is supported by thorough research, more patients should

be required to see a physical therapist because it may be beneficial to their recovery. Lastly,
the remaining highlighted section of my traditional research paper is what I added after meeting
with Ms.Ingram in conference.

Three Column Notes

Next up are the three column notes. I chose to do the three column notes rather than
the visual bibliography again because I thought that the three column notes were more effective
for my topic. The sources were again put in APA format due to the type of paper I was writing.
Ms.Ingram required us to have a certain number of sources on specific dates and I think this was
very helpful to our research because sometimes we find holes in our research. The four
highlighted sources are the sources I found in addition to the six Ms.Ingram had previously seen.
Ten sources is more than enough information to get ones overall point across. I expressed my
overall constructive experience with the three column notes in a Dear Reader letter I wrote to
Ms.Ingram stating, So far, I have had a positive experience with my three column notes. Finding

sources about my topic is pretty easy and its going smoothly because I combine two different
careers into one and study how they intertwine with each other. Too, the three column notes
helped me with the independent inquiry and curiosity key concept. Much of the research for this
semester-longer project was done outside of the classroom, therefore, requiring independent
inquiry such as researching through scholarly databases, Google scholar, UNCCs library

database, etc., in our own time, independently. In the three column notes, there is a section that
requires a summary and analysis of the site and/or article that one is citing. Before being required
to read and summarize the sites, I would have merely glanced at the site and not looked back at it
much more. Another point that should be made about the three column notes is that I have
multiple sources about cancer and physical therapys effect on it specifically but I have other
sources in which I go into things specifically about just cancer and its normal treatment or the
overall purpose of physical therapy. These sources are to fill in any holes that readers may have
about any topic.

Midterm Letter
The Midterm Letter was a great source to reflect on ones progress in the class. When
looking back on what I said in my midterm about the key concepts, I see that I still feel that this
class has helped me with the same key concepts I picked before. In the midterm letter I say, I

believe I have been doing well with the key concepts independent inquiry and curiosity and
providing and receiving feedback. In my opinion everyone that is enrolled in this course should
feel as if they have been strongly engaging with the independent inquiry and curiosity key
concept. I feel this way because we all have had to pick our own personal inquiry questions and
do independent research to find sources to support the thesis statement in which we are
seeking to find. This quote also presents the fact that the class helped me in explaining the
WHY in a situation instead of just stating the WHAT. However, we were also asked to identify
key concepts that we could improve on. I said, I believe the main key concept that is tricky for

me is stepping out of my comfort zone. I think of this in terms of research. I go on to explain

Ms.Ingram suggests other types of research that I may be afraid of trying such as personal

interviews. While I failed to expand my experience with stepping out of my comfort zone, my
encounter with the independent inquiry and curiosity key concept thrived!

Blog
The blog is designed in order to where the most recent blog entry is at the topic and the
least recent blog entry is near the bottom. The blog entries helped with many aspects of my
traditional research paper, such as narrowing down my topic, choosing an audience and forming
a thesis. Also, being able to view fellow students blogs and provide feedback for one another
was very helpful in the revision process, came in handy when one was stuck on how to write a
certain blog, and enhanced our ability to provide and receive feedback which is another one of
our key concepts. One of the most influential times I believe I provided feedback was on Keyas
Blog Post #1, in which we were to brainstorm inquiry questions. I said, I think that your second

question would be the best one to choose because you would be able to get many more primary
sources by interviewing people who watch reality TV. Also, you could somehow tie this into
things such as eating disorders and how people who have eating disorders have their problem
based on what the media and reality TV says society should look. Moreover, many people
believe that feedback can only be effective when correcting anothers work. However, positive
feedback is just as effective. Olivias comment under my Blog Post #4, about our roundtables, is
a great example of this type of feedback. She says, Tamia, It looks like your round table is well-

rounded. I like how you included individuals that may agree with each other along with people
that may disagree with each ``other. I never knew that physical therapy could help cancer
patients so it was great reading this and getting to learn more about this topic. Great inquiring!

Writers Choice Artifacts

Three Process Works:
We were given the opportunity to omit any two artifacts if we did not need to use the
missing/make-up artifacts option and I chose to omit one of my process works artifacts. This is
because I wanted to show the process of ONE final work overall and I only had three drafts of
my traditional research paper available. I included the initial brain storm of possible inquiry
project ideas that we worked on as a blog post and warm-up because this was the first time we
put our ideas that were in our minds on physical paper. Then I included the first attempt at the
actual paper, which was simply the introduction, because this was technically the first draft that
my peers and Ms.Ingram saw and gave feedback. Lastly, I included my first attempt at writing
the body paragraphs of the essay. I did all these sections of the paper at different times because
during the primary stages of writing this paper, I wasnt sure how to make them flow together
into one paper. The Process Works helped me with revision, revision, and more REVISION!
Two Feedback Artifacts:
Obviously, the feedback artifacts contributed to my learning of how to receive and give useful
feedback to and from others. The first feedback artifact is from my first peer review group. We
were given questions to answer about one anothers annotated bibliographies. I chose this
document because it showed how effective peer review can be IF it is done right. I also included
feedback I got from Ms.Ingram in reply to my midterm essay. I included this document because,
like I stated before, I believe good feedback is just as helpful as feedback used to
improve/correct anothers work. In the feedback, she says, This is a thoughtful and clearly

written midterm, Tamia. Your blog post #4 is also interesting, and it shows me that youre doing

great research, and Otherwise, I think you have a great plan for the second half of the course,
and if grades were due today, youd have an A. This feedback reassured me that I was on the
right track with my project and that calls for a great finished product.
Two Writers Notebook Artifacts:
I did not use the required text book, Engaging Questions; A Guide to Writing by Carolyn E.
Channell and Timothy W. Crusius, for this class as much as I hoped, however, two specific
entries from Chapter 15 and Chapter 16 did help me with certain characteristics of my writing
process and final paper. I chose Chapter 15s entry because it helped with my three column notes
by teaching about managing sources and picking reliable sources. This section also gives great
advice about what to do when collecting sources. For instance, Channell and Crusius advise one
to make printable copies of electronic sources and photocopies of printed sources. They say with

paper copies you will be able to read more critically, marking up and annotating the more
difficult sources. Chapter 16 was very helpful with conducting the actual research to find ones
sources. For example, Channell and Crusius explain that including the operators AND and NOT

narrows your search and the operator OR broadens your search. This was especially helpful to
me because my inquiry combines two different fields, therefore, using AND helped a lot.
One Wild Card:
Along with one process work, I also omitted one wild card simply because I could not find
another artifact that helped me in my writing process other than the ones I chose previously. I
chose the Traditional Argumentative Research Essay document made by Ms.Ingram. This was
very helpful because it gives the overall layout and points that we should hit in our final

traditional essay including audience, purpose, and argument. I looked back on this document
multiple times while writing my essay in order to stay on track.

Conclusion:
I believe that I deserve an A because as I went through and wrote my FPE and constructed my ePortfolio, I made sure I included each point that is required. I included three Key Concepts, five
quotations from others, and also five quotations from myself. I thoroughly explained each
artifact and final draft that is required. And I even took suggestions about using colors, bolds,
and subheadings as visual effect.
So, there it is, my final e-portfolio essay. UWRT 1102 has now come to a close. This has been a
great semester in which I have progressed a lot in my research and writing skills. I thank
everyone who reads this and I hope it helps while navigating throughout my e-portfolio. Enjoy!
-Tamia Powell