Juliuse Mallari

Ms. Ingram
UWRT 1103
21 November 2015
Final Portfolio Essay
The entire experience in UWRT-1103 was quite interesting. The use of modern
technology and the Internet is intriguing since Ive never encountered that in any of my previous
writing classes before. Making and designing my own e-Portfolio led me to acquire new skills
that I thought I would never have needed. I found the structure of the class very helpful since I
was able to see the revisions of my essays and see the faults in my writing processes. Give a
man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.
correlates to this class indefinitely.
1) Key Concepts
a. Getting Out of My Comfort Zone
First and foremost, one of the key factors that taught me the most valuable lesson is
Getting out of your comfort zone. I found that vocalizing to your professor and
peers is needed especially in a collegiate environment. Everyone on a college campus
is here to pursue a higher academic career. It makes sense to help each other out since
students can easily bounce ideas off of each other. I personally have experience being
an outspoken and participative student in class. For the most part, I was only
outspoken when I was truly comfortable with my professors and peers. I asked
questions, and actively participated which led me to the improvement of my
knowledge. I also have experience being the quiet student in the back of the class.
When I was quiet and reserved, I noticed that I wasnt as comfortable with the setting

and my peers. Naturally, I try to make myself as small as possible and not join in on
class discussions as much. I just observe instead of observing and engaging; which
diminishes my potential of acquiring new knowledge.
b. Independent Inquiry & Curiosity
Being independently curious and inquiring about the topic of your choice is an aspect
that is very important to me. Im glad it is one of the Key Concepts for class since I
agree with it whole heartedly. Without my own independent inquiry and curiosity, I
wouldnt have been as interested in the topics of my essays. My work would degrade
in quality since I would feel lazy writing about a topic that I plainly just do not care
about. I had numerous experiences in high school where I was forced to write about
prompts that I wasnt interested in. In the end, I wrote the assignment with little to no
care and effort. That affected my improvement in writing in a negative way because I
didnt take it seriously enough to learn from it. In UWRT 1103, I was able to write
about my interests since it fitted the prompts given. I saw that I was doing more
process work and actually thought about my writing and how I could improve upon it.
c. Responsibility for My Own Learning
In High School, students didnt really care about their own learning. When they
received a grade they didnt want, they would often blame it on the teacher.
Sometimes, parents get involved since they think their child is right and the teacher
isnt doing their job properly. Ive always thought my learning is my own
responsibility because learning things isnt for the benefit of others, its a benefit for
myself. The more knowledge I possess; the better prepared I am for the future.
2) Organization and Design of e-Portfolio
a. Linguistic Mode

The complexity of the Linguistic Mode in my e-Portfolio isnt at the highest level I
know I could achieve. I decided to use words with a high level of diction combined
words that are common. I found that it makes it easier for the reader to navigate
through my e-Portfolio if it is something they could easily interpret. The organization
of my writing is also one thing I take pride in. I wrote outlines for almost all of my
work in order to have my thoughts in a structured fashion. I even established an
outline for this Final Portfolio Essay to have a framework to work with. I composed
all of my writing work to specifically adhere to logos and ethos. I chose to
incorporate my Linguistic Mode especially with my Visual Mode in order to create an
e-Portfolio that is reflective of myself and is uniquely mine.
b. Visual Mode
The Visual Mode is the mode that I find the strongest in my e-Portfolio. I made sure
to specifically stay to my theme of simplicity. I chose the background color to be
white, since it is commonly known for its meaning of safety, purity, and cleanliness.
Its also considered to be the color of perfection and its an excellent reflection of my
perfectionistic tendencies. The layout is clean with my subheadings clearly stating
what they are. I also used a series of buttons in order to link it to hidden pages. I
chose to not apply pictures that much since it takes away from the theme of my ePortfolio. In terms of style and perspective, I feel like my readers can easily inspect
my work and identify my style and perspective. I wanted both my style and
perspective to be self-evident and I think it works out perfectly.
c. Aural Mode

The Aural Mode in my e-Portfolio is the simplest mode yet. I chose to not have any
type of music, sound effects, or sounds. Instead, I opted for the use of silence. I chose
silence because of the proverbial saying that Ive always found valuable, speech is
silver; silence is golden. I wanted my e-Portfolio to directly correlate to insight,
intuition, and wisdom considering that silence reflects those characteristics. Also, I
wanted my e-Portfolio to be special to those who analyze and interpret why I chose
certain settings.
d. Gestural Mode
In terms of my Gestural Mode, I feel like it pertains to my in-class representation of
myself more. I could see it being factor in my e-Portfolio but I constructed my ePortfolio to focus on simplicity. I couldnt really think of a way to incorporate the
Gestural Mode without putting pictures in various places. I wanted to avoid that as
much as possible because I didnt want pictures to be a main factor. Pictures would
take away the entire hidden meaning in my e-Portfolio. Although I didnt utilize
pictures in my e-Portfolio, I wanted my other modes to complete the feel of my
Gestural Mode. I personally think I did a splendid job regarding that since my
Linguistic and Visual modes were my main focus. In class, my interaction with my
professor and peers is genuinely positive since I try to be as academic and analytical
as much as possible. I found that my real life gestures and how I present myself to
others is a key aspect in how others perceive me. I make sure that I am confident and
conclusive as much as possible. I provide meaningful evaluations for my peers work
and especially mine.
e. Spatial Mode

The Spatial Mode in my e-Portfolio is also one of the simpler modes that I used. I
wanted my work to be clearly organized and arranged so I used subheadings to define
each and every one of them. I made sure to order my subheadings in the fashion of
most important to least. The readers eyes go straight into the middle of my pages and
thats the effect I was hoping to achieve. I built my Artifacts to be in touch with my ePortfolio by captioning each and every one of them in a specific and regulated
manner. I found that this helps the reader identify what each of my work is for and
visually see my thought process and improvements upon it.
3) Contribution to Learning and Experience
UWRT-1103 is a class that has improved my writing process and knowledge. Without a
doubt, my experience has been completely positive due to the helpful feedback on my work.
When we were first assigned the Exploratory Essay, I thought the class was going to a good
direction. It was an open ended prompt that gave me an opportunity to express my passion.
The Midterms on the other hand was a specific prompt and due to that, I slacked off on my
work. I have revised it in order to gain a perspective for improvement in my writing effort
and structure. The Traditional Research Essay gave me an epiphany about the future. I kept
brainstorming ways to evolve human kind and came to the conclusion of education. If the
next population of humankind was educated enough to use technology in order to expedite
their life, then that would be a great outcome. The general population of the future would be
high skilled workers and independent thinkers. I thought the use of Notebook Artifacts and
Wild Cards was a good way to see the works in my other classes. My UCOL1300 class
correlated to the Wild Cards perfectly.
a. Traditional Research Essay

Artificial Intelligence has always been an interesting topic for me. Ive always
wondered what its like to have machines and robots do tasks that make my life
easier. Being able to research and learn about key members and topics in Artificial
Intelligence has been a huge help in terms of acquiring knowledge. My thesis
statement for this particular essay reads Artificial Intelligence has the ability to
augment our daily lives through the automation of jobs, easier availability of
knowledge, and greater freedom to concentrate on what it feels like to be truly
human. I truly believe that AI technology will revolutionize the world and start an
evolutionary leap for mankind.
b. Exploratory Essay
The prompt for this essay was What is your passion? I deeply thought about what I
was going to write about since this was something that I knew I could touch base on. I
brainstormed and came to the conclusion that I have a passion for Devils Advocacy.
Ive always enjoyed arguments and ways to see angles in perspective; this was the
gateway for me to write about it. In my first and second drafts, I mostly summarized
why I liked to be a devils advocate and didnt tell a story. I focused on structure and
how it is to write an academic essay based on high school norms. Ive fixed that in
my final draft of the paper and added dialogue. Professor and peer review was a big
help for me to realize that dialogue was the missing link.
c. Midterms
The Midterms was something that I introduced greatly on but lost quality in the
conclusion. I realized that I hit a brick wall in my writing process and was unable to
get out of that state of mind. I was planning on revising it but plainly did not have
enough time due to my class schedule and course load.

4) Deserved Grade
I believe that I deserve a grade that is worthy of a low A or a high B. I know I couldve done
a way better job to do my final portfolio essay and essay revisions. Hopefully my work and
work ethic deserves a good grade.