Midterm

A.) In my first blog post I posed 6 questions based on the syllabus and I think
I can answer a good majority if not all already. My first question was, Why is
the participation scale so simple? Well, I think its because this class is
focused on inquiry which means we will continually be asking questions with
an expository lens that forces us to inquire more. Basically were answering
all our questions with more questions so we will forever be learning therefore
there is no definite answer so Professor Ingram can only grade us on how far
weve come from our start point. There really is no end to our learning in this
course. This answers my last question as well, Will we have to answer the
central inquiry questions by the end of the semester? Im sure well have an
idea of the answers but there are a million ways we can answer the central
inquiry questions. Also, I posed the question, Should we revise our work
until our portfolio is due? YES! A big, fat yes is the answer to that. Reason
being the same thing; we will be learning ALL semester therefore we can
better the work as we better our knowledge of the subject! Our professor
isnt grading anything until the end giving us the perfect opportunity to
continually force our work to grow with us if we use the window of
opportunity.

B.) The key concepts I think Im doing really well with right now are curiosity,
and getting out of my comfort zone. Curiosity specifically I think was
something I wanted to try to expand this year because Im used to just doing

what I need to do and not getting out of my comfort zone and really reach
what Im capable of. I started off my Literacy Narrative with,
August 30th 2013:
Ring! Hello?
Hey! This is Nancy a representative of Sigma Kappa, we would like to
offer you a bid!
THANK YOU SO MUCH! Ill see you next week.
I wouldnt have ever been bold enough to start any sort of essay with
anything other than a sentence but I thought how better to start n essay
about a specific moment than to bring the reader exactly into my mindset.
The phone call I wrote about was how the entire experience started and the
date stamp is for authenticity. It was really out of my comfort zone but I got
some really good feedback about the opening drawing the reader in. I need
to work on critically thinking now because they said I could make it so much
better with different details. I guess I got carried away with my expressive
side that I left my analytical side behind!

C.) One of my favorite revisions from my easay would be how I chose to start
it. My original first sentence was, Literacy can mean so many things to a lot
of different people. I always use the word literate to describe people who can
read and write or even understand music and other things that have actual
text, symbols, or something along those lines. After I got comfortable with
the assignment I changed it to a more reeling introduction that I felt would

better draw the readers attention. I wrote,

August 30th 2013:
Ring! Hello?
Hey! This is Nancy a representative of Sigma Kappa, we would like to
offer you a bid!
THANK YOU SO MUCH! Ill see you next week.
I really liked this beginning however, Im still revising it for my final draft so
that it fully grasps the readers attention in better detail, bringing the reader
to that day and time making them see, feel, and hear everything I did in that
moment.
I also really liked how I rearranged the paragraphs in my essay. Its hard to
really quote from my work but the rearrangement in my opinion was very
helpful in making my narrative more readable. For example, I made sure I
had all the details like, The entire house seemed like I had just walked into a
movie honestly, all I could smell was Victorias Secret perfume and everyone
had on Lily Pulitzer with gold Jack Rogers. towards the beginning of the
narrative where I describe the things I saw, smelt, heard, and felt. I tried to
keep it in chronological order while keeping it interesting. I added a sentence
to explain to the readers what I was thinking as well like, This moment was
so important to me because I stepped out of my comfort zone into something
I wouldnt normally be involved in because of my prior idea of what Greek
Life was, and realized unless I emirs myself into a culture I wont ever
become literate in that particular social setting or subject. I think that the

paragraphs between the story really added to my narrative by side-noting

almost what I was thinking throughout the few moments I wrote about.

D.)

I chose to rhetorically analyze Andrea Moores e-portfolio. The author

of the text is a first year writing student at UNCC and her intended audience
is her professor. The purpose of the e-portfolio is to show the professor what
she learned through the semester in her first year writing class. I think her
portfolio appeals mostly to logos because in her introductory paragraph on
the first page she establishes what she thinks is logical and proves it by
having all the evidence in the rest of her portfolio. Some of the modes of
communications she used were spatial, linguistic, and visual. Spatially she
made her blog appealing to the eye by making everything sort of balanced
and not too much all on one page. Linguistically she used very appealing,
catching titles like, Journey to Success. Visually she chose a very soft color
scheme which isnt super overpowering and I think its completely
appropriate for a scholarly work thats being graded. I think this could also
be considered an educational composition. I do think this sample e-portfolio
is successful because she has everything she needed to include in it while
creating it in a very appropriate manner for school. She still threw in some
fun fonts and pictures, but she kept it very professional to do exactly what
she needed.

E.) I think I deserve an A so far in this course and I do believe I am setting

myself for an exemplary final e-portfolio. I already see growth just in my

literacy narrative and can outline it well like I did in part C of the midterm. I
believe that I can discuss my engagements with a few of the key concepts
already very well like I did in part B of the midterm so I imagine by the end of
the course Ill have copious key concepts to chose from to illustrate my
further engagement. Ive arranged my e-portfolio in a chronological order
and will add the pieces I feel were necessary to my learning after the course
has ended. It is a very navigable portfolio and its complete to the best of my
ability at this point in time in the course. The grade scale is pretty simple and
self explanatory also, Im familiar with it already so I dont have any
questions about it.