Samuel Reddick

Professor Ingram

UWRT 1102

March 2, 2017

Midterm Assessment

At the start of this semester we were asked to write a blog about the ten key concepts of this

class and how we felt about a few of them, particularly the ones that we were weak with. Naturally,

writing this midterm assessment of my grasp of the concepts led me back to that first blog post. With

the writing that Ive done since then in mind, I found my first blog post funny. Two of the concepts that

I had counted among my weaknesses were apparently strengths, and one has yet to really be tested.

When I first looked at the list of concepts, comfort zone stuck out to me. I have always

considered myself a bit of a stubborn writer who tends to write in spite of a prompt instead of in

response to one. This might just be because Im a stubborn person who doggedly follows an interesting

idea to its conclusion. As I said in that first blog post, writing about...anything in a class template is

always an uncomfortable stretch for me.

I think my biggest fear then was that I would be faced with some tough decisions regarding

what I could keep and what Id have to omit from my portfolio. I was afraid that the assignments and

prompts wouldnt necessarily line up with the assignments on the curriculum. With any example of my

writing, but especially with my fourth blog post it is apparent that I have a problem with half-telling a

story or not fully flushing out my ideas. The fear of an incomplete final product sometimes leads me to

exceeding word counts and possibility varying from the original prompt. This is due to the fact that

even when I write for someone else, Im really always writing for myself. For me writing is a cathartic

way for me to both express myself and see an accurate representation of my thoughts.

This fear that my comfort zone would be infringed upon by the class assignments has so far

been completely unrealized. In all of the assignments I have found some way to read the prompt which
allows me to do the maximum amount of expression with minimal compromise. I might be able to

attribute a small amount of this success to my growing ability to conform to writing outside of my

comfort zone, but I think most of the credit belongs to how flexible this assignment as a whole really is.

The second concept that I erroneously thought was a weakness of mine may actually the biggest

strength that I have seen so far in my writing. Back in January I wrote, Another problem with [my]

rampant curiosity is that sometimes it is hard for me to make connections between the things that Im

learning about. After reading some of my other work this semester, especially my third blog post and

my reader response letter to Greene and Lidinskys, Starting with Inquiry, and to some extent in my

fourth blog post, I found that I make extensive connections between ideas learned in this class and my

Critical Thinking class which is the only other class in the humanities that I have. I am constantly

bouncing ideas between the two classes, as well as between all of the different material that Ive been

studying for my ePortfolio. This ability to draw connections and form a more complex map of the

issues surrounding the future of technology has helped me immensely and is probably the main reason

why I found my topic so quickly out of the many different paths that I could have chosen from.

This brings me to the last of my three original weaknesses. Right now, multi-modal

composition is my biggest concern since I have yet to really use it. This is why I would still consider it

a weakness. Im just not completely sure that I will know how to talk outside of the medium of text and

still deliver a solid message. In that first blog post I said that I found it, difficult...to use creative

mediums of expression, and, [p]art of my comfort zone is writing. Currently this is still the case. I

dont feel like I will find a creative medium that satisfies me and explains my topic the way that I want.

Another key concept that I will have to develop in while finishing my ePortfolio will be critical

reading. I dont necessarily mean this in a completely rhetorical sense, as I am not too worried about

the authors that I will cite using less visible writing techniques to explain their ideas. I want my critical

reading skill to be sharp so that I can full grasp the ideas themselves in their entirety and accurately

represent those different points of view in my final portfolio. I expect any experts ideas on the future
relationship between humanity and machines to be elaborate and detailed, so what I want to make an

effort to avoid is under representing important concepts that my sources might bring forth.

Overall, I am far more confident that I will do well on this ePortfolio than I was when the class

first started. Back then I was worried that I would run into several problems that I now realize are very

much under control. Part of me feels like the two areas that I showed concern for above will not prove

to be major obstacles down the road, but it is in my nature to have to worry about something. Im sure

that the final product will be fine and that I will enjoy finishing this project as much as I have enjoyed

working on it so far.