Mary Szeliga Dr.

Erin Dietel-McLaughlin Community-Based Writing and Rhetoric 08 November 2011 Reflection Essay This portfolio demonstrates my understanding of writing as a process by showing my completed works. I revised each essay in my portfolio multiple times before and after grading. I started each by just getting something down on paper, then coming back to polish my work. I especially spent time revising my Analysis Essay. I looked at different ways to order my points, finally settling on the one that best explained the purpose of my paper. I made extensive revision to my research paper, realizing after completion that my thesis did not match what I wanted to argue. By changing my thesis and fixing aspects of the body of my paper, I found a way for my writing to better reflect my thought process. The evolution of my writing process is evident in my taking to revision. Before this class I tried to write my best paper in the first try, often deliberating for hours to find the best sentence. I have found throughout this course that by simply writing, then coming back to look at my work is a much more streamlined process. This evolution is reflected in my portfolio by the increasing number of revisions I did for each paper. I wrote the narrative essay with little revision, lengthening this process until my research essay, which I revised many times. My portfolio demonstrates my understanding of rhetoric by my effective argument in my essays. I effectively conveyed the emotion felt by my tennis team in my narrative essay, persuading the reader that Courtneys pain was real. My analysis essay persuaded the audience that violence and love often come hand-in-hand and that some cultures have this stereotype. My

Szeliga 2 analysis essay argued that this is a dangerous combination, persuading against a cultural mold, and for the heroic breakthrough Oscar Wao had. My research and visual essay use rhetoric to argue the necessity of violence-prevention programs. Rhetoric is most evident in my visual essay, where I use images and a video about a Columbine victim to persuade the audience that violence-prevention programs should be of primary concern in the school system. This portfolio demonstrates my critical research skills through my research essay. I paged through countless books and surfed through countless, online scholarly articles to find relevant information for my topic. We worked with a research librarian to aid in this search, finding specific information that directly supported my argument. My analysis essay demonstrates my critical reading skills through my close look at The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. Critical thinking went into all of my essays, in the outlining process, writing process, and revision process. Researching for my research essay and finding a topic for my analysis essay, as well as the critical reading I did for these essays shaped my development as a writer this semester to a great extent. The processes that are part of each step in writing a paper have helped me evolve into a more mature writer. The community-based learning component shaped my reading, writing, and research skills by orienting them towards the topic of violence. I never realized how prevalent violence is in our society. The children that I was able to work with through the Take Ten violence-prevention program were so full of energy and life that volunteering was never a chore. The kids called me Mary had a little lamb and always asked me where I left my lamb. In our discussion groups, the children shared stories of bullying and violence not only with siblings at home, but also at school. This connected to the course material in everything that we read about the prevalence of violence in society, and the exposure a child has to it since birth. This also shaped my research

Szeliga 3 and visual essay, causing me to argue for the necessity of violence-prevention programs. The purpose of the narrative essay was to discuss a conflict that happened to each of us at some point in our lives. This did well to personalize the experience of this class, allowing us to grow as writers, but also to learn about violence and how it applies to each of us. The analysis paper had us apply this thinking to an outside source. We synthesized the class readings with a source of our choice, with the core topic of violence. This taught us how to connect thoughts and ideas in a critical thinking and reading analysis. The research essay had us go out into the world of information to find our own fuel for our arguments. We visited the library, essentially learning the world of research at Notre Dame. We picked a topic, sought out information, and used the skills we learned in the previous essays to combine these thoughts into a comprehensive essay. We then created visual essays, stemming from our research essay arguments. We learned how to argue our points not only with words, but with visual rhetoric. Sometimes using multimedia sources have more impact on an observer, incorporating ethos visually into the argument. My writing reflects my mastery of the learning by my growth as each essay came into being. My narrative was easy to write because it happened to me. The analysis was significantly more difficult because I was synthesizing sources outside from my being. The research essay then had me collecting my own information, deciding what was relevant to my topic. This building upon each essay shows how I learned each aspect, culminating in the multi-process research paper. I am most proud of my narrative and analysis essays. I am comfortable writing narratives and I liked being able to write about a story that actually happened to me. I think this aspect helped me add emotion to the story. My analysis essay flows through an analysis of the novel, as well as through my incorporation of our class readings. I am proud of how I connected these ideas and made the flow work for my essay. I often have trouble organizing my thoughts in such a paper,

Szeliga 4 so this shows my growth as a writer through this course. I found it much easier to do so after the readings and lectures of the class.