ENGL 220 Portfolio

Reflection

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The easiest way for me to learn something is to relate it to something that I am interested in. The first thing I try is business, since that is my field of study. However, in this class, sometimes it was a difficult. In order to understand the Big Questions we discussed throughout the semester, it took some creative thinking. I tried to showcase this in my portfolio revisions.

 

In the first piece, How is Technology Changing Writing?, I talk about how things such as video games often times create opportunities for users to practice their writing skills. I wanted this piece to emphasize that and give an example of how I can create stories with the use of video games like The Sims. I tell the story of a young boy and girl who are friends throughout childhood and eventually get married. If I had more time (or less finals), I would have been able to create a much better storyline; however, I did write out the story in this instance, which I normally do not do. I found that this was easy and effective when trying to finish an entire story and made things less confusing normal. I feel like this tool is an extremely effective way to share your writing in a way that more people would be willing to receive it.

 

The second piece, my exploratory essay, was one of my favorite pieces that I wrote this semester. I was able to use the relating to business technique to grasp a better understanding of the concept itself. For this project, I decided that it would be beneficial to take the piece and change it into a keynote presentation that could be used as a guest speaking topic for campus organizations or even professional business conferences. I have been an officer in a business club for 2+ years and we are always struggling to come up with new ideas for speakers or discussion topics. I wanted to make this essay into a presentation because I felt that it is important for anyone to know, but especially someone who writes blog posts for businesses, since they may be like me and have mostly a business background and not-so-much in writing. I picked out the main points in the essay and made slides out of them, but the actual presentation would go more in-depth about the topic of threshold concepts in writing, specifically, “Good” Writing Is Dependent on Writers, Readers, Situation, Technology, and Use.

 

The last piece that I revised for the portfolio is Who Counts as a Writer? When I was rereading this blog post, the idea of it being an inspirational animation jumped into my mind. I believe that this is the best way to get the message to younger kids and teens that one person cannot define whether or not you are a writer. I struggled with this as a teen, and still do sometimes. I never had someone to tell me that there is not one way to be a good writer, and I feel like that would have really helped me be more confident in my writing abilities earlier on, and possibly could have changed the direction I went after high school. I used The Sims again because it was the most efficient way to animate the story, and as a teen I remember watching videos on YouTube where Sims were the characters, so I believe that it is a good way to gain attraction for an audience that otherwise may not be intrigued by the title or other animation styles.

 

Overall, I think this was an interesting assignment. I have never had to revise my writing so drastically before, so it was difficult at first. Once I started coming up with ideas, they did not want to stop. If I had had more time to work on this project I believe that it would be a really good exercise not only for myself as a writer, but also as a reader to see how ideas can change and evolve over time.