Portfolio Introduction

During my junior and senior year English classes I learned how to write. I became versed in the five paragraph structure: an introduction, three body paragraphs, and a conclusion. I got the hang of constructing a thesis sentence. I developed a deeper vocabulary so as to better express my thoughts and opinions while demonstrating critical thinking. These are all very practical skills that have provided me with a solid foundation and the tools to be a competent writer. Literature & Civilizations II, however, taught me who I am as a writer.

Through this class, I found out how to make writing the most appealing to me – by making it funny. I've always thought of myself as a humorous person, and I want that to come across in my writing. One of my filmmaking teachers in high school told me “if you have fun making it, they'll have fun watching it.” I feel like this aphorism has applications that extend to writing as well. Another aspect of the writing in this class that made it enjoyable was its public setting. I knew that whatever I was putting out into the world, my friends and classmates could see it. I was motivated by the positive feedback I received from peers. The most fun I had as part of this class, at least outside the classroom, was filling my blog with self-aware humor in hopes that one of my classmates would see it, get a kick out of it, and try to one-up me.

I also discovered how essential the planning process is to my writing. I'm a big fan of order and organization. If a don't have an outline for how to go about writing, it all becomes a giant mess. Whether I'm writing an argumentative essay for religion or a more informal blog for this class, I feed off of a sense of structure.

My favorite piece of writing that I created this year was not made as part of this class, or any class, instead it was extracurricular writing. I spent an incredible amount of time working and reworking the composition of my Neeley Fellows cover letter, and because of that it was also one of my biggest learning experiences. One problem that I had repeatedly was that I would spend far too much time internally deliberating the merits of this phrasing versus that phrasing without getting a single word on the page. Before this class, there was hardly ever a revisions phase in my writing. By the time I reached the end of my paper, I had usually spent so long weighing the benefits of different sentence structures, that my writing was pretty much how I wanted it to be. Unfortunately this frequently led to my writing style feeling stale or too formulaic. What I learned to do as part of this class was treat my writing like a conversation, literally. I found that when I talked through my papers as if speaking directly to someone, my brain would naturally find the best words or phrasing for the current situation.

But just because my cover letter was my favorite piece of writing, doesn't mean I'm not proud of what I produced in this class. I'm really happy with how my coming-of-age sketches turned out. I don't feel like a single one of them was written to take the easy way out. I chose six of my truest, most exciting life experiences – both highs and lows from my life – and expanded upon them in meaningful ways. I could've written simple sketches, but I chose not to – yes I could probably write an enjoyable story about a pet or a favorite TV show, but how would that help me in the long run? Some of these were old memories from when I was too little to be extrapolating significant meaning from them. In this way the coming-of-age sketches helped remember just how I've gotten to where I am today. Some of the situations I wrote about occurred so recent that I hadn't gotten a chance to reflect on my feelings about them yet, and in this way the coming-of-age sketches enabled me to derive meaning from my first year in college and how it's shaped me.

Thank you for the opportunity to be a part of this class. It truly was a growing experience.