I’ve always felt like I was a pretty strong writer. Out of all the classes I took in high school, I always maintained a B+ or higher in my English classes. English was one of the only classes I enjoyed because I was terrible at math and I loved reading. I challenged myself junior year and took AP English and I absolutely hated it. I was terrible at rhetorical analysis (which I relearned in your class); I understood why people changed their tones and included this and that, but it was hard to me to put into words. Now that I think about it, I probably maintained a good grade in the regular English classes because they were too easy for me, for when I attempted to challenge myself, I struggled.

 When I came to orientation to sign up for classes at UW, I wasn’t really worried about what I was going to be learning. I had no idea what I wanted to major in (I still don’t) so I was just winging it. I just needed to be in a class so I chose a first year interest group, which included a law, societies and justice class and an English composition class. I didn’t really pay attention to the English composition class, I just knew it was a credit to get out of the way.

 When I actually got to the class and started learning, I was overwhelmed by all the writing you had planned, but I was also pretty excited. We were free to write about any topic we wanted and I was so eager to get my opinion out about the Mike Brown shooting. At the beginning of the quarter, I was just writing to satisfy the requirements. I didn’t think I understood any of the outcome like I explained in one of my free writes. I hardly looked at them when I wrote my papers and they were confusing to me, but as time went on, I wasn’t just writing papers to write; I was actually applying the outcomes we had been given at the beginning of the quarter.

 As I started this portfolio, I was kinda terrified, but I felt like I had a pretty good understanding of all the outcomes. This class was really useful because it’s helped me become aware of so many aspects of writing that I wasn’t aware of at first. I learned how to make my arguments stronger, how to cater my writing to a certain audience, and I learned that it’s okay to go back and revise papers. In high school, for example, after I did a draft of a paper, that was the paper I usually turned in. I wasn’t good at getting constructive criticism from my peers and when I did, I usually didn’t listen. I believe the portfolio that I’m turning in is a great representation of the skills I’ve learned throughout the quarter. I believe these assignments are the best I have to offer and I believe they achieve all four of the outcomes. Hope you enjoy!