In the pale light of dawn, you gaze upon this ethereal city once more before venturing back to the building's base. Exhale: know that you have accomplished what you set out to do, and now reenter those elaborate, Art Deco style elevators upon which you arrived. The delicately curved geometrical patterns on the elevator doors captivate you, seizing your mind with a serpent's suffocating grip, and in these moments of utter hypnosis, you are invited to reflect on your journey.

In this final reflection, I will be using the space provided to reflect on my own journey and progress as a writer throughout the course of the Fall semester. Specifically, I will examine how the strategies I chose to organize and compose this portfolio demonstrate my achievement of all four course outcomes. I will also explain how the strategies in question serve to validate my initial argument that English 131 helped me develop a unique personal writing style which is better suited for interdisciplinary university classes.

Note that this portfolio is organized into eight different section-- seven of which have creative titles that relate directly to the central metaphor. Further, the reflections that accompany each page contain no noticeable grammatical or spelling errors, nor do they deviate from the objectives of the portfolio assignment. These specific choices demonstrate awareness of my target audience's expectation, as my English professor (Victoria) will ultimately be the main audience. Some of the more creative passages included in my portfolio reflections function primarily to integrate my interests in history and architecture, but they also show careful consideration of my intended audience's role as a grader. Considering that the professor will be reviewing over twenty similar portfolios, those passages serve to keep my instructor engaged with my writing, thus demonstrating achievement of Outcome 1.

As for the second Course Outcome, the careful selection of evidence derived from my own work, along with my citations of the professor's commentary, exhibit my ability to strategically use and incorporate sources. For each course outcome discussed in this portfolio, I curated some of my original assignments from English 131 as showcase pieces. For instance, I quoted my thesis from the third short assignment to discuss how the connections I make to the present satisfies the complexity aspect of Outcome 3. That discernment in using and incorporating sources stands as a strong example of Outcome 2. 

In the introduction to my portfolio, I laid out my argument that English 131 "has unshackled me from the rigid constraints of high school writing standards, enabling me to experiment with my own personal writing style, to write for broader audiences, and to write multimodally." Throughout the rest of the portfolio, I ensured to connect my writing back to this argument, commenting on the stylistic features of my assignments as they relate to multimodality and personal style. I also added transitions at the beginning and end of each essay that sinuously tie in the essential metaphor, demonstrating my ability to craft the sort of persuasive arguments outlined in Outcome 3.

It is worth mentioning that the writing herein is clearly proofread, containing no grammatical, syntactical, or spelling errors that detract from the writing. The incorporation of my interests in architecture, art, and history, along with my use of less prosaic passages and creative titles, shows my consideration of the professor's feedback to be more experimental with my writing. That evidence of proofreading and revising hits all the marks of Course Outcome 4. 

Finally, this work as a whole highlights the emergence of a unique writing style which is, at once, prosaic and poetic, literary and pragmatic. From PowerPoint presentations and digital newspapers to standard essays, my showcase pieces for the various outcomes overwhelmingly demonstrate an ability to compose multimodally-- a skill which I acquired chiefly through this class. While it was difficult to integrate more creative passages without straying too far off topic, I attempted to recreate the way in which thoughts fade in and out of our conscience, and how individuals project history onto the present. The consideration of those abstract topics thus created a poetic effect which offered a glimmer of personality in an otherwise objective and concrete writing assignment. Additionally, my initial emphasis on the emotional experience of scaling a skyscraper reflected a preference for the literary, as the use of apostrophe in those passages creates an anecdotal tone. I also included sophisticated literary devices such as similes and a central metaphor which reveal my knack for creative writing (I took creative writing in my sophomore year of high school, and have continued to exercise my creative writing skills since then).

The aforementioned skills which I developed in this class will undeniably improve my likelihood of success in other writing based classes at the University of Washington. Prior to my first semester at UW, I had ample experience writing persuasive essays, research papers, and rhetorical analyses, but I had little to no experience using different modes of communication-- and certainly no experience writing in a university setting. English 131 gave me a set of expectations for what constitutes quality writing at the university level, while also giving me a space to experiment with my personal writing style. 

Now, recall the many ghostly figures of the past who once traversed this building-- cloche hat wearing ladies, cosmopolitan business men, excited children, company executives, industry tycoons-- and watch one more time as the amorphous silver lines, marble surfaces, and swirling square tiles of the elevator doors come back into focus, separating into distinguishable patterns. The elevator door opens: you are unconfined and uninhibited by a formerly entrapping fear. You move toward the familiarly arranged lobby, unceasing, to boldly go to your next destination. As dauntlessly as the acrophobic person with a freshly conquered fear, I will enter Winter Quarter as a stronger and more experienced writer.