The writing process is like a hike- a slow, grueling process full of ups and downs but is ultimately rewarding when you reach the summit and can look back at the progress you've made. Hiking involves a similar procedure to writing. First, you must brainstorm and make a plan for what tools and skills you'll need along with what route to take up the mountain. Next comes the arduous process of climbing, where stamina, direction, and checkpoints must always be kept in mind. Similarly, in writing, you must remain focused on the purpose of the piece and the best methods of achieving your goal using the knowledge of how elements of a genre contribute to the rhetorical situation. Then, when you think you're almost there, you may take a wrong turn and get lost. Turning back and refocusing on the work, what you may have missed, and retracing your steps is an inevitable process that will eventually result in fewer of these mistakes in the future. Finally, you reach the summit. The journey to get there was hard, imperfect, and you may have wanted to give up. But then you look back at all of the work you put in, admire the gorgeous view in front of you, and are proud of what you accomplished. 

In this portfolio, I wanted to showcase my writing progression as I brainstormed, built skills, wrote pieces with intention, revised, and created final works of writing that I’m proud of. As I reinforced prior knowledge and learned more about each genre, I tailored each piece to its purpose while still allowing my own voice to shine through. My engagement with the course outcomes developed throughout the semester as well. The personal narrative engaged with outcome 1, the genre analysis with outcome two, and finally, my first major project that showed evidence of all four outcomes. With each work in the portfolio, I got more comfortable with writing and expressing my ideas, so with this portfolio I want to show my gradual climb in my writing as we reach the summit of this course.