Smithwick 1

Kelly Smithwick
April 28, 2015
UWRT 1102-047
Ingram
Final Portfolio Essay
Organization
The organization of my e-Portfolio is nothing special. I organized it according to the importance
of each item. The Final Portfolio Essay (F.P.E) tab came first because it housed the most important item
in my portfolio. After the F.P.E. tab came the Multi-Genre Project tab. The Multi-Genre Project was the
main part in my work over the semester. It was my final piece of work after several weeks of research
and numerous hours of figuring out what exactly I wanted to do with the information I found. Under my
Multi-Genre Project tab, I included previous drafts of both genres. I did this because it made it easier to
see how my final drafts were formed. If I had the two drafts with the other artifacts, the comparison
could not have been made immediately. This tab utilized the visual mode of communication. I included a
brief description of what the pieces were, but the layout and the titles above each piece were the main
way the message was delivered to the readers. The references I used for the project were located at the
bottom of the page.
My Blog tab was next in line because of how much brainstorming was shown. It was a
contributor to how I got to my final Multi-Genre Project. I added to and/or revised a few of my blog
posts. When I did, I made sure to change the color of the text to differ from the original color I chose.
My blogs used the linguistic mode of communication because all they included were words. The
organization of the content inside every blog ranged from paragraphs, to lists, bullets, and to numbered
answers.

Smithwick 2
Last, but not least, was the Reference & Artifacts tab. To prevent spending money, I decided to
combine and add the artifacts to the reference page. They seemed to go well together because the
artifacts were the background information on my final product. I wanted to organize the page as well as
possible, and decided to present the visual bibliography first. For the rest of the page, the artifacts
typically became older as the reader scrolled down. This tab specifically utilized the spatial mode of
communication. It could resemble a pyramid, with the most important artifacts at the bottom, and the
not as important pieces close to the top. Beside the visual bibliography was the third and final Process
Work artifact. It came next because the audience previously saw the first two Process Work artifacts
and it seemed fitting to start the artifacts with the last piece of a series they had already seen. I chose to
only include three Process Work artifacts because I did not have much physical evidence of my working
process, as most of it was kept in my head. Feedback artifacts were next and were placed side by side
for easing viewing and comparison. Only one Writers Notebook artifact was included simply because I
did not have any other artifacts from this category that made an impact on my learning from this class.
The last two artifacts were the Wild Cards.
Analysis & Explanations
Throughout this semester, my writing has improved a small amount. During my high school
career, I was told that I could sometimes produce above average writing, which for me, was excellent.
This semester, my writing has grown, just not in a substantial amount. I have learned to elaborate more,
and correctly. My writing is the same as it was last semester, but with minor tweaks and a tad more
confidence. I still hate writing, and I still think my writing stinks. What I do think grew the most was my
research abilities. At the beginning of the semester, when we were assigned blog post one, we were
asked to proposed three possible topics for our research. The first question James posted was, Has
Title IX been successful in creating equality for all people involved? I found this
interesting because that was one of my original ideas that I posted in blog post one as well. I

Smithwick 3
commented, saying, If you do decide to go with your first question, I would also look at
the equality at the professional level. Right now, there is a debate about the women's
world cup and the treatment the players are receiving. Before I cared to admit that an article
I saw on Facebook could be considered research, I was already giving advice that could help someone
elses research. Also, after looking into a few other sources, I decided I would rather gear my project
towards children and reading. Throughout my research process, my argument shifted age groups three
times. It showed that my writing and research skills were improving because I knew I would not
complete an A quality project on a group I had no interest in, or supporting information on.
After going to the library and having class with Mrs. Gunter, I wrote in my blog, I am finished
with, as of the moment, Google Scholar research, and am moving on to books/articles I
can find through the database. I think that anything else I search for as preliminary
research, will generally be the same thing with the same formatting. I need to broaden
my horizon and search through the librarys database. I was finished with Google Scholar,
and needed to move on to the Atkins Librarys database. Although, it did not happen until the end of the
semester when I needed more sources for my bibliography. Looking back, I wish I had started earlier
because I found fantastic sources that would have been great for my final product. When we were
assigned our midterms, we were required to write about five of the key concepts. The third paragraph I
wrote was about how with multi-modality, I was not able to focus on any digital research. Ms. Ingram
wrote back, in her letter to me, As for your 3rd paragraph, you didnt actually discuss

multi-modality there. How might you revise to incorporate that? I changed my third
paragraph because Ms. Ingram suggested that I revise it and because it could help me later on during
class. I did not revise the midterm until a week before the e-Portfolio was due. I could tell that I had
learned a fair amount in two months, because I was able to properly give an example of how I used the

Smithwick 4
key concept multi-modality of print & digital texts. In my revision, I said, Being able to do
research using different modes including print and digital texts is great because it
gives me examples of what I can use in project. I was a fan of physical copies of the sources I
used, more than the digital copies. I was able to focus better and retain more information if I had the
physical copy. When I stumbled upon a few articles that did not just have words, but also pictures and
graphs, and they were reliable, I decided that digital texts could grab my attention better than I
originally thought. This made me open to highlighting changes that I made and making certain things
stand out from the rest.

Blog four was a challenging post for me since the instructions were not as clear as Ms.
Ingram thought they were. For that blog post, I originally had three groups at my roundtable
who all disagreed with me. During the next class, Ms. Ingram explained that it should have been
a mixture of groups who agreed and disagreed with our argument. Ms. Ingram then
commented on my blog post, saying, If your roundtable doesn't have anyone on
it whom you agree with, please add to it. You want a well-rounded table
that accurately represents the conversation. When I revised my fourth blog post,
I stated, My first group consists of parents who know the benefits of reading.
This allowed my research skills to grow and explore new topics because I now had to find
information on groups that agreed with me. Blog post four gave me insight on how to get the
information I needed and wanted. The other Kelly, Kelly Chi, commented on this blog as well.
She wrote, Maybe a child's viewpoint on reading. It may not be as in depth,
but it would be cool to hear from the age range where this is focused on. This
comment from Kelly Chi forced me to use the independent inquiry & curiosity key concept. I

Smithwick 5

knew I did not want to ask children, but I did want feedback on a few questions. I created a
Google survey, posted it on social media, and waited for the results. I got seventy-one results,
which were surprising, and changed the focus group of my project for the last time.
The third and final section that was highlighted was blog post five. This post required us
to list the genres we had come in contact with since August. I completed the assignment, but
did not fully understand what it meant. I listed the categories I came in touch with, not so much
the genres. Once again, Ms. Ingram commented on my post, saying, Can you tell us
about other genres you read and write? Can you tell us about the genres you
find in all those different classes and parts of your life?... I was focusing on
categories, more than the genres used inside each of the categories. When I revised this blog, I
only added a tiny bit of information because I still did not quite understand the main idea. I
added, My chem and math classes used online homework through a third party.
My other classes kept it within the services provided by the school. My classes
all had different kinds of books too. My sociology book was written by multiple
authors, while my chem class was just written by one author. Since I revised that
blog post, I know the difference between categories and genres. The categories were the three
groups I separated my genres into. The genres were what I, or anyone else, used to
communicate, such as: blogs, emails, text messaging, textbooks, etc. I have grown in that area,
because at the beginning of the semester, I would not have been able to explain the difference
between the two.
The last Key Concept I wrestled with was providing & receiving feedback. I have never
been comfortable with giving or receiving feedback. The two groups I was a part of for peer

Smithwick 6

workshops did not give much feedback, therefore, I was not required to give much back. When
we did the whole class swap, I was nervous because I thought people would dislike what I had
written and it would be embarrassing. On the other hand, I was cautious about giving feedback
to LJ, since we had been in a group together, and had never given solid feedback to each other.
I told him directly what I thought about his paper, and he was open to criticism. As the papers
raced by, my feedback started to gain structure. I wrote down what was good, but also what
could be improved. I no longer felt as though I was being mean, but instead helpful. When I got
my paper back, I was nervous to see the comments. I thought they would all hate it, or there
would only be negative comments. Boy, was I wrong. I got positive comments, and suggestions
that helped more than I thought they would. This paper is the way it is because of the feedback
I got from it. I now associate feedback with positive reinforcement, instead of negative
criticism.
According to the e-Portfolio grade scale, I feel that I have earned a low A. I have
completed every task listed under the A grade scale, but, I understand that my writing is not
always the best. Although, I could understand how I could possibly get a high B on this project.
There could be one or two things I did not explain thoroughly, or did not complete the
assignment completely. I do believe that I have grown in my writing and research. Throughout
this paper, I have seen myself grow and understand what the class was supposed to teach me.
Artifacts
Required Artifacts:

F.P.E.: This artifact contributed to my learning in the class by requiring me to reflect on

everything I did, relating to this class, throughout the semester. I grew in my writing

Smithwick 7

skills while writing the F.P.E. because I recognized what I accomplished with each
assignment, a task I had not previously done.

Multi-Genre Project: This was included because it was the end product of all my work
throughout the semester. While creating both of my genres, I realized that I do not have
the resources or skills to create an ad that looks like its from a magazine. My work
cannot be perfect, but it can be close to it.

Visual Bibliography: This required me to annotate each source we chose to include. I

had never annotated anything before UWRT 1102, and this taught me how to. The first
time I annotated my sources, they were short fragments that did not give me an insight
into what the piece was about. When I revised them, I looked through my peers visual
bibs and 3 column notes to see what worked best. I now know that in order to get the
most out of an annotation, I need to be thorough and elaborate.

Midterm: First thing I learned with the midterm was to check the due date for
everything. The midterm was due on a Thursday, but I thought it was due the following
Tuesday. I submitted the midterm essay at the last possible second, and still did not do
terrible on it. After going back and revising the third paragraph, I realized that it had
forced me to recognize what key concepts I came in contact with the most, which would
later help during the F.P.E.

Blog: The blog posts were similar to journal entries. They asked deep questions, and
required that you answer with more than two sentences. The blog helped me map out
what I wanted to do, and reminded me how much my research focus had changed since

Smithwick 8

the beginning. It documented my process towards the final product and F.P.E., and also
gave me information to include in the F.P.E.
Writers Choice Artifacts:

Process Work 1: This was the first draft of Final Draft 1. This was the first idea I had for
my final draft, and it helped me figure out how to use the visual mode of
communication more to capture the attention of my audience.

Process Work 2: It was the first draft of Final Draft 2. I used visual and linguistic modes
of communication in order to influence my audience. I learned how to word it in a way
that would stick with my audience.

Process Work 3: This was the survey I conducted to gain insight into the people around
me. This shifted my focus towards teenagers instead of younger children. It played an
important role in my research and I learned that doing personal research can be more
effective than researching online or in a library.

Feedback 1: I included this in my feedback because I needed to know how old

information could be before it was considered out of date. We were asked to write
three questions for the librarian, and Ms. Ingram answered if the librarian did not. She
wrote back to me, and said that I could go as far back as 30 years. From this, I figured
out that the closer the subject is related to science, the newer the material has to be.
Discoveries are always being made, and new conclusions outweigh old information.

Feedback 2: The midterm letter Ms. Ingram wrote back to me was important because
she gave me encouragement to stick with what I was doing, but also how to make some
items better. This helped me a little bit with getting over my fear of feedback.

Smithwick 9

Writers Notebook 1: For the longest time I did not understand what ethos, pathos, and
logos meant. We did exercises on them in class, but something was not clicking. This half
sheet of paper helped more than I thought it would. When I finally began to understand
these concepts, this sheet gave me examples of how each one worked. I used this paper
to help me build my multi-genre project and e-Portfolio.

Wild Card 1: I was not sure what I should use for my wild cards. I had just finished
looking at my blogs when I remembered that each one had a minimum word count. I
wrote about this earlier, but the word counts, while annoying, helped more than I
realized. They required me to think deeply about the questions posed in Ms. Ingrams
blog posts, but helped me in the long run. I took a screenshot of each word count and
put them together on a word document. Sometimes it was hard to reach the minimum,
but other times, I exceeded by over 200 words.

Wild Card 2: During the conference meeting with my peer workshop group and Ms.
Ingram, I gave each member a copy of my midterm. My peers had already heard most of
the information in my multi-genre reflection paper, but Ms. Ingram had not. She gave
me her copy back, and wrote suggestions while I was reading it. It was more of a third
feedback artifact, but there was not a huge amount of feedback on it. I took pride in this
paper because I did not need much help, and I knew what to do. I did learn that
following the correct grammar rules does not always result in a paper that sounds
better.