Throughout this semester, my identity as a writer has shifted from someone who wrote mainly to get assignments done or requirements to someone who writes with purpose, reflection, and making their voice heard. Each major project challenged me in different ways, and together they helped me understand what it means to make rhetorical choices and to treat writing as a process rather than a one time task.
The literacy narrative was the first assignment that pushed me to look inward and consider the experiences that shaped me as a reader and writer.I struggled at first with organizing and punctuation. Peer feedback helped me realize where I needed to expand my reflection. Revising this piece taught me how important structure, pacing, and clarity are to engaging a specific audience.
The most significant growth happened during the research essay. Instructor feedback on my rough draft pushed me to clarify my thesis,improve transitions, and synthesize sources more smoothly. Instead of simply inserting quotes, I learned how to integrate evidence into my own reasoning. The revision process drafting, receiving feedback, rewriting sections, and editing for clarity helped me develop stronger writing habits.
My understanding of rhetorical choices developed even further in the rhetorical analysis essay, which required me to analyze an author's purpose, intended audience, tone, genre expectations, and use of evidence. This assignment strengthened my ability to recognize appeals such as ethos, logos, and pathos, and helped me become more aware of how I could use these same strategies in my own writing. It is the piece that best demonstrates my rhetorical awareness.
In this portfolio, you will see how each assignment contributed to my development as a writer. You will see how my skills and habits have changed throughout this semester, and how feedback shaped my revisions, which assignments best showcases my rhetorical awareness and how the pieces collectively represent the writer I have become. Through these works, I hope to shower my growth, clarity, and intention as I continue developing my academic writing and voice.
