Portfolio Preface

Writing never has been something I look forward to. I believe that my strengths are in oratory. For me to be able to put down a thought onto paper without initial feedback has always been absolutely terrifying. I am not always sure if my audience understands me, and as soon as it is in black and white, there is no changing it.

This course has helped me get over that fear to a degree. When I am required to write about a topic that I don’t know too much about, I go blank. If I have the freedom to pick my own topic to write about, I never feel secure about my topic decision. As a writer I am very insecure. This course has brought me out of my comfort zone, and put me into one where I can learn. I have become a more confident writer starting with my position paper.

I am not a very opinionated person. For me to take a position on anything and put it into writing commits me to that opinion. When thinking about what I should write about in regards to the position paper, I took a subject that impacts me directly, and thought about my position on that subject. I know my opinions, but finding research to support them proved to be a difficult task. It really stretched my research abilities, but in the end I was satisfied with how it ended up.

The research paper proved to be even more difficult. The requirements for the sources were in my opinion a little unreasonable, but I insisted on meeting them. This helped me find quality sources that really support what I was researching. I’d say this was the most important thing I learned from this course; how to research, and find credible sources. People’s opinions are great, but solid concrete facts are so much better.

I have progressed as a writer, and as I go forward in my education, I will have more confidence in reading, understand, researching and writing about specific topics. I feel that I am now much more capable of writing in a variety of styles, using various rhetorical strategies, and expressing myself so that my audience knows what I am trying to say. I look forward to my next assignment.