Portfolio Preface

I am terrible at writing papers! I really have a hard time putting my thoughts onto paper clearly and concisely. I am a straight to the point person, so I have a hard time elaborating and expanding on topics. Maybe if it came easier to me, I would like to write papers. Even this is hard to write. One of the best ways for me to get my writing going is by drinking beer while writing.
I liked writing the argument paper and the position papers the most. The argument that I chose was on the social significance of Barack Obama. I argued against the view of Joe Feagin. Feagin stated that Barack Obama would not be elected because he is black. Feagin tried to support his claim that white people are racist. It was with pleasure that I was able to argue against such a despicable person and it was satisfying to know that I was right. People like Feagin are responsible for keeping racism alive and well. I am convinced that Feagin and those like him use allegations of racism for their own personal benefit.
The position paper was an interesting one to research. I wrote it about the dollar and how it should be backed by gold again. It was still hard to write though, because there was a lot of information and determining where to set the threshold for my target audience proved challenging. I wanted my target audience to have at least a slight bit of knowledge about money besides just knowing how to spend someone else’s. Another point that I liked is that I had to identify and rebut objections to my point. Identifying these objections helped to reaffirm my own belief too.
The rhetorical analysis paper was difficult. I was not easy to dissect another piece of work and describe how it was set up and identify the moves of the author. To me it was like trying to understand poetry, which is a lost art form on me.
The last paper I was going to do on the Federal Reserve because I found out a lot of information about it whilst researching gold backed currency for my position paper. Writing it became impossible because I was not sure about which direction to take and it just stalled. I then decided to do my research paper on what are the political beliefs of conservatives. In Comparative Politics class, we discussed the differences between liberals and conservatives. Several of the people in the class found out that they had more in common with conservative views than they had thought and a couple of people were vice versa. I thought the topic was interesting, so I wrote my paper on what beliefs make up a conservative.
I am no more affectionate of writing papers now than I was at the beginning of the semester. I did learn a few things in this class, which I am grateful for because I can apply these skills later in my academic career and beyond. I do feel confident that I will do well in the next level of writing class.