Kari Fuchs
English 102.006
Professor D. Micer
April 30, 2011
Blogfolio Reflection
This semester has seemed to fly by and it’s sad that it is coming to an end. This is the last English class that I’m going to need to take and that’s hard to believe. This semester has focused mainly on academic arguments and how to construct and write one correctly. Two of the papers that we wrote were based on articles from the text book and the third paper was somewhat of a choice. For the first writing paper, I analyzed and argued how assimilation is not a good thing to follow in America.
This was one of the first academic argument pieces that I have written, so this might have not been my best. I did go back and was able to add what was needed and suggested, but I also found some things that I felt needed to be described more or just needed to be taken out. This paper, I feel, did turn out pretty well and I feel that it could very well be a B paper. Every paper could always use a little tweaking but I think that I did improve the overall paper. For the second paper, I looked at an article by Giroux and wrote about how teaching machines are present in today’s world and how they are important.
The article by Giroux was the basis for this paper and aided greatly in developing the paper. When I went back and made the needed corrections, I also made a point to add in more evidence from his actual text. I think that the first draft of my paper didn’t quite give enough evidence, but now I feel that has changed. I have changed a bunch in this paper and I also feel that it could move from its current grade up to a high B. The third and final piece that I wrote was the choice one.
This paper would have to be my favorite because I was able to write about something I was passionate about. Although this was an academic argument, like all of the other ones, I feel that I made a bigger impact to the reader. There is ample evidence throughout the paper and can draw the reader’s attention. This paper’s grade, I feel should also be raised to a high B because I was able to make the necessary changes, but I feel that maybe a few more could have been made.
With this semester, I feel that I have learned how to write academic arguments more correctly and write them effectively. This may not help me for other classes that I am currently taking, but I believe that in the near future they may help. When I am older, being able to provide evidence and use it correctly will benefit me greatly. Out of the three pieces that I wrote this past semester, I feel that my best would have to be the one about teaching machines. I believe that I was able to follow the assignment and provide the correct amount of evidence to make my claim believable. With this being one of the first times that I have really written correct academic arguments, I feel that the way that I was able to handle it was because I could understand what was being asked of us students and was able to tie the information that I desired into the papers. In the papers, I feel that my biggest strength would be my ability to find important information from the sources and tie it into my pieces. One of my biggest weaknesses in my papers would have to be the fact that I would sometimes make them too personal and that is a big mistake in these kinds of papers.
For this portfolio, I feel that I deserve a B+. Although my papers may not be perfect, they still follow the prompts and are giving the reader reasons to feel the same way I do, in a sense. I have put a good deal of work into revising and just writing these papers in general and I feel that the improvement and the hard work will result in a higher grade.
