Dear Portfolio Reviewers,
I suppose this is the moment that we have been working towards for the past ten weeks—final judgment day. In the next hour or so after reading these very words, I assume I will be assigned a score that my entire grade for the course rests on. Or at least, that is how I valued this very day as I nervously stumbled into class ten weeks ago. Now, I realize how much more this moment means for me as a student, and as a writer. The result of this final portfolio does not simply define the letter grade I receive in this course; it is a marker of how far I have come as writer in the past quarter as a result of seemingly endless free-writes, revisions, and yet even more revisions.
A short four months ago, I believed that “good writing” was the kind of work I found in novels I read, or articles I was assigned to respond to. I defined my own work as something more like “sufficient and entirely decent writing.” However, this University Writing Program has taught me many lessons that have in effect, altered the quality of my own work ineradicably. Of the many fundamental writing skills that were instilled in the class, the one in the foremost part of my brain now permanently, is the value of revision. Prior to taking the course, I followed the same pattern of events every time I received the daunting task of writing an essay. Regardless of the actual subject matter of each writing assignment, I procrastinated, I stressed, I briefly devised my route of action, I procrastinated some more, and I wrote for one extended period of time(finally), and then I submitted—never once thinking about even reading what I had written once over. My process has changed entirely for the better because of this course.
Just as Dethier said in Revising Attitudes (which we were asked to respond to in the second week in class), “In writing and revision, attitude is everything. If you have a bad attitude toward writing you might well be able to do well on standardized tests by identifying parts of speech and completing vocabulary analogies, but your writing probably isn’t as good as it could be.” (pg.1) I will be the first to admit that before this course, my attitude towards writing was completely in unison with what Dethier said—my writing was lacking wholly due to my attitude.
And although UWP 1 has instilled many practical and more technical skills for writing such as identifying an audience and creating a purpose urged forward by an exigence, the most valuable part of this course for me, is that it transformed my attitude towards writing. I have learned that ensuring that each piece I write is wholesome, refined, and thoroughly revised is worth the time it requires. I think this effort and attention put into every essay can be observed through the pieces I have chosen to include in my portfolio as well. Included in the following pages are the first essay we were assigned (the narrative) and our final rhetorical analysis assignment. For the narrative assignment, I chose to write about how reading the novel, “In the Time of the Butterflies,” by Julia Alvarez influenced me to realize my desire to study cultures and has resulted in me studying International Relations here at UC Davis. For the rhetorical analysis I put my efforts into analyzing the research study, “Acute Binge Drinking Increases Serum Endotoxin and Bacterial DNA Levels in Healthy Individuals,” and its adaptation as a popular science article as presented in, “Only One Instance of Binge Drinking Can Affect Your Health: University Study.” In this work, I critically examine the popular science article’s effectiveness as a remix of the research study. Both of these works, I believe, adequately portray the time and thought I have put into each essay we were prompted to write. I was met with the same uncertainty and confusion with each essay that was assigned but with these two specific works, I think it is truly apparent that I put a great deal of time into drafting, redrafting, and finally producing a passionate, properly addressed essay.
More than just acquiring a few writing skills and producing four comprehensive papers, I have learned a lot about myself in UWP 1. Most importantly, I have learned that I am capable. I can be a classically “good writer” if I aim to be. Of course I realize that there is always room for improvement, in any piece of work, and that I am far from perfect. I am nowhere near being the next Ernest Hemingway or Stephen King—I just did not think I would ever be as proud of my writing as I am of the works that I have included. Thank you for taking the time to read these pieces that I have worked so diligently at; I truly hope you enjoy them.
Sincerely,
Chloe Lum
celumblog 