Gina's Portfolio

Dear Jane, I am grateful for all that you have taught me from January until now. Currently as a writer, which is something I never saw myself as until I took this course, I feel that I have developed and learned a lot of new concepts. One of the first things that myself and others were taught in this semester was the abbreviation, B.S. Most people would think it meant another set of words but in your way of using it, it meant BE SPECIFIC. Further in this letter, I want to B.S. and discuss my development as a writer who was attempting to reach Course Learning Outcome and exceed my own expectations of myself.

I remember having to write down what my goals were by the end of the course. I hated being asked those kinds of questions because I never knew what to say. I know that I’m not the perfect writer but I made an effort with my goals. One of the biggest obstacles I had to overcome was receiving feedback and listening to others comments. Whether good or bad comments I couldn’t bring myself to read or pay attention to  them, my confidence was so low that I always assumed all the comments were negative. Yet despite my negative thoughts that I wouldn’t develop any skills or gain any new confidence, I was surprised by myself and how much of a boost each assignment was for my progress.

One of the first major assignments for this class had to do with what everyone has, an opinion. I love animals and one of the very things that I fully support is pet adoption. Before even beginning to write, you made us question a lot of things. The audience, the rhetorical strategies and publication. All of these things I never considered when I would write assignments in the past let alone knew what they were. With you allowing me to choose an article to do a full rhetorical analysis on and writing prompts, it opened a pathway to dive deeper. Through doing assignments that related to these concepts, I was starting to understand the purpose of doing them and how to achieve the ideal appeal. The feedback you provided, such as the images below, made me understand that I was understanding. Comments, which were something I could never look at back then as I was afraid of the negative things that could’ve been said, were the most fundamental component for my progress. 

I quickly would understand the purpose of logos, which is more of a logical strategy, ethos being a credible strategy and pathos being an emotional approach strategy. These strategies would later help me out with the next assignment as I would also use pathos as the best way to convey my message. The assignments and articles provided were a major help to ease the stress of being a writer as well.  They would be the foundation of how I would think of my next assignments as it was great advice and examples. One of the articles that had really stuck to me was Anne Lamott’s piece called “Shitty First Drafts”. First drafts were the hardest things for me to do in the past, I would overthink it in many ways, that it had to be perfect the first time anything was written. Anne Lamott would give realistic insight into how that isn’t always the case as successful writers like her struggle with the same issues. The part that stuck to me the most was her saying:

 “the first draft is the down draft– you just get it down. The second draft is the up draft – you fix it up… the third draft is the dental draft, where you check every tooth, to see if it’s loose or cramped or decayed, or even, God help us, healthy”.

This began a healthy way of thinking that it’s all about the process of revisions and almost any thought can be a good thought.

The next upcoming assignment was the Visual Essay. I had never heard of such a thing as I was completely unaware it even existed. When you began to explain the elements that would make a visual essay, I got excited. It brought me joy to know not all essays required the long boring process of endless typing and sitting at a desk for hours. Although I did sit those hours on my desk, I was allowed to do something I loved which was art.  Some of the assignments we did leading up to it honestly didn’t help my thought process much. Everything that we were made to think of, were things I was already considering. To the color palette and what kind of visual I wanted to do was clear to me. I wanted to do a comic as I felt it was the best way to convey my message. Below was my draft for my comic which gave a preview in everything I wanted to do with my comic, including the structure of it. In the final piece, you can see how much I revised the comic.

One of the minor tasks that was the most intriguing one as you made me do something I’ve never done before which was leave the classroom with my partner, Amy. Just you saying to walk out and take a picture with the CCNY motto with our partner was enough for me to just tell myself that this is the method of your madness. Just in the picture below holds so much information:

This photo taught me a lot, one of the main things being the meaning of the motto. The three heads would have to do with the past, present and future. The motto itself says “Look behind, look here and look ahead”. This motto relating back to the assignment was overall crazy because I didn’t think I’d find myself thinking about it when I was making my comic but I ended up thinking about it. I had to look at my draft, look at the feedback you gave and begin reconstructing it in a way that I could have a finalized version. It also taught me more of the value of collaboration with Amy as we thought it was crazy to leave a classroom for a photo. It wasn’t like we were doing it alone but as a partnership who would learn more about the school’s motto. 

The next major assignment wasn’t my favorite but I liked that I could share the show I enjoyed watching. A critical review holds so much power, it could change the opinions of the reader on something rather quickly. The equation that was essential to composing of a critical review was KNOWLEDGE + GOOD TASTE= MEANINGFUL JUDGMENT. When it comes to production of a show, there are layers upon layers of people who help make the magic happen. This sometimes requires research, this assignment required us to look in the CCNY database to be able to use it as a credible source that would help the reader understand that I had good knowledge. Using the CCNY library was difficult for me at first because I thought we had to just look at the surface of the show. Things such as the show itself or the producer, all those things I couldn’t find anything about there until you specified that genre could count as well. Immediately things started popping up which made me gain the knowledge I needed in order to have one part of the equation down. Having taste was easy as I felt like I picked a show that showed I had good taste when it came to a captivating show. Combining these things together created my meaningful judgment for my critical review on Helluva Boss.

My partner for this assignment was Shamiah, both her and I struggled with the same thing, which was summarizing. I felt comfortable sharing my concerns with her that I felt like I was adding too many unnecessary details. She felt the same way because she just had so much to say but wasn’t sure how to keep it short and simple. I was telling her and myself that it was just best to choose the best elements that would boost the show’s image and qualities to the reader. Her feedback out of all the partners I collaborated with helped me the most to reach my goal.

Why does this all matter? Well it’s because through doing all of this and more, I was able to reach the CLO’s. I didn’t miss a single one as each one of them were achieved and everything I mentioned had to do with at least one of each CLO. Collaboration with a partner would be one of them. I thank you very much for putting me with Jasmine, Amy and Shamiah as they were all excellent partners. Using the CCNY database was another CLO which was the most difficult one to reach as I struggled with that one the most. Revisions and drafting were essential CLO’s to achieve as they helped me with others such as summarizing as I had many attempts to learn how to master it. Understanding what a rhetorical analysis was and then doing rhetorical analysis of articles would make me reach another CLO. I was able to overcome my fear of feedback and comments making another CLO check off. Finally the last one that’s in the making is my portfolio. Overall, the course was amazing and I would take it again to be able to see your methods of madness. Thank you for everything and I hope future students enjoyed you class as much as I did.

Love, Gina