Portfolio

Dear Classmates,

          I’ll be honest, It was not easy for me to go through the work I’ve done this year to select blogs or papers that fitted in the revision, remix, or  “hit” and “miss” categories.  I feel like I’ve carefully chosen the appropriate pieces of work for me to complete this portfolio. As I began this project I chose a piece to revise, I instantly thought about my research paper, but I thought it would better suited as a remix. Continuing to put every piece into play, I feel that revising my Literacy Narrative entitled, “ The Giving tree kept giving” would be the best paper to revise. Although I scored a 91% on this paper, I received an 81% because it was late. However as I Selected to revise the piece because of how jumbled up my thoughts were. Organization was non-existent in this paper. With that being said I Chose to revise my paper for Organization and Word choice because, I Tend to use the same phrase or words repeatedly throughout my paper. My biggest fear going into the revision is that since I scored a 91% without the late penalty, I feared the most that in would only do harm to my paper, unraveling my sentimental story like a snake uncoils his tight body.

           Let’s be honest here guys, would you rather see an action packed film on human trafficking, or a bland report? That’s why the remix assignment was the easiest to choose. I transformed my paper that resembled a wounded soldier with all the red marks dripping along the paper, into an eye-catching clip. Although, rather than starting off as a boring report, I’m going to try to write in such ways that captures the attention and use my creativity in assignments such as research papers. I feared most of all that my creativity take away from the formality in my paper, so as a writer I’m still struggling, but I’m improving the content dramatically, realizing my voice matters in my papers, and most of all my ideas matter.

          The Blog Post on April 15, 2013 about analyzing a song for poetic devices was a definite hit for me. Completing this assignment made me realize that not only songs have a deeper meaning, but this also is also making me analyze Macbeth with an open mind. I also felt like reading Nervous Conditions was a huge hit because our class has never been assigned reading with this type of theme, characters, or setting.

           Whereas, I think the research paper was a miss. I’ve always been more successful in writing creative assignments where I can express my ideas, but in the research paper I felt like my writing traits I tend to include in my pieces were limited. So, I ended up with a bad experience and bland paper. With that being said, I also think writing the Literary Analysis was a miss, not because it lacked benefits, but because it didn’t build up to helping me in the future assignments that were required this year.

            Overall, throughout this year, I feel like I have found out that I have a voice, which is an important thing to have in writing papers. Having a voice gives your paper a certain tone. Without knowing what my voice was, my papers tend to be jumbled up and usually veered off topic. In addition to finding my writing identity, I also learned to stay on topic, as I tend to include irrelevant material that confuses the reader on my central topic.

          Throughout the whole year, I feel like our central topic was discussing who we are as readers and writers. Along with contrasted who we previously were as English students, to who we are now. With that being said, I believe the Assignments you are about to see shaped me into a whole new English Student. Revising my Essay along side a writing fellow made me realize that I had a voice in my writing that I never knew. Next, remixing my paper was easy to find that start line, the research paper. I contemplated ways I could make it interesting and keep drama in it led to a movie trailer.

In Conclusion through the hits and misses, revising my literacy narrative, and remixing my research paper I feel like I’ve remixed my whole approach to writing papers, reading books, and analyzing poetry. Because after all, It was always there. But finally it’s getting out.

Sincerely,

Tad 

 Revision:

The Giving Tree Kept Giving

           Hum, hum, hum, the medicine pump was creating a racket, steadily sending the morphine rushing through my veins like a freight train at top speed.  My eyes are heavy and I am finally in a fog of relief from pain, but feeling detached from reality. I am vaguely aware of my ride on the stretcher across the hospital halls, and into the operating room to get my appendix out. “Do you have a girlfriend?” “Where do you go to school?” ” What is your favorite book?”   The nurses were trying to make conversation to distract me along the way.

          “My favorite book is The Giving Tree,” I said as I drifted off to anesthetic sleep, unaware of what the surgeon was doing to me, dreaming of myself swinging from the giving tree’s long limbs, having the best time. When I woke up, it was a weird feeling, I still had the gel they put on my eyes so everything was a blur. Unable to focus, I just lay back down and dosed off for hours. Much later, my eyes veered to my left, and there was The Giving Tree on the hospital table. Looking at this book for the first time in years brought great excitement and memories came flooding back like they happened days ago. 

        Flipping through the pages, happy as ever, I forgot all about the most painful thing that’s ever happened to me in my life and read the book over and over until the book was like the tree, and I was the boy in the sense that the book brought me comfort, and made me understand the book’s true moral.  I remembered from my childhood and my mother reading it to me every night.  The book kept giving, and giving, and giving, just like the doctors at the hospital that week were giving anything I needed to get better and recover smoothly. Not only did they supply me with my favorite book, they reattached me to my childhood.

          Recovering from my surgery didn’t just teach me to persevere through the hard times, and believe in myself when I started sports again, but it also taught me that reading can bring so much joy to you no matter how bad you hurt. The pain you feel will all be relieved with the right book; and the memories stored in between the lines of the novel you grew up with is a feeling second to none

          You’re probably thinking, Great Job Tad, you read a 10 page book with cute little pictures in it ninth grade. The point isn’t how long the book is, or the vocabulary: the point is that it sparked my interest in reading, resulting a reading fire, spreading through my brain like a newly disturbed ant pile.  Looking back, remembering the first time I sat in my mom’s lap and eagerly listened to the story… it was as the book was a roller coaster that whipped through my brain, opening hidden memories and unlocking hidden emotions.

         Throughout my whole life, The Giving Tree has been a part of me. Constantly, during my childhood through my present years I have been influenced and am being taught true morals to live by. This book has always been there for me whether I have a tough decision to make, or I just need a moment to calm down, I hope in the future I can find more books that have as big of impact as The Giving Tree does in my life.

          Looking back from the first day that I saw The Giving Tree’s bright green cover to now, I felt like I have relived my childhood in a mater of days. However I was still in enormous pain from my surgery this kept reminding me of the motto, “It’s not the destination, but the journey,” which rings true for my reading career. It has been a long, slow journey, but I am headed in the right direction... Recently being diagnosed with ADHD and Anxiety doesn’t make it any easier, but now I know that all it takes it the right book to open new doors from the past, to the future, living by the book that gave me the best childhood.

 Remix:

 For my remix, I created an action-packed movie trailer out  of my bland human trafficking report. Here it is...

Credits to- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwcfsvQEp8E 

for the video "How A Woman Dies- Award winning short film on sex trafficking"

Hits and Misses: Hit 1- The Blog Post, " Umbrella- Rihanna ft: Jay-z and reading details"
http://tad15.blogspot.com/2013/04/umbrella-rihanna-ftjay-z-and-reading.html

Hit 2- Reading Nervous Conditions 

Miss 1- Writing the Research Paper

Miss 2- Writing the Literary Analysis



Analysis of Rhetorical Situation: 

From my dull draft, to a must see drama trailer, my research paper has changed in many ways. First off, I started off with a formal and narrow audience that would only be interested in reading a bland report. Then I remixed my audience including all ages to raise this issue even more. I was able to do this by creating a less formal and eye-catching movie trailer. Since my remix was a movie trailer, my audience is not required to have any background knowledge on human trafficking which is appropriate because there are only a few people that would actually have prior knowledge to human trafficking given that it isn't that popular, and my movie would communicate everything about human trafficking through a trill of a movie. Next, my purpose didn't change that much given both mediums had material that did not require any prior knowledge of the subject. By changing it into a movie trailer, I hope that this medium appeals to more people. Given that the Audience is expanded and the design more appealing to most, I believe that I have given Human trafficking the most publicity for more people to become aware about this problem.

Going into the "Remix" stage of my portfolio, I had no idea that stance was going to give me this hard of a time. Throughout my paper I only talked about all the bad things Human trafficking did to these women. But trying to avoid bias, I had to include good things that came from this crime. To show both sides of Human trafficking, in my trailer I included part when "Tina", the main character was struggling, and parts where she is a hero.
Lastly, I feel like Iv'e done a good job in completely changing my research paper into something totally different in all aspects. There was no suspense or drama in my paper, but using dark video clips and eerie music to portray the bad affects Human trafficking has on these women. But I also used bright clips with smiles and more lively music to show the good affects this women gained from this crime, and also increased my audience by using these creative elements in my trailer.

My writing center visit: 


Opening the doors of the Writing Center sent strong feelings of anxiety through my body. Iv'e never been there before, nor was a planning on it. I was nervous about English genius' (who I didn't even know) reading my work and marking it up so much, all you could see was red pen. I hesitantly signed myself in and all my bad feelings went away once I saw my writing "fellow", Natalie Ross. Iv'e Known Natalie my whole life and just having her there made the appointment less awkward and intimidating leading to a successful visit. As we began, Natalie Instructed me to read my paper aloud. I was amazed at how many errors that I discovered just by reading it out loud. Next, We discussed the importance of each paragraph, which I benefited from because we explained the issue of organization that was evident in my paper. With that being said Natalie told me that my visual affects were there, but I needed to have main ideas and the beginning of each paragraph, followed by supporting ideas. Lastly, Natalie and I noticed that "Armadillo Roadkill" and "Dating Spiderman" quotes were in my paper and needed to be addressed. In conclusion, My thoughts about the writing center completely changed throughout my visit. I almost got all the revision completed in my session. Although I had many "as" and repeated words I easily fixed by using more sophisticated words. However I will definitely be paying the Writing Center many more visits.