John's Writing Portfolio

All of my essays that I have written in this class share many of the same traits with each other. All of them share my voice in writing and in that sense have not changed very much. What has changed, however, is my use of the three rhetorical appeals: ethos, logos, and pathos. In my first essay I was fairly strong on logos, but lacking in ethos. As the semester progressed I began to use these rhetorical techniques more and more as I wrote my essays. I also learned how to cut down my use of commas (yep, I managed to mention them yet again! :)

There were several factors in all of my essays that contributed to their success. The first of which is the voice of the pieces. As I read my own essays each one conforms to my style of writing. In this sense all of my essays have the same general feeling even if they do not share the same topic. My use of logos in each of my assignments was (and has generally always been) another of my strong points. In each of my essays I feel that I have always taken a more logical approach to my writing topic. I also learned to use quotes wherever they prove helpful in order to further develop any point that I might be making.

Even though there is a lot of good to be said about my writing in this class there is still much that needs improvement. I need not mention my comma problem so I will go ahead and start with my somewhat weak transition statements. This is an area that I still need to develop. At first my paragraph transitions were a bit redundant, repeating at the end and beginning of each paragraph. Later on they became almost lacking and paragraphs seemed to jump from one topic to the next in sudden jolts. My transitions between the last body paragraph and the conclusion have also been consistently rocky although, in my opinion, these are the most difficult transitions to write in any essay. I also have a tendency to be a little unclear at times. I have a hard time realizing that just because I understand what I meant to say, the reader may not understand what I actually said.

However, I learned from some of my other mistakes and ended up learning a great deal throughout the course of the semester. The main thing that I learned was the three rhetorical techniques. Before this class I had no idea what rhetoric was let alone the techniques that were associated with it. So in my earlier essays the three rhetorical techniques are only partially present and often unbalanced. However, as the semester drew on I began to use all three of the rhetorical techniques in order to improve the impact of each of my essays. I learned how to better balance them, and how to recognize them in the writings of others. And of course my comma use gets an honorable mention in this paragraph I have learned how to cut down on its use between my first and fourth essays.

So overall I have learned a great deal from this English course. I have learned a few new things about what makes an essay good as well as what makes one bad. All of the different writing techniques that I have learned have also made me a better writer overall. I am better able to express myself in the way I want than I was when I began this course. As for my writing now, when it is simply written and only checked over by myself, I believe it deserves a low to mid B. However, when others help me by giving me a few pointers I believe it easily earns an A grade. So the next thing that I should work on is critiquing my own writing in an objective manner.