Portfolio Cover Letter
When asked to write about what I have learned over the semester in your English 112 class, I thought it was going to be a difficult task. Your class isn’t the conventional college course. We have no graded work besides this portfolio and attendance. We have written only two papers. You have a different approach to teaching than others. This might lead someone to believe that you don’t do a good job teaching. This is not the case you actually care whether your students learn. Your style of teaching has been very effective for me. You have taught me many things that I can take out of the classroom and incorporate into my life. Things such as utilizing the writing process, the art of holding a conversation, taking notes during lecture, argument analysis skills, how to make a strong argument, learning new ways to publish digital media, using technology to your advantage, taking proper research notes, and how to work at becoming an expert. All these add up to more valuable lessons than your run of the mill homework assignments. The are things that will be important to know in everyday life inside and out of college.(Taken from my midterm review draft)
The first day of class we were asked to take notes during lecture. This is something I don’t normally do. I took the suggestion and began taking notes with every lecture. By taking notes it makes you aware of what is being taught. It gets you involved in discussions and makes you feel part of class instead of being lectured to. Taking notes is probably one of the most valuable lessons I have learned in the class. I have not had much trouble making great grades so far in my college career. I haven’t had to try very hard. In the future with a tougher schedule taking notes will be invaluable to my success in the class. The notes I have taken in class have helped me write this paper.(Taken from my midterm review draft) The notes help me provide evidence of my learning. (Analysis and Synthesis notes) These notes give me information on analysis and synthesis of a text. The key to knowledge is understanding more about a topic then what you started with. I analyze a text by breaking it down into pieces trying to understand the pieces. Then I synthesize which is putting the pieces I analyzed together to form a general understanding of the text. This is just one example of notes I took over the semester. These notes also mentioned my virtues. These virtues taken from Ben Franklin’s autobiography taught me what morals I held close to me. By writing this down I have an account of things I want to keep track of. This lesson was about how good I want my quality of life to be. Its more than just english work. It’s introspective work on myself.
The next topic we learned was holding a conversation. This mind map shows all of the different topics the art of conversation covers. (Mind map for oral communication) I learned how to include people into conversation and ask questions to spark conversation. I also tried to be an active listener instead of thinking what I was going to say in conversation. We formed into groups and were asked to discuss the Martin Luther King Jr. writings from Birmingham jail and his famous I have a dream speech. In a later conversation we were asked to discuss ideal political candidates. It was fun to see how many different views there were on this subject. I gained a lot of knowledge from the others in my group. Learning other people’s perspectives on a topic in conversation is another important lesson that I have learned. It is also very important because you gain knowledge on the topic you are discussing. By having conversation in our group, I began making connections with some of my classmates. This makes class more enjoyable and could also to lead to friendship in the future. (Taken from my midterm review draft) At first forming groups and having conversation with strangers seemed awkward. But in my real career field I will have to talk to strangers everyday. I realized this is practice for the real world. Much of this class seemed to be practice at life skills and not just a regular english class. To be an expert you have to know experts. By making connections in a professional setting I can become more established in my career field.
Some things I have learned about rhetorical knowledge have been the argument analysis and the use of the rhetorical and appeals triangle.The argument analysis is a claim and evidence analysis. English 112 was about writing for an academic audience and crafting the message that appealed to your academic audience. Learning about how to write for an audience was important and will be even more so in the future. Understanding the rhetorical triangle is also a valuable tool to use in the future. Your audience may change from time to time and you have to understand and adapt to your audience. If you don't adapt you may lose credibility and the respect of your audience. We all know how important your ethos is in your academic and professional career.(Taken from my rhetorical knowledge draft)
In our first writing assignment of argument analysis (Argument analysis paper) we had to search the internet for an opinion article of something that interested us. I found an article about technology and how it was causing children to be less social.(Link to opinion article) This opinion article was a claim and evidence based article. We were given a worksheet for analyzing this article. (Argument Analysis Worksheet) What we wanted to do was break this opinion piece into sections of claims. A claim is something the author states and then provides a reason and evidence to back it up.(Claim, Evidence, and rhetorical appeals notes) We also analyzed further to understand the appeals triangle. Every claim uses an appeal from the appeals triangle. Logos uses facts and logic to back a claim up. Ethos is using your reputation to solidify a claim. Finally, Pathos uses emotion to spark attention to a claim. By breaking an article up into sections utilized prewriting of the writing process.(Notes on writing process) It made writing the actual paper very easy. After using this worksheet the basis of writing an effective argument became very clear. You make your major claim. Then you provide your evidence as to why your claim is correct. You also understand what type of appeal can be used to be effective. I found that Pathos appeal worked effectively on me. This assignment gave me valuable knowledge of the appeals triangle and how to understand an argument. By analyzing this argument it also made me aware how to make a valid argument myself. In order to understand and make a valid argument I also need to know my opinions aren’t necessarily right or good I need to understand the other side of the argument. Whether your argument is right or wrong the most valuable thing is that I learn more information about a certain topic. (Taken from my rhetorical knowledge draft)
Glancing at some of my notes I noticed a lot of this semester was about understanding our academic audience. I’m the author and I have to craft my message to my specific audience. This is the rhetorical triangle at work.(Rhetorical and appeals triangle notes) The rhetorical triangle is made up of three parts. First is the author. Then the message. Finally, the last part is the audience. Understanding who my audience is going to be and what my audience wants to hear is important. I can make an example of this paper. You the teacher are trying to understand what I learned. The teacher being my audience gives me details about how this paper needs to be written. I take that information and began to craft a message. After publishing my message which would be this portfolio paper my audience gives me feedback. In this case feedback comes in the form of a grade. That is the rhetorical triangle. It is a revolving process and comes full circle back to the author. Understanding how to craft the message for my audience is where the work is involved.(Taken from my rhetorical knowledge draft)
Another major thing I learned about was the writing process. I knew what this was before but I had never utilized it. I used it on my argument analysis piece by using prewriting.(Argument analysis worksheet) I used it on this portfolio essay by prewriting and drafting several different essays about different learning objectives.(Rhetorical knowledge draft)(Digital technologies draft)(Critical thinking, reading, and writing draft)(Mind map prewriting - Oral Communication) I used most of these drafts for this paper. All I had to do was edit a little. I am beginning to realize the importance of the writing process because it helps me manage deadlines more efficiently. It also makes it easier to make a complete paper. I think about it like my drafts are my analysis because it looks at sections of what I learned this semester. I put all my drafts together and I have synthesized everything I have learned. In my English 111 class, I would sit down and write a paper in one sitting. Not even read over it after. My grades reflected poorly written papers. I believe I have done a better job this semester and that is because I utilized the writing process.
The final subject and I believe the most important we were asked to understand how to use digital technology to our advantage in becoming a better student. Some of the ways we have learned to do this is to take research notes using information from the internet, adapting the writing process using word processing equipment such as google docs then publishing this information with the blogger, and using the blogger for a place to share and help each other understand texts. Digital technology plays an important role in writing. Our use of the technology through tools such as the blog has made this class more accessible and simple. Using these tools has helped me understand our use of digital technology more thoroughly.(Taken from my digital technologies draft)
The blog I was asked to create would prove to be one of the most powerful tools I possessed.(Link to my blog) I would first process my information in Google Docs then publish it online with the blogger. Google Docs is a useful word processing tool and a great place for online storage of all my work. The blogger would ultimately be used to show evidence of my work for my portfolio essay. One thing this taught me is that if a class made an effort we could help each other succeed in the class. This blog is a place we can share our papers, ideas, and thoughts. With this tool we could adapt the writing process digitally by sharing our ideas with each other. I took the time to implement this idea by finding sources for other students research topics.(Helping with sources in comments)(Helping with sources in comments) The idea of the blog was definitely original to me because I have never thought an online blog could be so useful. The blog is an awesome tool for academic learning.(Taken from my digital technologies draft)
Using the internet for research was something that I was taught.(Notes on research sources) These notes helped me understand credible sources and how to identify them. The notes also show me the different types of sources such as empirical,digital,and print. Empirical sources are someone’s experience.Digital and print are self explanatory. After learning how to identify proper sources I learned how to take research notes.(Research process notes)(Sample research notes). I came up with a research topic question. I simply searched google using that question. After finding credible sources I began to take notes. I either paraphrased or took a direct quote from the source. Following my notes, I would put a link for the site and also the date which I took the note. With new information from my search I developed a different research question. I would then search google with this new question gathering more information. The process repeats until I felt I had satisfied my questions. This process makes research easier and it also gives me plenty of information to work with. I used the blog to get the perspective of my other classmates. They helped with research by finding me more sources and posting them to my blog. Using all these tools to research a topic was very helpful. I found more than enough information on my topic using technology.(Taken from my digital technologies draft)
Technology doesn’t come without a cost though. I had minor problems resulting from limitations of technologies. I have noticed looking at my notes I scanned that the appear very grainy on my laptop. I looked at my notes on a desktop computer and they looked fine. This was one problem I encountered using technology. I hope the notes look fine to you because I have worked hard for a good grade. I wouldn’t want to receive a bad grade simply for a problem with the technology I am using. Another problem I ran into was with the blog. It is hard to edit and get everything uniform. Importing data and images are rather hard especially trying to use Microsoft word to import into a google product. Microsoft wants you to buy their product and not use anyone else’s. This causes Microsoft and Google to not be very friendly with each other. So you end up have to cut and paste everything from word to google docs and then uploading it to your blog. Not a major problem but in a perfect world the process could be streamlined.
Finally, I would like to bring to your attention my examples of logical fallacies.(Guilt by association)(Loaded Question)(Faulty Cause)(False Dilemma)(Ad hominem) These are all examples of political fallacies. I was told this would bring a letter grade extra credit. These logical fallacies all seem to be a very common occurrence. Politicians use them to sway the public into believing certain things. Some of them such as the guilty by association fallacy seem to be the most ridiculous things. The Barack Obama reference I found associated him with radical terrorist groups. This is the farthest thing from the truth. Some people do believe that Obama has terrorism affiliation though. The Jimmy Carter ad hominem fallacy makes Carter look very foolish. He comes off as a racist because of it. Giuliani’s faulty cause fallacy makes certain claims and gives a false reason because of it. There is no way to provide evidence for him to show his claim is true. All Giuliani is doing is claiming the adoption rates are up because women are not having abortions. He is trying to say that women instead of having abortions are going through with pregnancy and then giving the babies up for adoptions. The statistics he claims are not directly related to each other. These are just five examples of the many logical fallacies politicians use.
In conclusion, I have given you evidence of my learning over the semester. I believe I analyzed the evidence I gave you thoroughly. I’m not going to argue a grade because I believe my work speaks for itself. I have enjoyed how different this class has been. Its been more of a lesson I can take into my future than just a class on graded work. I think that is your major point of your teaching. You give useful information for my life instead of just making me write boring homework assignments. I will always remember that I want to be considered an expert and I have to work to gain a reputation as an expert. If I become an expert my quality of life will improve and overall I can be more satisfied with my life. I believe that your major concern with the class was that we learn and can take what we learned into our life. Not just my academic life my professional and personal life. I appreciate your effort and concern with our quality of life. Thank you.
