Eva Calzado, English 110 Writing Portfolio

Portfolio Reflection – Eva Calzado

Throughout the many different types of responses and the many assignments done, using different sources and writing methods I have learned how to become better writer. Improving my writing skills, I realized that I can now work with different genres and input these genres to back up my argument or claim in my writing. Using different genres made me learn how to tackle the different types of evidence I would input in my writing.  I am grateful to have used a variety of genres, and grateful for the different fun writing assignments I was given. These different writing tasks have helped improve my writing, allowing to struggle and grow as a writer and a student.

While being tasked with different forms of writing, along with writing I learned about the different styles and levels of formality. These different styles I had learned about, allowed me to make sure that I learned how to be formal while writing essays, and short responses. Different levels of formality allowed me to address the audience I was targeting with my writing more formally and respectfully. Learning that different audiences you write to require a level of formality made me realize that I need to cautious of informal writing when writing essays, research paper and much more.  

Reading and learning new ideas and news from many different sources I analyzed I realized that there are many issues that need to be faced today by society and many influencers in the world. Mental health during the pandemic has increased greatly and it was a topic that I wanted to focus on, since social media use during the pandemic has influenced mental health. Different topics interested me, such as the Qanon topic and how there was hidden cults that many people tried to expose and more. The topic that mainly spoke to me the most was the effect of social media in society especially during the pandemic, since during the pandemic my mental health was affected by social media, and now the limited amount of time I spend on social media has helped me focus on my mental health and life.

One of my favorite parts of ENGL 20100 class was the discussion posts. I mainly liked discussion posts because everyone got to interact and mainly voice their opinions and where they stood in the focus of the argument. I enjoyed hearing the words other people had to say, and reading others work helped me today on how I structure my writing as well. Discussion posts were also a way for me to also show others my writing work, and a way for me to voice my opinion and perspective on the argument. Overall, I can say that my experience with discussion posts was a great experience.

As seen in the final digital portfolio my writing improved especially in the citations area. I at the beginning of the course was used to citing how I did when I was in high school. I realized that citing in college was different, and I wasn’t used to it, so it was hard at first. Overtime citing evidence and different sources from other authors became easier.

College writing changed the way I saw writing in general. High school writing for me was harder than normal high school students since I attended a charter school and the standard for writing was the mainstream of the school. I do feel somehow that this writing class was easier than literature and writing classes in high school, and I am happy that I took this class. Something that was different was the citing, and the difficulty of the class, I am happier that the class was easier. Final thing I have to say is that this class was fun, and I would take it again if I could.