Reflection in the Electronic Writing Classroom

L. Lennie Irvin, San Antonio College

Examples of "Portfolio Letters" to accompany an end of semester Final Portfolio

(See Portfolio Evaluation questions)

Rosa's Final Evaluation

1. The two other essays that I included in my portfolio are My Family Story and the Illustrative Essay. I chose "My Family Story" because in it, I learn how to use desription. I brought a past event to the present in a vivid way. Also, it was a funny story to share. The second one that I chose was the Illustrative Essay, this was my first essay where I used the essay form: introduction, body and conclusion. I had to be a clear purpose and a specif audience. In both essays I used the useful tool of description to show the story or stories. In the illustrative essay I wrote in an organized manner. I could relate the stories with the topic sentence, so I had good organizations on them.

2. Writing for an audience with a specific purpose made me improve my writing. For example, in the illustrative essay my purpose was to make parents be aware of the dangerous situations that could occur when children are unattended. The stories that I wrote like examples were related, however based on the purpose I change the way that I said the stories. So, I learned to manage my writing in order to get the purpose and the audience that I want to target.
Peer response help me a lot. I as a beginer author, sometimes I didn't get the exactly idea or purpose that you wanted, so through peer response I had the effect that my essay produced and then I could compare if that was the effect that I wanted. As readers you look for certain characteristiscs that the writing has to have. In "On Writing" Most of us said I like the writings that catch my attention and are interesting. Well, if you say that of one book, it's because you are part of the audience that the author focused his writing and he is getting the effect that he wanted. There here is the importance of have an specific audience with a clear purpose.

3. I did a lot of revision. The first revision was always about ESL grammar mistakes (two drafts per essay), then the mistakes like a writer and finally the revision based on the feedback. However, all this work has been very valuable for me. In every essay, I tried to avoid the mistakes that I had before( but new ones showed up). It has let me improve my english.

4. At the begining of the class I was a little scared about AlaMOO. I was confuse how to go from one site to another. Now, I love it. I could do peer responses at midnight, and read more than one time the essays of my peers. I could change my writings whenever I wanted. Now, I'm very expert closing and opening windows, going from the web to words, copying and pasting what I consider interestiong from the web. My friends that are not taking composition in computer class tell me, "do you like your class in the computer?" I always answer Yes and I love it. I'm going to share my final portfolio with them.

5. I don't know if I helped others. I want to be sincere, I always gave my opinion in a general way. Since English is not my first language, I didn't feel with the authority of saying you are write or wrong.

6. In Mexico where I grew up, we don't have a "writing class". We are taught only to write bussiness letters. Before this class, the last time that I wrote a composition was in elementary school. Now, after of all of this writings I feel more confident about my writing. I've been like a little child everything is new for me. I don't trust in my grammar yet, hence I ask for help. When I compare my first draft with the one that I included in my portfolio, I felt glad. I really improved it.

7. The skill that I have developed in this class is organization. I always followed the organization of every essay. And It has helped me for my other classes.

8. I used a lot of reflection in this semester. It was a good experience, because it made me think in what I was learning. Through reflection, I realized by myself of the importance of every thing that I was tought and I recognized my mistakes.

9. The Personality Essay was the longest essay that I have ever written. It was very drained to do it. Eventhough that I had all the material, it was very difficult to put it in my essay. The sandwich helped me a lot, the only problem was that I was always hungry. Besides that, it liked the proccess of searching, going to the library and the web and it was the first time in my life that I used periodical information (films). It was very interesting. I revised the citations again (the sandwich). Also I added more examples.

10. I would say a 4. I consider that my portfolio is OK, but it still needs more work to be perfect. My strength is that I have a good organization, and my weakness is that they need to be more polished. I think, I need to develope all my skills as a writer.

Daniel Cortez

1) The other two essays that I have chosen are the hindsight and the family story essay's. I have chosen these pieces of writing, because I feel as though they really made a permanent mark in my memory. Its kind of like the things that stay in your mind that you can never forget no matter what. I feel as though the hindsight essay really demonstrates a dramatic change in my-self. It also demonstrates real good detail about a lot of information about my-self. For instance I talk about a mistake that I have made in my life. This event that took place really gave me the motivation in order to complete a lot of my essays for your class. I would think to my self I can either make something of my self or I can let the essay slip right bye and not even do it. The family story essay really demonstrates very good detail about the events that took place in that night. This essay has shown that writing is not always about serious issues, but can also be used as a hilarious get away. As a writer this essay demonstrates a happy moment that I will never forget. I know that not every one is going to live forever, but it is always good to have at least one great memory of every person that is an importance in your life.

2) As I wrote every single essay I kept reminding my self that other people were going to read my writing piece. I knew that I had to have a good introduction or a good kernel sentence in order for the audience to gain entrance in my writing. Choosing a topic was also going to have to be something that people would want to know about or would like to know more about. I think that I did a good overall job of completing this task. The only essay that I got real bad feedback from was the illustrative essay. One of the reasons why I think that people really didn't like this essay was due to the fact that I lacked a lot of detail and information that was needed. Another default to that essay was that I dont think a lot of people were for what I was talking about, but that also has something to do with the lack of more information and detail I that essay. This showed me that detail and good information is like the main ingredient in writing. Every other essay that I have written contains paragraphs of detail and information for the reader to acknowledge.

3) I have learned that revision is also a key ingrediant in writing. Revision gives us an opportunity to correct the mistakes that we have made in our writing. Revision has been very helpful in my writings. I feel as thought the only way to get a writing to perfection is to revise the piece many times till you are satisfied with what you got. One of the reasons why I have chosen the family story to be one of my final essay in my portfolio is the fact that we had revised that essay several times. I feel as though that is one of my perfect essays that I have written due to the fact that it was revised so much.

4) I have learned that it is better to write on a computer rather than on a sheet of paper. A computer allows you to go back in to your essay an correct your errors with out all the trouble of erasing. It is also a lot less writing to do than with a sheet of paper. With a sheet of paper you will end up writing your essay about three to four times. As with a computer you can just write it once and then make your corrections form there. Writing form a computer has given me more motivation to produce great ideas to write in an essay. When I use to write form a paper I use to give up, because I would have to write the essay several times in order to get it to perfection. At first it was kind of weird having a English class that used no paper or pencil just a computer. As time went bye I got use to it and really enjoyed writing essays. I feel as though every English class should contain computer skills like this one.

5) Collaboration is very useful in writing. This gave everyone an opportunity to have fresh eyes look over are paper. Every ones contribution helped me correct all my errors. Most of my errors are punctuation errors. When you made us go to the library and read other peoples essays I was thinking to my self why is he making us do this? When I got my paper back I saw he importance that collaboration had on are essay. This is just one more step to perfecting are essay.

6) I have gained a lot of confidence in my writing this semester. It feels better to write with confidence rather than with a feeling that you are doing it all wrong. I a producing better essays than every, because I have learned to trust my self. There are still times when I feel as though I cant trust my self as I am writing, but through peer response I gain back my confidence. I have become independent as I write my essays. I use to ask people to help me write every essay that I use to write. Now I am sure that I can write a well rounded essay on my own. I am glade that I have finally found an English class that has improved my writing skill greatly.

7) I have developed great writing skills and strategies. For example I have learned how to quote some one else's work and also I have learned how to use a punctuation correctly.

8) Reflection really gave me a chance to stand out. It made my opinion feel as though it is worth something. Reflection is a very good tool it gives you a chance state your opinion.

9) I did quiet a bit of research in order to do the personality essay. The personality essay was mainly all about research. We had to find out what type of personality we pertained and what each one of the sources meant. I looked on the internet and through most of the web sites that you gave us in order to figure out the definitions. I have found that the web contains a lot of important information that is very useful to us. The library is also another place that stores a lot of information that is just as helpful as the net. Through this essay I have learned how to document my sources that I have used in order to complete this essay. I had to do a lot revision to this essay. I fixed a lot of punctuation errors that I had in this essay. I also left out some information that was important that needed to be put in the essay. I added about two paragraphs and reconstructed one paragraph to get it to perfection.

10) I think that my final portfolio is very good. I feel as though I did everything that you were asking of me. I would give my portfolio a high B, because all though my work may contain some punctuation errors I feel as though I did a very good job writing the rest of it. My current straights are coming up with good detail in my essays and also the choice of words that I use in my essays. my weaknesses are punctuation and sometimes spelling. I feel as though need to develop better punctuation skill and also better writing skills. There is always time for improvement in every aspect of writing.