My portfolio consists of work I have completed for English 483 along with work I completed in several other areas for the Fall Semester. I have compiled work from English 357, Visual Culture and Language, along with work from the English Capstone. Pieces I have included for English 357 include analyses of core texts in visual communications, such as Marshal McLuhans The Medium is the Massage and National Geographic’s book titled Complete Photography.  The page for English Capstone includes an annotated bibliography as well as my final paper. I have also included a link that presents work I have done for the NDSU student-run newspaper, The Spectrum, for the purpose of demonstrating other writing that I have done outside of class.

 

 

 

Outcome 2

Throughout my classes, I was able to acquire many mentor texts that influenced my writing. One of these mentor texts was “Pole Vaulter's Bluff” by David Allan Evans. In his text, he presented a metaphor that explained his connection to poetry. I found his metaphor to be a strong connection to how literacy can come into our lives unexpectedly or in a way that may conflict with other areas of our lives. However, we all establish a certain connection with reading and writing, either good or bad.

 

In Evan’s text, the connection was poetry. He used his experience with pole-vaulting to portray his experience with poetry. Evan’s metaphor is evident in his text that reads, "I believe it possible...that my life as a poet began with a flat-out sprint down a dirt runway toward a bamboo crossbar nine feet high" (p. 114). His narrative began with talking about pole-vaulting and ended as a metaphor for his life as poet. I tried to model this by using metaphor in my 7th Grade Literacy Narrative. I built this metaphor around how my dad bicycling as how he was able to navigate life. I used our bike-riding excursions to develop the idea of how obstacles are always on your route; in this case, obstacles existed in both of my life as well as my dad’s in regards to reading and writing, but we had different obstacles.

 

Evans introduced his essay with explaining pole-vaulting and describing the runway he had. I also introduced my essay with my metaphor and revisited it at the end of the essay similarly to how Evans does. In his essay, the metaphor becomes the way in which he is able to comment on his experience in his evaluation at the end. I found that revisiting the metaphor at the end, and weaving it throughout, develops the metaphor for the evaluation and provides a way to reflect on the events of the essay.

 

Outcome 5

My ability to apply theoretical lenses in my work can be evaluated in analyses I completed for English 357, Visual Culture and Language. One analysis I completed, titled “Outsiders Looking Out: An Analysis of Isolation in ‘There’s No Place Like Nome’”, looked at a photo essay published on Vice Magazine’s website. The assignment required that we apply concepts from a mentor text titled Complete Photography. This text discusses photography elements such as composition, leading lines, and “The Rule of Thirds”. These concepts are the theoretical lenses with which I analyzed the photo essay to establish its strengths, weaknesses, and purpose. For example, I analyzed the use of leading lines to convey a lost sense of direction and the isolation of the town (p. 2-3). In the particular photo analyzed, there is a road that disappears into a fog. The leading lines are the outline of the road and these lines disappear into the fog, which Complete Photography comments is how leading lines can be used to discuss direction as a form of symbolism for progression, power, or, in this case, isolation (p. 88, Complete Photography).

 

Outcome 6

In order to familiarize myself with literature as a culturally embedded practice, I produced a remix video that exemplified genre conventions of culture jamming and digital writing. Remix videos have become a prominent part of culture today because of their content as well as their purpose. The content of a remix video can be analyzed for its original use in culture. For example, on my video I used various music videos. Originally, these music videos are a form of presentation and enhance the story of the given song. Music videos are unique to the culture of digital production and the ability to disseminate these videos using the internet.

 

One purpose of remix videos is to comment on a social convention or issue, which is called “culture-jamming”. Culturally, it is becoming an embedded practice through blogs, social media posts and parody to comment on the social implications of social practices. My video reflects culture-jamming by commenting on the way society uses alcohol to relieve stress and enhance the human experience. I use clips of drinking from the music videos as well as audio clips from an old radio show. In this way, my video is commenting on American culture and how alcohol has been prevalent socially across generations.

 

Strengths

One strength that I see in my writing include the ability to apply theory to analysis. I have greatly enjoyed theoretical analysis in various classes through my undergraduate career. Other examples of my ability to apply theory to given works are found in my portfolio. One of these examples is my Capstone final paper. In this essay, I analyze Sailor Jerry tattoos using Feminist theory in order to derive meaning in regards to women’s identity. This strength was also evident in my process to complete my Life and Literacy narrative. I applied concepts and ideas from Deb Brandt’s article “Sponsor of Literacy” to craft an essay that evaluated my own experience with literary sponsors.

 

Another strength I have developed in my writing is the use of metaphor. I have been able to apply how other authors, like Evans, use metaphor to present the over-arching ideas of their narrative. I have been able to practice using metaphor in my 7th Grade Literacy Narrative as well as in my Remix video. Both works have an underlining message that is evident through analysis of the metaphor.

 

What to Work On

I would like to continue working on my editing process and really finding ways to delve into my work after I feel it has been completed. Many classes encourage or require that students revisit their work for a better grade on a paper and I have really only used this to enhance a grade. Typically, I do not revisit works after a deadline and have found that to be detrimental to my development. I touch on this in my Rules of Writing blog post.

 

Another aspect of writing that I would like to continue to improve would be the evaluation I do at the end and making sure that evaluation connects to concepts I have presented throughout the paper. In my Life and Literacy narrative, I think that I miss my opportunity to link Sponsors of Literacy throughout the essay. I depend on the concluding paragraph to tie everything together.