Personal Narrative: My Portfolio

Words: 1142
Pages: 5

Portfolio All throughout high school essays seem to have come easy. Each was thoughtlessly given an “A” and I never gave much thought to them after the fact. When the first college essay was assigned I thought that the past events would simply repeat themselves. After the assignment was graded and returned I was shocked to see I received a “C”. Although it was a surprise, this was the first research paper that I had ever written. After skimming through the notes it became apparent that I was, in no way, a great writer. I was at this time barely decent, but working to grow better. I went back to the basics and looked at everything that needed to be done and started there. Even though the first essay was horrendous this was the first time using objectives such as summarizing, paraphrasing, analyzing, or even quoting. Throughout the semester, my strengths started to shine through the darkness. My papers started to show the use of synthesizing and paraphrasing to help develop critical thinking skills, although the weaknesses were still overwhelming. My writing has improved impeccably throughout this semester but my weaknesses are evident in my …show more content…
Throughout the course of the semester picking source material and combining it with my writing, or other source material, grew easier and seemed to flow better than before. I knew before this class that supporting evidence was important, but never understood how to do it. At the beginning I would simply write down a quote and then abruptly stop and then talk about it and it made the paper rough. To help the flow of “Madagascar Child Labor”, I stated that “although they keep these jobs until they are “coerced into commercial sexual exploitation””(4). I realized that quoting within my own writing was a huge help in creating a flow and it made the paper ten times better. Using a quote mid-sentence helps the paper to stay smooth and easy to