Writing Portfolio
Composing Processes
Composing processes are the stages in the writing process. These stages are different and unique for everyone. Recognizing your strengths and weaknesses when writing is important and will allow you to become a better writer and explain the choices you make. Being aware of how we write and self-evaluating our writing is essential to becoming a better writer. There's always room for improvement!
Writing Myths
There are several writing myths that exist. However, I chose to focus on two that applied to me specifcally for this assignment. The genius fallacy is a myth I always somewhat agreed with. Some people are just good at writing and others, well, they suck at it. However, this is not the case. Everyone can become a good writer, or at least better themselves in the subject. This is where composing processes come into play. For someone who isn't that great of a writer, getting the hand of a process that works for them is important. Then, recognizing your strengths and weaknesses will allow you to better your writing, as you can improve your weaknesses and use your strengths to your advantage. "I believe that if you put effort into and a positive attitude towards writing, it will be good. It may not be perfect, but that's not what writing is always about." Anyone can improve their writing if they try. I had to work on having a blog tone for my blog and try to effectively incorporate my sources in my essay. Once I got the hang of it, it was a piece of cake. I have always been a good writer, but I always try to improve whenever I can!
Not using I is another myth I focused on. Many teachers advise not to use "I" when writing formal essays. I personally disagree with this. Using personal pronouns can often times make writing much more interesting, appealing, emotional, and credible. However, an overuse of personal pronouns can also lead to loss of credibility and make writing seem too self-centered or lacking in variety. I liked this portfolio because we had to use our personal opiinions a lot, but also learned how to incorporate sources and validate our opinions. Using personal pronouns can be a huge strength when writing and in the composing process. Using "I" can also allow the writer to more effectively explain their writing choices and convey their message.
Digital Essay
My digital essay was the assignment that sort of tied together everything I learned about composing processes. The essay incorporated multimodality, the use of personal pronouns, my writing strategies, and source evaluations. The essay is probably the most informative and interesting part of my portfolio. I was so used to writing formal research papers prior to this digital essay, so I had to learn a new approach. Using a formal tone and avoiding personal opinions or pronouns was a habit; one that I had to break while doing this online essay. You also don't have the ability to use pictures and videos and audio while writing a linear, print, formal essay. Being able to use all of these different things in the digital essay, I believe, makes it so much more interesting and readable. The essay still has somewhat of an intro and conclusion and the body, but it doesn't have to be so linear and strict. I gave a brief overview of my topic and what I researched then discussed the ideas and takeaways I thought were most important, leaving the audience with something to think about the topic. The composing process for an online essay is very different than a written essay, but can also be much more fun!
Multimodality
Multimodality is an important part of writing, especially writing that is online. When people read things online, there are more expectations than when reading off of paper. The internet allows visuals in the form of pictures, gifs, videos, colors, fonts, etc. There is also audio available. The five types of mode types are linguistic, visual, aural, spatial, and gestural. These can all be utilized to create more interesting work for the audience. Since this was my first time doing an online portfolio, I got to experiment with mulitmodality a lot. I really enjoyed being able to use images and gifs and videos to make my content more interesting. I'm sure my audience would eventually get bored with my writing if there was nothing more exciting to accompany it. I explained that "thinking of a writer as a designer was an interesting new idea because we don't normally do so. Writers are typically thought of as simply just that: people who write for a living." Writers have to "design" their writing just as artists must design their art. Multimodality is a big part of the online composing process because rather than just using text, I had to incorporate appropriate images and videos as I wrote to better my writing situation. The stages are more numerous, but much more fun when writing online. Using the fun modes like pictures and videos allows you to become a better online writer, and if you use them inappropriately, the audeince will likely let you know that you made some poor decisions. Thus, multimodality is an important part of the composing process, especially online.
Midterm Reflection
My midterm critical reflection was the first assignment in which I reflected on composing processes. I had a decent understanding of the concept then, but now have a much better understanding after completing most of this portfolio. The reflection allowed me to think about my strengths and weaknesses throughout the course and raise awareness on what I needed to improve on. The reflection also built the foundation for how I would go about writing reflections. I wrote reflections before, but not detailed ones like those required for this course, so reflecting was rather new to me. I became aware of how I wanted to go about reflecting and explained my choices through my reflection. These reflections are also examples of the composing process because I bettered myself in writing reflections since my midterm critical reflection. Reflecting on your work is a very important part of the composing process!
