Art of Persuasion

Reflections

Kristin's writing has been great all semester. It is easy to see that her writing has only gotten better from paper to paper. Kristin's imitation exercises were really spot-on. Her third paper was really great. Kristin definitely has a talent for writing creative nonfiction. The structure of that paper was very well done; I loved the flashback and how that was incorporated into the memoir.

Chantelle did a really great job of keeping her writing interesting. The first paper was great because it added that creative element at the beginning and every paper after that kept up the same energy. The discussion of Mel Gibson and Kenneth Branagh in the second paper was a great point that I wouldn't have ever thought of. The third paper kept up the creativity and it was really fun to read!

Helen's writing was interesting to begin with, but it got better and better as the semester progressed. Her third paper was definitely my favorite; it was incredibly easy to get a sense of Helen's voice in her memoir. I knew I would be interested in what I was reading when her first paper started with a Boy Meets World reference. I enjoyed reading from paper to paper to see how her writing progressed and ending with her excellent memoir.

Amanda's first paper was great. The revision was excellent and I loved the use of (Take Two) at the end of the title. Her second paper was great with the first line "It always seems like voice is the evil in writing." I was hooked and interested after I read that line. Amanda wrote in her "About Me" section that she didn't feel like she had a great vocabulary and talks in circles in her writing, but I thought it was great! I especially loved her memoir.

As far as my own eportfolio goes, I do feel like I've grown as a writer this semester. It was great to see how everyone else writes academic papers and memoirs and let those things influence me in my writing. When I read through each draft again, I notice how much additions and subtractions that ended up in my final papers helped. Adding a few sentences here and taking out a few there made each of my papers much more cohesive and full.