Josh's Portfolio
English 2010
English 2010 Reflection
During my summer 2016 semester, I had the chance to take the English 2010 course. In this course, I was able to hone my skills as both a writer and analyzer of written pieces. There were many parts of the course’s objective that I was able to take to heart and improve upon in my own writing and life. Through the course, I was asked to write multiple key assignments that demonstrated my improvement learning of these such objectives. This allowed me as a writer to greatly improve and solidify myself in my skills.
In the first assignment, we were asked to write either a memoir or a profile. A memoir focused on a personal experience in a certain topic, while the profile was on another individual who could be applied to a certain topic as well, such as Ellen DeGeneres and the LGBT community. For this assignment, I choose to write a memoir, focusing on how I myself became a part of the Furry fandom and what the Furry community was. This was a paper I quite enjoyed writing, being able to express my thoughts and feelings about being a Furry and my journey to become a part of the community was fun and interesting to reflect on.
When I gave the paper to others for feedback, I did have some fears. Outing myself as a Furry could have had some bad consequences, such as being seen, as the media shows them, a sexually charged individual who performs sexual acts in Fursuits. But upon receiving my paper back, I only saw positive notes, and some suggesting I give more detail into my experiences. I was able to take these to my revised paper and create a Memoir of a Furry.
The second assignment we were asked to complete was either a report or an evaluation using the topic we had written about in the first assignment. I went with writing an evaluation of the Furry community and if the stereotypes applied to the fandom are true or false. I was able to use a survey taken at a Furry convention in 2008 and apply the data found there to show whether or not the stereotypes were in fact true.
For this project, I went with making a multimedia edition of my evaluation, creating a narrated slideshow to show the findings clearly and explain what had been found when it came to the stereotypes the public and media apply to the Furry fandom. I was nervous about voicing the narration, as I am not confident with my own voice, but after I buckled down and recoded the script, I found that even though I may not have the best voice, it did come out clearly and gave the information in a concise and easy to understand manner.
The last project we completed was a collaborative project, creating a PSA for the public on a current social issue. While this would less difficult than the other two assignments, it was not without its ups and downs. One issue I came to face with was having group members who did not show up to help with the completion or even the brainstorming process. While this made it harder for me to work on the project, I was able to work with part of the group to complete the project and I believe it was a good success as a PSA.
Also throughout the course, each of us had to take other members of the class’ writing and give feedback, giving both positive feedback and suggestions on how they can improve. Through each of the writings, I was able to take what my colleagues had said and suggested and put them into the revisions of my projects. I most enjoyed the comments that took portions of my writing and suggested ideas and thought that could be added, usually giving more clarity to my thoughts and structure.
During the feedback portions of class, I also gave, at least hopefully, good and helpful ideas and suggestions to my classmates. Each time I would receive a colleague’s paper to look through and give feedback, I often would talk about adding more clarity and focus to their writing. Helping them hone in on one focused and well fleshed out idea and purpose.
Overall, I felt that after taking English 2010 I have learned many key skills that will help me throughout both my academic life and my career. Learning and honing skills such as adapting strategies of argumentation, style and design for writing situations, to working with other writers to complete and edit writings to fully show the ideas and purposes of each paper and project. I am glad I was able to take the course and will continue to improve myself both as a writer and an editor.