Leamon+portfolio

Amanda Leamon
Dr. Sherry Foundations of College Writing

This semester, I took the class Foundations of College Writing with Dr. Sherry. During this class, we learned about different ways to view culture and society and how to show information to different audiences. In my portfolio, I will be drawing off of the works that I have done in this class to satisfy the goals that have been set. First, I wrote a paper on how men and women think they have different experiences in college based off of stereotypes. Then, I took that information and changed it to meet the audiences of students, parents and heads of companies. For my last project, I talked about my personal experiences and how they have influenced my definition of being educated.


 * Goal A. Students will be able to compose for particular audiences and purposes.**

This goal states that students should be able to write for different audiences. I have learned a lot about how to do this in this class. For this goal I have chosen to share a poster that I made to college students and a letter that I have written for someone with influence in a company. I used information from my previous project to make both the poster and the letter. In my previous project, I did research on men and women's experiences in college. For this experiment, I used time diaries for both men and women college students. I also used interview questions to show that men and women do have similar experiences in college. The poster below I made for an audience of college students. I have compared them to cave people and used stereotypes that have become evident during my research paper. I put it in the form of a poster because I think that is the best way to reach college students. I also made it humorous because I feel that college students respond better to comedy than seriousness.

My Poster:

The point that I am trying to get across with my poster is that these stereotypes are ridiculous. That is why I have used a satire. My goal from this poster is to have people reevaluate the way they think of college men and women.

My letter(below) used the same information from my project, but I used to it talk to heads of companies about how women still aren't making as much as men and holding higher positions. I touched on this subject a little at the end of my research paper. Serious bussiness people aren't going to want to read a flyer about cavemen which is why I used a professional letter.

My letter:

I think that this would be an effective way to get my point across because even if they do nothing about it, the idea would still be in there mind and maybe someday that can make a change.

These two projects satisfy this goal because I took the same information and used two different genres that would be most effective for different audiences.


 * Goal B. Students are able to compose using language and conventions appropriate to genre.**

For this goal, I am going to use my CLUE paper. This was a research paper that I wrote about men and women in college. For this project, I used interviews with peers and time diaries. A time diary is a log of how people spend their time. I used the conventions that we used in class and put my paper in sections based on; problem, background, method, findings and conclusion. These are appropriate for the genre because they help the reader follow where the paper is going. It also helps to keep all the details in place and organized. It is also appropriate because this is a social science paper and should be set up as a science paper.

My Clue paper:

I think that reason that we wrote this paper using these conventions is good practice because in highschool, they don't teach us to write this way. All of my papers in high school were thesis papers. It was a new experience for me and I actually prefer to write this way. Since I am going to be a science teacher, I think this type of writing will come in handy.


 * Goal C. Students will be able to read, select, and use evidence critically to formulate and support arguments.**

To meet this goal, I am again going to use my research project, but for other reasons than the last goal. For my research project, I needed to use background information that I received from other sites. I also used statistics and quotes from other sites to help get the message to the audience for example:


 * "Joann Wiener wrote, 'In 2011, women working full-time earned about 77 cents for each dollar that a man earned, according to data compiled by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics' (Wiener, 2013). "

I used this quote in my conclusion to explain why some women felt like they have to work harder than men in college. I used my peers as outside resources. I interviewed my peers about college and their gender roles in college. I also recorded time diaries of how males and females spent their time within 24 hours.

In my CLUE project, I used the 3 INs we talked about in class. These included. Introduce, Insert and interpret. I used this method a few times throughout my paper because It is another good way to get your information and point to the audience. For example:

1: Introduce  2: Insert  3: Interpret
 * "The first article, written by Charles E. Werts, is called; //A Comparison of Male vs. Female Attendance Probabilities. //1  This article gives the example of a man who in 1966 won $56,000. When he was asked what he would do with the money, he said he would use it to send his two sons to college. But, he was sure his two daughters could get married. 2  This example is showing how people may have perceived women in that time period. This was about fifty years ago. A lot has changed in fifty years, but there are still generations of people that believe that women do not have a right to be educated and that can play a big role in the reason why men and women see each other differently. 3"

I gave the article an introduction. Then, I inserted the information in the article that related to my paper. After, I explained what the information meant regarding my paper. This is an important part of any project because the reader needs to know why you have chosen the particular information.

My Clue Paper:


 * Goal D. Students will be able to interpret and compose in a variety of media and print/ non-print genres.**

This goal is very important because you need to know different ways to make different genres. Throughout this class I have learned how to make an effective flyer, newsletter letter and paper. Under goal A, I have my flyer and letter and below is my newsletter.

My newsletter:

When making these different genres, I had to keep in mind the C.R.A.P principles. This stands for Contrast, Repetition, Alignment and proximity. These are four things that I used in all of my projects to make then more effective. For example:

In my letter, I used the contrast of a green background with black letters. In my flyer, I talked about "collegemen" first so I put their picture first. I also aligned all of the words so that none of them were cut from one line to the other. This makes it easier to read. For my newsletter, I used the repeating pops of orange and pink to contrast. I also aligned the words and used headings to keep ideas together.

These are little changes that can make a lot of difference to the reader. I didn't realize until I took this course, how effective using these principles can be. I also didn't realize when looking at other posters how much thought goes into them to make them look attractive.


 * Goal E. Students will be able to discuss and apply appropriate writing processes both individually and in collaborative contexts.**

This basically means that you are able to reflect on your writing by yourself or with others. We did a lot of this in our class. After we would read, we would write a reading response and make a poster with others in class. Also, we read a book of our selection and then discussed with others. But, the most reflective work that we have done is peer review. After we wrote our papers or made our projects, we got into groups of threes to work on peer review. We read our papers out loud. This was very effective because you were able to catch your own mistakes and correct them while others could suggest a better way to say something. The we would fill out this sheet:

Peer Review Sheet:

What is great about this sheet is that you can set goals before you meet with your partners. Then, there are specific topics that they can comment on. In the end, you get to grade yourself and tell how the experience has improved your project. This seems like a lot, but it is a great way to reflect on your work. Also, Dr. Sherry emphasizes that we give two compliments to every critic. I think this is very smart because you never want to make a person feel like they are a bad writer.

My Revision Sheet:

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The sheet above is another form of revision that we used after creating a project or writing a paper. There are three columns; in the first column we wrote the word or phrase that was wrong, in the second column we wrote the correct word or phrase and in the last column we wrote a way to remember the correct form of word or phrase. This was an asset to me because I tend to make a lot of the same mistakes throughout my writing. This sheet is a great way to self-reflect on your work. It also gives you a way to remember your mistakes.=====

I think that these are five very important goals that should be had in a writing class. I didn't realize until I put together my portfolio that I was even doing these things. This class is very unique and I think it is much more effective than a boring writing class. We learned something more important than just proper grammar. We have learned how to use our ideas and shape them in a way to fit any audience. Also, we wrote about things that were interesting to us and related to our lives. I will use the ideas and principles from this class from now on in my writing and in my life.