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Foundations of Writing Dr. Sherry Portfolio Synthesis Letter Courtney King

In Foundations of College Writing, there are five goals that we have aspired to meet for our writing. Below, I will describe these five goals and provide examples of how I have strived to reach them. I draw my examples from the three different projects we were assigned: a research project related to college culture, using our findings to present the information in different ways appropriate for each genre, and finally a personal narrative that relates back to the main topic of our course, which is what it means to be educated. In my research project, I investigated why students choose to teach the age level they decide to. When I wrote my professional letter, my audience was the parents of the children who were deciding what age level to teach and my purpose was to show them how important their decision is and by using the research and data I have collected I stressed how important it is to choose the grade level they want to teach based on a connection they have with that age group.
 * Goal A: Students will be able to compose for particular audiences and purposes.**

“While any of these would be good choices for your child, I strongly urge your child to consider what age group that they connect most with. Studies we have done have shown that students choose the age-level they would like to teach in because they have some sort of relationship with a child of that age. With this in mind, your child should spend time considering these majors and what they think they would like to do.”

In this example, I addressed the parents of these children through a formal letter to create the professional relationship that is essential to a faculty and parent relationships. I also made sure that my purpose was known by stating that their children need to seriously think about their decision about which major they would like to go into. While transforming my research project for different audiences, I also developed a resume for potential employers I could be applying for in the future. A resume is the most professional way to apply for a job and to show all skills that a person has to obtain the job. My purpose is made clear by stating what position I am applying for within the resume. In the beginning of my resume I list my objective, which is to show in the very beginning my purpose. I also include headers for each subject I am going to list in my resume so it is clear to the audience what I am referring to. In my research project, I studied why people chose to teach the grade levels they wanted to teach. I chose to write a paper to portray the data I had found. The language that I used while writing this research paper included my problem, background, method, findings, and conclusion. By using these headings throughout my paper, I was able to organize my research better because the point of the paper was to research a topic that had to do with college culture.
 * Goal B. Students will be able to compose using language and conventions appropriate to genre.**

“**Method** I have used ethnographic methods to study the why behind people choosing to do certain things. Using ethnographic methods has helped me get a little closer to answering my basic question throughout this paper. To answer the questions I have posed, I have interviewed different people in each subdivision under the major of education. I have asked them the core question of why they chose to teach the grade level that they did and what influenced them to make their decision.”

By writing about the method I used to obtain my data that I am presenting throughout my paper, it helps the paper have a better flow and explains how I answered my original question I had at the beginning of my research paper.

In my research paper, I researched what makes people major in their specific education major. In this paper I came to a conclusion through the use of evidence and used that as an argument to prove that students choose to teach a grade level because they have had a connection with those children in that age range. By stressing what was used from the data I collected in my research, the interviews I had conducted, I found the answer to my original question. Based on the data I have found, people choose the age level they want to teach because they feel a connection with the age group that they are going to teach. While I was interviewing each person, they told me specific stories that were about children in the age group that they are planning to teach in the future, and they felt a connection to them. This proves that people tend to want to teach the age-level that they are the most familiar and have a connection with.”
 * Goal C. Students will be able to read, select, and use evidence critically to formulate and support arguments.**
 * “Conclusions**

I developed my conclusions through using ethnographic data, which we learned about class. Ethnographic data includes interviews and professional articles. The after thoroughly researching this topic, I came to the conclusion above and formulated the argument that students choose the age-level they want to teach by connections they have made. While portraying my research into different genres; we learned what to keep in mind while composing different documents. I learned how to use the C.R.A.P. principles to make whatever genre I am using appealing to others. C.R.A.P. stands for contrast, repetition, alignment, and proximity. Contrast catches the reader’s eye, repetition makes the idea stick in the reader’s mind, alignment makes the document easily read, and proximity groups the correct things together so it is understandable to the reader as well. I used these points while making a flyer for students to look at and be able to relate to. I have used the C.R.A.P. principles in all three of my projects because they help me use appropriate styles for any genre. Throughout my flyer, I used the C.R.A.P. principles. Contrast was used by the bright colors behind the black writing. Repetition was used by writing “Bloomsburg University” and “Education Majors” again and again to get my point across. I have used alignment by making sure everything was lined up under each other. Proximity was used by grouping all sections together.
 * Goal D. Students will be able to interpret and compose in a variety of media and print/non-print genres**

Another example of the use of the principles would be within my resume:



Within my resume, I made it look as professional as possible by making sure the C.R.A.P principles throughout it by making everything look nice and easily followed.

Through each project we used the process of peer review. Peer review has helped me work on what I needed to fix on each of my projects and it also has given me a “fresh pair of eyes” so they can see any mistakes that have been made. Personally, peer review has always helped me understand more about what I am supposed to do for each project and also has helped me by gaining examples from my other peers when I review theirs as well.
 * Goal E. Students will be able to discuss and apply appropriate writing processes both individually and in collaborative contexts.**



Peer review has really opened my eyes to new different ways of forming my projects. At first I really dreaded peer review because I was self –conscious about my work, but peer review has given me the confidence I always needed in my work.

Another example of how these revisions have helped me is through my personal narrative that I have just previously completed. Throughout this personal narrative, we are supposed to use telling details about something important from our past, present, and something we imagine in our future and tie it together with a particular theme. In my first draft, I gave as much detail as I really thought I could, but when my professor sent me his own revisions, I realized that at one point I could definitely put more emotion into what I was saying so I could portray how I really felt at that moment.

“I was so pleasantly surprised to find how much I absolutely loved the class from the start. My teacher is absolutely amazing and truly inspires me to do my best by these children that I am going to eventually teach. I have never been so interested in a class before and I actually look forward to going to it every Tuesday and Thursday. I was shaking with fear when I walked into that class because it really truly determined my future here at Bloomsburg University. Although I was scared on my first day, she calmed my fears and reassured me that special education was the right career path for me. I find myself a little bit sad because I only have three official class days left because I enjoy this class so much. I accomplished this first semester in this class and this gives me the confidence for the future to go just as well as this first semester has in my special education class”

Through this example, I tried my best to make the reader feel as though they were there with me through telling details. Without my professor’s revisions, I would not have been able to make this paper the best that it could be.