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Foundations of college writing Dr. Sherry Portfolio Chris Pawlowski

This semester in Foundations of college Writing I have worked toward five different goals for my writing. Below I am going to list these goals and show how I have worked towards them. I drew my examples mainly from the three projects we did in class. In the first project I researched an aspect of college culture through interviews, research and observations. In the second project I transformed my results of the first project into three different genres intended for three different audiences. For the third project I wrote about my own life and how it related to the same topic and also what it means to be educated.


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

For my research project I looked at the differences between student athletes and regular students and how they are able to deal with and handle stress. When I wrote my Research paper on Athletes vs. non athletes the attended audience was fellow researchers and my purpose was to extend the present information on this topic. I was able to do this in my research paper by including research that already exist and showing how that lead to the creation of my own interviews and observations and also the final analysis of my data. I used this approach because it shows researchers that I am able to look at previous research that was done and build off that to form my own study and analyze my own data. In my second project I was able to take the results of my research paper and turn them into a satire in which was intended for college students. This satires purpose was to be funny and show that student athletes are good students and that they do not just do the things that people stereotype them to do. In this satire I showed that even though athletes are perceived in one way they are actually students who do not act in that way all the time. I was able to show this by using language and words that college students would understand but other audiences would not be able to relate to.


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

I was able to take the information I found in my clue project and transform that into three different genres of work a letter, flyer and satire. For my letter I knew that I had to use a different language and style of writing because a letter is more professional and for a more educated audience. In my letter I knew that I had to write with complete sentences and use more descriptive words to get my point across.



I was also able to transform my clue project into a flyer which I knew would be used to grab people’s attention as they walked by so it had to be a totally different style than my letter. In my flyer I was able to use different types of font different font styles and also different color fonts to grab people attention. I also knew that I did not need to use as many descriptive sentences and could put shorter sentences and single words in different spots to make it look more creative and stand out.




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

When writing my clue project I needed to find information online about student athletes then look at that information closely to see what information was useful and appropriate to put into my final project. I was able to find information that supported my topic and also information that went along with my topic but came as a surprise to me. To do this I needed to search through a lot of different articles and websites to find the right information that would support my topic.


 * I found tha**t: Nonathletes are less prepared to cope with their stress.


 * I defended this by:** Taking the information I got from my interview of a nonathlete saying that he has a lot of stress and that he feels that there is never enough time in a day to get all his work done.


 * I also found that:** student athletes have less stress in their life then regular students which came as a surprise to me.


 * I defended this with:** The demanding schedules of student athletes keeps them on track and teaches them the importance of getting what u need to get done on time which leads to lower stress.

For my ear project I was able to take the information I found in my clue project and transform it into three different genres. The first genre was a letter in which was intended for parents and adults. The second genre was a flyer that was intended for college students. The third genre was a satire that was intended for teenagers and young adults. These three genres show that I am able to take the same information and portray it in a different way to the same purpose for a different group of people.
 * Goal D. Students will be able to interpret and compose in a variety of media and print/non-print genres.**

For my letter to parents I wrote in a more professional way then I did in my satire and flyer because it is four a more mature audience. I also needed to use alignment so that everything looked professional and was lined up perfectly. I also used repetition so that the main points would get across clearly and stick out. I also put the Bloomsburg logo at the bottom to make it look professional and add a different look to the letter to make it stand out.



For my flyer I was able to use more color and different styles to show contrast. I was also able to use proximity to bunch together all the information that related to one another. I then used alignment to make sure that all the information lined up with each other and wasn’t all over the place and had some purpose to where it was positioned. Finally repetition was used to show the reader what was important by having it appear in the flyer multiple times in multiple places.



A satires purpose is usually to say things that are totally not true to show people how outrageous and wrong they are. It is usually to make people laugh so for my satire I wrote exactly the opposite of what most athletes do and made it seem like that’s what all athletes actually do. I used different pictures to make it stand out and also to put some contrast into it. I then used alignment to make everything line up with each other and proximity to show the points that related to each other.

For each of the projects we did throughout Foundamentals of writing we did peer review which means that we would create rough drafts of our paper and bring it in to class for review from other students. This would help us by having other students and the teacher read our papers and find any mistakes that we could not find ourselves. After this process we would have a couple days to go back and fix our paper before the final draft was due. This would also help us learn how to better proofread and look over our own papers because during this time we were to look over other students papers in the class and help them find mistakes that they may have made.
 * Goal E. Students will be able to discuss and apply appropriate writing processes both individually and in collaborative contexts**



Peer review is important process in writing a paper because it helps to find mistakes that you could not see on your own. There are mistakes that get made while writing a paper that you cannot see when you go back to proofread because your brain is so used to reading what you are seeing that it skips right over it. Peer review teaches you how to take criticism better because in the end you are making your paper better as a whole.