End of Year Portfolio

              When I took this class, I was expecting the normal, run of the mill English class where I would be given boring stories to read, and then to crank out a five paragraph essay, that will be instantly forgotten and I would learn anything from it. These past 8 weeks have been a great learning experience for me, and even made someone who absolutely hated writing before, almost enjoy it. I enjoyed going beyond the basic blatant information of a story by dissecting and analysis its contents and underlying themes. Though it was difficult at first, I feel like I have accomplished a lot since my first essay. I also learned a lot along the way of finding reliable sources, and that a source can make, or break, an essay. I feel it important to not only present my best works from this semester, but always my worse works in my portfolio because the point to taking classes is to learn and to improve oneself. The works I have chosen are in order from what I believe my worse, to my best of the semester and are   The Other Metamorphosis,  Diversity in a Single Story: A Comparative Analysis, Peace Within the Realm,  and finally, but certainly not least Love Throughout the Ages.

              The first essay,  The Other Metamorphosis, was a feminist analysis on the roles with "The Metamorphosis". Though most of my mistakes were grammatical or based on punctuation, the major killer of this essay is lack of outside sources. By not having those sources, I learned quickly that not only does it make an essay more difficult to write, but it also leads to a lack of flavor. One person, one spice, is not enough to create something work caring about. This essay could have been extremely  exciting and unique, if I had had better sources. Also, I learned that spell check can not save you from everything

              The next essay, Diversity in a Single Story: A Comparative Analysis, I felt to be extremely well written and executed, if you were wanting an essay on the differences between a graphic novel and a novel. This was, however, not the assignment. Though I did learn from my essays before and had a lot of interesting sources, I forgot the main point. To analysis the stories, not the medium the authors chose.

              The next essay, Peace Within the Realm was really fun to write about because I actually hated the story because it was a gigantic mess of chaos and confusion and I didnt understand what made it so great. But after signalling it, the story become less about the crazy love hexagon, and more about the social classes and how in the end they could all come together.  The only thing I would add to this essay is a better emphasis on how each character relates to a class, since I just generalized the entire class system. I think I again learned from past mistakes, and had lots of good sources but still keep the story in mind.

              And then the last essay, my favorite, Love Throughout the Ages. This essay was easy and fun to write because comparing the modern take on a very old classic was fascinating. The more I compared the more I realized how people in love have dealt with the same exact problems for hundreds of years. It was very interesting that something written in a time where even the English language is so different it is life a foreign language, could still have produced classics that would still be ease to relate to centuries later. I think I did a good jump bringing sources in, while not making the mistake of the last comparative analysis an focus to much on the artist medium, rather than the context.

              Overall, I feel like this class challenged me to do my best. Not only because I knew people would be reading my essays, but because I have never taken an English class where comparing your works was so easy. I really learned a lot about myself these past few weeks, and looking back, I am proud of the progress I made. I went from seeing a lot of red, to almost none, which is something I have never done before in an English class. I enjoyed reading everyone's work, and enjoyed being able to compare my work among my peers easily. I hope the next English class I have to take goes by as quickly and smoothly as this one did and that I improve my skills even more.