Progress In Academic Writing Essay Examples

Dear portfolio reader,

When I enrolled in the field of writing, I had a feeling as if I had failed to acknowledge myself as a good writer. I felt that writing would give me a headache since I was not very good in the writing field. I therefore purposed, not only to improve on the writing ways but also strengthen the infrastructure of my essay. With a strong essay writing infrastructure, I knew I would successfully develop a properly developed narrative research and analysis paper. However, I have continually developed my writing ability after a series of papers. I precisely remember three papers I did, which greatly helped me improve my writing skills.
Firstly, I was assigned a personal narrative academic paper, which was the favorite of the three papers. Within the narrative, while writing the paper, I covered my personal experience in the events of Sandy Hurricane. This event I was covering was very memorable to me because it was the first encounter I had with a serious natural disaster. This experience helped me realize that I have, and therefore I should be very grateful for the precious gift of life. This was the easiest of all the papers that I acclimated to since it covered my personal experience.
In the textual analysis paper I did; I make a comparison while analyzing two famed short stories written by Crane Steven, "the open boat" and "the blue hotel". This was challenging since I was required to go past what I normally used to experience in the high school that is, analyzing two unrelated stories. Additionally, I had a great challenge in finding adequate evidence to support my analysis for the both different stories. It was just troublesome; I could not trace the content and the little I had acquired, and I felt it was not credible enough to support my argument. However, I had a ray of light, after all. This was when I started receiving consistently positive remarks from my instructor that I was showing progressive improvements. He indicated that I had shown ability to improve my paper progressively one after another and every revision I received. This paper was challenging to me, but that did the writing experience helped me improve my writing especially in successfully comparing two different stories.
The third paper was a research paper. I had not done a research paper before; I had in my mind that it was not an easy task to conduct research and come up with a good research paper. In fact, the paper turned to be the most difficult of all the three papers. It was very difficult to find the topic and the content that involve the research. The paper was unique in a way that it was non-repetitive. Nonetheless, I selected a topic about the issues concerning government access to private information online. The reason I selected this topic is because it is an issue that repeatedly comes back to the question. Many people are raising concerns, is the government access to online information invasion or of privacy? This drove me to selecting the topic. The professor made remarks and gave multiple feedbacks on how to best improve the paper. Finally, I was able to assimilate the paper changes in grammar and the writing style. Writing no longer seems the dull, formulaic action of last year. Indeed, it is an art that must be practiced and practiced continuously.
Revision was undoubtedly the tough part of the writing process. Indeed, revising a paper was what I dreaded the most. Predictably, it was also where most of the learning occurred for me. Using mainly my professor’s feedback as my guide, I re-thought my claims and ideas and created something more effective than what I originally had. This can be clearly seen in my third major paper. This paper underwent a major renewal, from my professor’s comments and my opinion it was apparent that a paper format would be better. The format gives the paper a humbler tone and gives less unnecessary urgency to our simple suggestions for the organization’s improvement. Some re-organizational work was done make sure I remain in my convergences and divergences of opinion. Another paper which shows extensive revision is my first short paper. At first my paper only described Ancldua's effectiveness in appealing to her fellow Chicanos, but did not address that the audience outside her ethnic group was alienated from her work. In revising this, I explained how each piece of textual evidence showed good rhetorical choices for Chicanos but focused on how it proved an ineffective choice for any other ethnic group. I also changed my introduction and conclusion to fit this change to my claim and overall paper. In re-working both these papers extensively and giving them newfound strength and vibrancy, I demonstrate my knowledge of the writing of the academic papers.
I was never very confident in my writing since I had in mind the fact that I always knew an improvement room. Writing ENGL 131 has not only equipped me to write wonderful personal narratives but also textual analysis and research papers. It has also helped me learn how to utilize the arguments and convey a theme to a reader. I feel equipped in making proper citation in the MLA citation style as well as successfully incorporate the sources as very useful evidence in my paperwork. Although writing has not always been one of my best in terms of strong academic fields, I hope if I use the skills I have acquired already from this exposure in this course to ensure my writing skills is improved further and beyond.
It has always been a pleasure to have undertaken this writing course, and I would like to thank you in a special way for taking your precious time to read my portfolio.
Sincerely,

Academic Discourse

Some scholars are strong advocates of this conventional academic discourse. Swales once claimed that the genre-based, writing-in-the disciplines approach to conventional English ensures that students will gain valuable insight and experience in the theory and practice of reading and writing in the disciplines relevant to their areas of study, and students will also use these skills in their professional and personal lives in various ways (192). Hyland promoted conventional English from another point of view. He claimed that with the development of globalization, English has become more and more popular throughout the world, therefore, the promotion of conventional English is vital important to unify the basic standard for international communication and cooperation (Dube, 180). In addition, Ginzastated that she believed that the conventional academic discourse still needs to be taught and it provides the baseline discourse so that other forms of academic discourses can be understood (14). Definitely, above all statements and opinions sounds reasonable and logical in some aspects, however, from other aspects, there are still many issues of conventional academic discourses that have drawn more and more attentions among linguists, educationists, and professional researchers in many disciplines.

Personal experience

The sandy hurricane experience
Many people have a tendency to remember specific time and location where striking events took place. It could be a memorable burial point for a family member or any loved one, or it could even be a birth place for a kid. To me, this is no exceptional since Brooklyn is a place I hold dear for the occurrence of the most destructive sandy hurricane in the United States history (Dube, 57). It began near Caribbean and traveling up along the east coast into Canada. The deadly hurricane lasted for over a week leaving trails of destruction behind it.
My experience of this hurricane was different from that of many people.it was based on the reaction to the hurricane aftermath. Watching the deadly hurricane effect from the window of my house, it seemed horrific. No trees were standing, none had leaves, and no car was still. I remembered the heavy downpour accompanied by the strong wind that blew off so many rooftops. Many died in the event, and others severely injured. Many people were declared homeless, other schools destroyed permanently, hospitals and some cars even flipped over.
This experience was most memorable to me since it gave me a chance to appreciate as well as give appraisal for what I have. Despite the destructive nature of the hurricane, it provided me with a sense of chance. I began to do charity acts such as donating, volunteer to those who were in dire need of my help. The hazardous effects of the deadly hurricane are felt by millions in the United States. It remains a costly damage in the history of our country.

Textural analysis

In the approach of writing, self-portraiture is when the author incorporates a portion of themselves into writing. It includes the emotions, thoughts and personalities of the author and not just the limited physical appearance. For instance, "the Blue Hotel" and "the open boat”, the author demonstrates the literary use of self-portraiture. This is how Crane Steven illustrates himself in the whole work. The narration leaves us wondering in speculation, whether characters are an image of him or is he imposing other reader’s characters. From page 57 to page 71 of the book "the open boat,", crane criticizes himself by showing the writer how he carries a feeling of abandonment and then wonders how to rescue himself.
In the book, “the blue hotel” Scurly, the hotel manager changes from being quiet man who speaks against the groups that were directly responsible for the death of the Swedes. Throughout this story, we can see Crane in an image of being favorable. (105).
Both of these stories provide the reader with different characters that bring out major roles. We see an obvious connection in the in both stories in the character of Easterner and Correspondent. Crane criticizes them as characters that are always quiet and keeps to themselves. Changes in personalities are also noted in the course of the story. They all have Cranes characterization in a way that both are observers and as outsiders in the course of the story. Crane criticizes these characters as self-portrait to the extent of expressing his life outlook, as well as his attitude.
Finally, I will discuss the third paper about government and its access to internet, online private information, and social media. Online presence gives people a feeling of presenting themselves as how they want people to view them. The intervention of the government online makes people feel very insecure about their privacies and what is being shared through the Internet and the persons with whom the resource is being shared.
  No excuse should be given for using the power of the government to invade privacy of one’s information online Gillette (Felix, 106). The NSA apologetically acknowledged that it was a fault having attempted to retrieve of big internet organizations online. However, this does not give the citizens an assurance of the law since the government has made previous attempts of unlawfully taking information off the American citizen (Gellman, 35)

Works Cited

Dube, Jon. "Why Smartphones Are the Future of Social Networking." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 08 May 2012. Web. 24 Nov. 2014.
Gillette, Felix. "The Rise and Inglorious Fall of Myspace." Bloomberg Business Week. Bloomberg, 22 June 2011. Web. 24 Nov. 2014.
Greenwald, Glenn, and Ewen MacAskill. "NSA Prism Program Taps in to User Data of Apple, Google, and Others." The Guardian. The Guardian News Media, 7 June 2013. Web. 24 Nov. 2014.
Gellman, Barton. "U.S., British intelligence mining data from nine U.S. Internet companies in broad, secret program." Washington Post. Washington Post, 7 June. 2013. Web. 24 Nov. 2014