For this e-portfolio we had to revise our first and second essay’s and I can for sure say I had no idea where to begin. Of course, when you turn something in its because you think it’s perfect, but you can always edit something. For my first essay I did not feel like I needed to change too much. The whole idea of the assignment was to write about a community we were a part of and analyze a specific genre within that chosen community. We also learned an ample amount of terms that go hand and hand with the essay and our genres, such as ethos, pathos, exigence, and even more about audiences. So, in the essay, the idea was to use those given terms we used. Unfortunately, in high school I was taught to discuss the term and not directly mention it because not everyone who reads it will understand the specific term. For this class though that is definitely not the case; my audience for this essay was my classmates and we have extensively learned these words inside and out, so they should understand the words if I mention them. For the first essay, I was able to go back and change out some of my sentences to include those vocab words. I also went back and changed more minor things throughout the essay, whether it was my sentence structure or my transitions.
But for my second essay, I was able to change and revise quite a few things. The idea of this essay was to research a community you are not a part of and analyze a specific genre used within that community. For this research essay we obviously needed to use quite a few sources both academic and non-academic. One of the things I revised was my citation page. I did not know that page should be alphabetized, although that makes sense, so that was fixed. Then I changed a few of my transitions to allow my ideas to flow a little more seamlessly. My essay was more of a timeline set up from the evidence being collected at the crime scene to being analyzed in the crime lab to being used in court. So, transitions needed to be strong so it would be clear for my audience what I was talking about next. I then added some pictures throughout the essay to give example of what crime scenes looked like both in real life and in crime shows on television. One of the last major changes I made was adding a footnote to my essay. I talked about a case involving a string of different murders that traced back to the suspect through trace evidence. This footnote allowed me to add a link to an article that went way more in depth of the court case. If anyone else is like me then they’ll find the article to be extremely interesting. And of course, I made more smaller revisions with my sentence structures and wording throughout the essay. Also, I explained a few terms that might not be well known by the audience, so they don’t get lost when reading.
I learned that essays can always be revised no matter how much you think they are perfect. When I turned in both these essays, I couldn’t find anything else to edit but now after taking a large amount of time not looking at them and then returning to them, I am able to see things I could fix. With fresh eyes and new knowledge, I learned in class, I was able to add features like pictures and footnotes within the essays. And I even learned how to properly do a college research paper!!!
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