Reflective Essay

Throughout the semester, I have been working on the many different genres of this class. Some were genres that I was used to writing, like the persuasive paper. Others, like the Pecha Kucha, were very new to me. The fact that these had their different challenges made the class very enjoyable, and very interesting. I wanted my portfolio to really show how my personality came through in each of the different pieces, and I really feel like I was able to do that.
My first piece took a look at how our freedom of speech was being minimized by many different areas of our world. This piece showed a very personal side of me, and it really showed my views on the freedom of speech. This was probably more of the easier pieces to write because it required very little research and really allowed me to express my opinion. Though this was a shorter paper, it gave me a chance to do what I was really good at. This compared to something like the academic essay (RP3) was very easy.
RP2 was a fairly interesting paper to write. It was a mix of both research and argument, and though it took some time to research, it still allowed me to use my “campaign ad” style of writing. I have always been better at writing papers and stories that were very uplifting and when writing about government, patriotic. This stems from my experience working in the State Capital and on multiple campaigns. It is noticeable in my later pieces that I have a very commercial-like writing. Though this is great for writing a 30-second TV spot for a political candidate, it does not work to well in an academic essay.
When writing RP3, I had a little bit of trouble coming up with a good academic feeling to it. I have never had to write in that style. So, the approach I took was to look at it as an informative essay, and then allow the research to be the persuasive part. When looking back on this paper to re-write it, I realized that I had a very uplifting style. This is not what I was trying to do, but it just turned into that kind of paper. When I rewrote the paper, I made sure make it much more academic. I added a little more of the research to make my paper very academic, and I also took away of the patriotic tone.
The Pecha Kucha was probably the strangest assignment that I have ever done in college. Though it was very different than my other projects, it was pretty fun. I felt like I was able to allow myself to come through in the presentation. It was a mixture of both academia and that patriotic style that I enjoy. At first I felt like this project was going to be very difficult because it was so new to me, but upon creating the Pecha Kucha, I felt it was a good way to approach the RP3. Instead of the reader having to guess what I was meaning, they can hear and see what I was trying to say. Overall, this was the project that allowed me to express everything that I wanted to.
On a whole, my portfolio will really give an example of what I am as a person. There are both academic portions, and the reader can see who I am as a person. My hope is that everyone who looks at my project will be able to understand why free speech is so important to me, and also understand who I am as a person. I am very proud of the way my portfolio came together, and I hope my readers get as excited about free speech as I am!