In the time that I was in ENC 2135, there were numerous amounts of skills that I developed that I can further use in my future to help in many different scenarios. In high school, it was very rare for me to do more than one draft for any paper, let alone three drafts. But in this class, it was a requirement to do several drafts, with each being its own little assignment. In doing the first project, I developed the skill of catching the mistakes that I made the first time (or second time). While reading a first “shitty” draft, your flaws are sticking out to you like a sore thumb, whether it be a grammar mistake, an incomplete sentence, or an odd concept that doesn’t really fit with the rest of the paper. Another thing first introduced to us in the first project is the use of our peers to make our paper even better. We had done this several times in high school, but it was never nearly as helpful as when we did it in this class.
After the first project was due, it was my turn to present my mini-presentation on a non-traditional text. I first posted the PowerPoint of the presentation on my portfolio, and then decided to do something I had never done in high school (again). I practiced the presentation. I went over what to say, even speaking to myself in a room, pretending to present the entire slide show. This habit actually proved to be extremely helpful, for when I actually did the presentation, I wasn’t nearly as nervous as usual to present in front of the class as I would usual be. In the future, this is obviously a great skill to develop because it makes the person look more confident, and actually be more confident.
In the second project, a research paper, brand new concepts were being thrown at me on how to write one of these astoundingly long essays. Mat Wenzel told us that our paper had to contribute something to the college and society as a whole, as well as analyze a text. It took me a couple of days to process this, I even wrote my first draft as I had in high school (restating what sources already said). After the conference, though, I fully understood what I had to do to contribute in my paper. Again, using the habit/skill of writing multiple drafts, I had to almost completely rewrite the 1,000 words I had worked so much on. In the end, however, I did contribute my own ideas on what makes a YouTube video on videogames enjoyable, as well as what should be focused on in order to better become part of the community. I’m going to be writing countless research papers in my near future, so it’s definitely good that I learned this skill before it could have potentially hurt me.
The final project for the class had to do with creating a multi-genre presentation to help a campaign of any sort. The start of the project was to present a pitch, where we had one minute to discuss our plans, which was also new to me. From previously in the term, where I rehearsed beforehand, it applied in this case, so it’s already seen to have helped in future scenarios. As for the rest of the project, I never thought about the different types of genres and how they’re used in campaigns or advertisements. With this assignment, we had to actually use these different genres to effectively spread out a campaign. This skill can be used in the future for when I have to quickly spread word of something, such as a club or an event.
Overall, everything in my portfolio has taught me some sort of important skill or concept that I never really had to use in the past, but can be used effectively and efficiently in the future.