English 131: The Challenge

The Challenge

Throughout my life, I have been challenging myself in all aspects. The biggest challenge I have to overcome was to live in a country in which my first language isn't spoken. I learned English in my home country, but living in the country where this language is actually spoken, is completely different. I decided to take challenging classes to improve my English writing skills. This portfolio demonstrates the progress I have made from taking an ESL class my first year here at the University of Washington to the extent of taking an intensive English course on my second year such as this class. Also, this portfolio is the proof that I am trying to overcome those challenges. Another aspect that this portfolio shows is a little bit of who I am and my cultural background.

The evidence that has confirmed my improvement is the use of more complex sentence structure moving from the first drafts to the final draft. Another way to show my progress is to create more complex arguments. This has been the only class that has helped me stimulate more my thinking by creating analytical and complex papers. Other English classes I have taken before were more focused on grammar or sentence structure rather than helping me develop skills to create strong arguments.

With this portfolio, I would like to show how the four outcomes for English 131 are fulfilled. The four outcomes are:

1. To develop a strong, thoughtful and convincing argument.
2. To demonstrate supporting evidence by analyzing other texts.
3. To show the usage of rhetorical strategies.
4. To create strategies for revising, editing and proofreading.

The five papers shown above are great examples for demonstrating how the four outcomes can be fulfilled. These papers were carefully selected based on the teacher's comments to make improvements in the four outcomes. In the next pages, an explanation on how these outcomes were met in each paper is given.