Self-assessment for ads analysis
In my ad analysis assignment I have chosen two women perfumes ads. The easiest part was to write down the main purpose of the two advertisements, just because I am good at that. When I see a picture or advertisement I usually look deeply into it and think about the hidden meaning of it. While I was working on my papers, I have faced hard time choosing two ads that have strong ideas to write about. Also I had hard time knowing how to cite my ads. After I wrote my first draft, I show it to my classmates. They give me very good feedback, and it helps me in revising my assignment. Also I had a meeting with my instructor, and she give me a lot of helpful feedbacks and notify me of some mistakes. Which actually helped me a lot in editing my analysis assignment it works well in writing down the differences and similarities between the two ads. However, it need some changes in using some vocabulary. Proposition terms and write good thesis statement. Also, in grammar mistakes, and indebent closet sentences. For example I have edit this paragraph which is full from mistakes.
From the analysis of the above perfume ads nearly all the advertising business usually markets their products through the use of sexuality because it’s capable of attracting more attention from the public. Sexual act usually promotes products effectively and increases the sale of the product. In most of the adverts of perfume shows off the weaknesses of females as men are always dominant over the females.
I have edit the paragraph and here is it after editing.
From the analysis of the above perfume ads, nearly all the advertising business usually markets their products through the use of sexuality, because it’s capable of attracting more attention from the public. Sex usually promotes products effectively and increases the sale of the product. Most of the adverts of perfume show off the weaknesses of females as men are always dominant over the females.
Also I have changed some vocabulary to make my analyses sound more formal.
Alnassir4
ANALYSIS OF PERFUME ADS
The marketing of the perfumes usually involves the selling of the aroma and its ads are created in such a way to provide a carrier for the imagination. For one to succeed in the advertisement of perfumes, need to get in the psychology of human beings and link his or her brand with an abstract idea that is desirable such as masculinity, femininity, and passion. In the present industry that is competitive, full of the brands, ideas and products that are new, has forced the business of advertising to move further of using secular adverts especially in the advertisement of the perfumes. Semiotics is used mostly in the business of advertisement because signs are nearly related to anything that is capable of being used to shoe a meaning or idea. The two perfume advertisement show how advertisers use techniques that make people imagine they going to like their products.
The use of the semiot.
Self-assessment for ads analysis In my ad analysis assignment I.docx
1. Self-assessment for ads analysis
In my ad analysis assignment I have chosen two women
perfumes ads. The easiest part was to write down the main
purpose of the two advertisements, just because I am good at
that. When I see a picture or advertisement I usually look
deeply into it and think about the hidden meaning of it. While I
was working on my papers, I have faced hard time choosing two
ads that have strong ideas to write about. Also I had hard time
knowing how to cite my ads. After I wrote my first draft, I show
it to my classmates. They give me very good feedback, and it
helps me in revising my assignment. Also I had a meeting with
my instructor, and she give me a lot of helpful feedbacks and
notify me of some mistakes. Which actually helped me a lot in
editing my analysis assignment it works well in writing down
the differences and similarities between the two ads. However,
it need some changes in using some vocabulary. Proposition
terms and write good thesis statement. Also, in grammar
mistakes, and indebent closet sentences. For example I have edit
this paragraph which is full from mistakes.
From the analysis of the above perfume ads nearly all the
advertising business usually markets their products through the
use of sexuality because it’s capable of attracting more attention
from the public. Sexual act usually promotes products
effectively and increases the sale of the product. In most of the
adverts of perfume shows off the weaknesses of females as men
are always dominant over the females.
I have edit the paragraph and here is it after editing.
From the analysis of the above perfume ads, nearly all the
advertising business usually markets their products through the
use of sexuality, because it’s capable of attracting more
attention from the public. Sex usually promotes products
effectively and increases the sale of the product. Most of the
adverts of perfume show off the weaknesses of females as men
are always dominant over the females.
2. Also I have changed some vocabulary to make my analyses
sound more formal.
Alnassir4
ANALYSIS OF PERFUME ADS
The marketing of the perfumes usually involves the selling of
the aroma and its ads are created in such a way to provide a
carrier for the imagination. For one to succeed in the
advertisement of perfumes, need to get in the psychology of
human beings and link his or her brand with an abstract idea
that is desirable such as masculinity, femininity, and passion. In
the present industry that is competitive, full of the brands, ideas
and products that are new, has forced the business of
advertising to move further of using secular adverts especially
in the advertisement of the perfumes. Semiotics is used mostly
in the business of advertisement because signs are nearly related
to anything that is capable of being used to shoe a meaning or
idea. The two perfume advertisement show how advertisers use
techniques that make people imagine they going to like their
products.
The use of the semiotics usually changes the way people
understand the advertisement they are looking or watching the
television. Semiotics usually makes the ads look interesting and
ignites the beauty of the ads or advertisements. It usually
provides understanding and meanings that are different to
various people around the world. They usually differ from the
background and social stand of a particular person. They also
assist in comprehending different ads like television ads,
printed ads, and newspaper ads and many more advertisements.
Semiotics is usually the major answer in giving the meaning of
the all small and great things.
Perfume Ad A
3. The first perfume ad shows a perfume that is made for the
women. The advertisement utilizes a beautiful lady, model. The
female used in the perfume ad symbolizes a feminine beauty,
flamboyancy, confidence and classy kind of lady. In the
perfume advertisement the positioning of the model and the
bottle re usually similar in the way they are positioned. The
connotative meaning of the perfume ad is that the model used
has a personality that strong, which attracts a great number of
the males in the globe. The denotative meaning of the model in
the perfume advertisement is that it beautiful thus appealing to
the public.
The perfume aims in attracting as many people to purchase the
perfume. The women are the target audience of this
advertisement because j’adore Dior perfume is made for the
ladies. The background of the perfume ad is gold that
symbolizes lavishness, and is obscured by the bottle of perfume
and the model being promoted. The numerous necklaces on the
neck of the model are the same as the lines that appear on the
bottle neck. The perfume ad is usually made for the women, but
teenagers because the utilization of the gold background that
defines class and maturity.
The model used in the perfume ad indicates perfection that is
aimed at each and every woman. The model also appears also to
be looking towards the camera that indicates her dominance and
attitude that is empowering. The ad, therefore, promotes the
women and gives them the feeling of being special. The
qualities of the perfume ad are usually convincing thus making
most of the female to purchase the perfume.
Perfume Ad B
The second perfume ad uses a perfume that comes from the
Gucci Guilty, and is made for women. The advertisement uses a
male and female as the models and appears to be close to one
4. another. The denotative meaning of the perfume ad is that the
couple used in the advertisement are appearing to be attracted to
each other and feeling lovely. The connotative meaning of the
model used in the second perfume advert is that the women used
in the ad cannot be resisted. The couple in the perfume are used
as the symbol and meaning being passed is their intentions.
The female model used in the advert appears to be looking
directly into the camera and in her eyes one is capable of seeing
the soul that is deviant and beauty that is youthful. The bottle
of the perfume shows lavishness. In this perfume advert that
female model appear to be superior to the male model due to the
fact that the male appears to be under the spell of the lady thus
showing his pleasures that are guilt. The background of the
perfume advert is dark thus indicating that the product name is
bold and also adds up to some sense of rebelliousness and
mischief, and mystery.
The advert is attractive and appealing to the public and every
person who sees it has to look at the advert. This is important as
it makes more people to purchase the product. The couple used
in the advert is in a position of persuading men and ladies to
have more of the perfume. The great scent of the perfume
appears to keep them close to each other. Therefore, the advert
of the perfume is capable attracting the attention of the public.
From the analysis of the above perfume ads, nearly all the
advertising business usually markets their products through the
use of sexuality, because it’s capable of attracting more
attention from the public. Sex usually promotes products
effectively and increases the sale of the product. Most of the
adverts of perfume show off the weaknesses of females as men
are always dominant over the females. Therefore, the advert
demeans the females in the society. In present time the
feminists are making efforts in to change this kind of the
perspective towards the women in the society. Both of perfume
advertisements used different strategies that affect people’s
psychology to increase the chances of buying their products.
5. Impact of Social Media to Society
Social media is a term that is used to describe a branch of
internet that provides a way through which people could meet
and exchange data such as: pictures, videos and other forms of
data. Some of those social media include sites such as:
Facebook, Twitter, 2go, Eskimi, Instagram, Google+ and
Hangouts. These platforms are gaining widespread popularity
among many people of all ages and even recently businesses and
politicians have taken their policies to these sights. The reason
why people like these sites is because; they are very informal
and reliable as signing up to these sites is very easy. However,
these sites have brought about negative impacts on the people
who are into social media and unfortunately the negative effects
have surpassed the positive. The social media platforms are a
social problem and not personal because the negative effects do
not affect individuals but rather a large number of people who
use them (Megat, I., 2009). Social media couple effect on
learning performance, communication skills, privacy, and
relationships.
Students should know that if they are spending time on social
media sites, they could be hurting their GPA, which can
negatively affect their future. I also think that universities
should analyze studies like this to develop policies that will
make it so students can’t access social media sites in class.
Apart from that, these social media sites have negatively
affected academic performance of students (Neelamalar M. &
Chitra. P., 2009). This can be proven in several ways: first,
these social media platforms use informal language therefore;
students are more likely to use the same language in class and
even in their exams. For instance, twitter is known for using the
abbreviation @ to point at something. Students tend to forget
and use the same abbreviations in exams. This shows that social
media affects academic performance. Another way through
6. which social media affects academic performance is that; these
platforms consume a lot of time that would have been used in
studying. According to surveys carried out, the students who
spent a lot of time in social media had a higher risk of
performing poorly in their academics.
Social media affects the communication skills of the youth. This
is mainly because; social media platforms provide facilities to
enable people to meet without having to meet in a physical
location. This reduces face-to-face communication and this
could result to poor communication skills. When these youth go
into the job market, they find it difficult to establish good face-
to-face communication with people and this could result into
antisocial behavior. This shows that despite the fact that social
media platforms have made people meet; they have negatively
affected the communication skills of these people especially the
youth.
Social media platforms also increase the risk of one losing his
or her privacy. Since the majority of people who use these
social platforms are young people; they tend to make their
private information known to the public. This information such
as marital status and contact information could be used by
people for malicious purposes. Apart from that, employers tend
to spy on their employees in order to check whether they are
credible enough. Some parents also tend to join these sites in
order to spy the social activity of their children. This shows that
social media platforms have brought about the risk of one losing
his or her privacy.
Many social media platforms have a negative effect on the
relationships people have. Many relationships are broken due to
unfaithfulness that has been worsened by the presence of social
media. many people meet; these sites promote infidelity in
marriages as married couples tend to flirt with the people they
meet with in this social sites. When one of the partners
discovers that the other is unfaithful, he or she feels betrayed
7. (Lee, S, 2014). Apart from that, some relationships are online
based and this makes it difficult for them to pass the test of
time as there is no face to face communication. Long distance
relationships have provided an opportunity for people to
mistreat others. For example, there are cases of many people
especially women who end up being mistreated by the people
they once thought to be their “lovers” and upon further inquiries
they reveal that they met through an online site. One thing with
social media is that; knowing the character of a person is very
difficult and this affects relationships negatively. This shows
that these social media platforms are more harmful than
beneficial to the youth (Jung, B., 2014).
In conclusion, despite the fact that social media platforms have
enabled people to meet easily and transfer their multimedia files
such as photos and videos etc. Additionally, social media played
a very important role to communicate people easily and mobile
friendly. People communicate each other even they are in car,
outside, office and travelling places as well. Social media also
played a imported role to create social networks of innumerous
groups of consumers worldwide that are attempting to address
critical social and marketing needs, have long been regarded as
incompatible for companies in guiding their business.
References
Megat I. (2009) impact of social networking: impacts of the
social network on the society Retrieved from:
myconvergence.com.my/main/images/stories/PDF.../MyCon06_
50.pdf
Neelamalar M. & Chitra. P. (2009) New media and society: A
Study on the impact of social networking sites on indian youth.
University of Beira Interior. Retrieved from:
www.ec.ubi.pt/.../pdf/neelamalar-new-media
ProCon.org (2011) “Are social networking sites good for our
society?” Social networking critical working. Retrieved from
http://socialnetworking.procon.org/
Jung, B. The Negative Effects of Social Media on Society and
8. Individuals. Retrieved on April 14, 2014 from:
http://smallbusiness.chron.com/negative-effect-social-media-
society-individuals-27617.html
Lee, S. 5 Effects Social Networks Have On You. Retrieved on
April 14, 2014 from: http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/science-
you-and-social-media/Metro.com (2013). Social media and its
effects on our emotional well being. Retrieved on April 14,
2014 from: http://metro.co.uk/2013/08/15/social-media-and-its-
effects-on-our-emotional-well-being-3924915/
Bryfonski, D. (2012). The global impact of social media,
Detroit, MI: Greenhaven Press
Stollak, Matthew J., Amy Vandenberg, Andie Burklund, and
Stephanie Weiss. 2011. “Getting Social: The Impact of Social
Networking Usage On Grades Among College Students.”
American Society of Business and Behavioral Sciences 18(1):
859 - 865.
I Have a Dream
One of the most influential speeches given on the earth
was done by Dr. Martin Luther King in Washington D.C on
August 28th, 1963 (Lincoln, Abraham, and Tom, 2011). King
alluded that all people are equal on earth through his famous
speech, “I Have a Dream.’’ His message about the civil rights
and equality for both blacks and whites in America comprise of
various examples of rhetoric devices such as allusions,
metaphors, anaphora, alliteration, assonance, metonymy,
hyperbole, parallelism, personification, simile, and synecdoche.
These stylistic devices helped him bring emotions and influence
his audience towards wanting the equality for all people before
the law.
King use allusion by referring to other historical
documents which deals with equality issues. In the first remark,
he makes reference to the American Emancipation program put
down five years ago. He says, “Five years ago, American signed
the Emancipation program” (King par.2). These allusions were
more directed to the towards the white listeners than the blacks
9. as it provides textual evidence from historical documents that
stated that people are equal and should have the pursuit of
happiness and liberty. He also makes a few allusions about the
Bible, “let us not satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from
the same cup of hatred and bitterness’’ (King par.8). King does
not advocate for the equality-seeking listeners to use force or
set up a battle for their freedom because it would give the
whites a reason to fight. They would say that the blacks were
starting a violent protest and needed a physical violence in
retaliation to stop them. He was smart by reassuring his people
that their freedom and destiny would not be in other people’s
hands but their hands as they would be able to control their
future.
King uses parallelism to excite his followers and make
them feel that all races and religions are not better than the
other (Graves, Kerry, 2004). In the last paragraph, King says,
“when we let freedom ring, from every village and every
hamlet, every state. We will speed up the day when all God’s
children back men and white men, Jews, and Gentiles,
Protestants and Catholics will be in a position to join hands
through the words of old Negro spiritual free at last...” Here
King means that all religions are looked down upon and
neglected by other faiths, and unless they stand at the equal
level, they will all have problems with not being treated in
similar measures. King also unites his supporters through
parallelism by emphasizing the “go back.” He says, Go back to
Mississippi and Alabama, go back to Carolina knowing that we
will be free one day” (King par. 14). These words bring together
his supporters giving them hope for freedom.
Another literary device that King use to influence his
supporters is the use of metaphors. “One hundred years later,
the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty and in the midst of
the ocean of prosperity” (King par.3). King shows from the
beginning that as much as the blacks are let free from the
bondage of slavery, their slavery is still in the chains of
discrimination and segregation. When he speak about
10. independence declaration and how it gave all Americans equal
rights of liberty, happiness, and life, King says that American
has given Negro people a bad check. A check that has come
back marked “ insufficient funds’’ we refuse to believe on the
fact that the bank of justice is called bankrupt” (King par 4 and
5). The check King is referring to is their right to equality that
they feel it has not yet received. All of his metaphors are
comparing the black discrimination against the whites.
The use of anaphora was present throughout his speech. I
have a dream that one day the nation will rise and live the
meaning of its creed, those men are created equal” (king
par.18). He repeated “I have a dream” in the lines of his speech
that arouse the audience’s emotion and give them hope for
equality with the rest of other races. He uses the phrase, “I have
a dream” twice as a paragraph on its own. The statement was
spoken with strong emphases as it gave listeners the desire to
change the current situation instead of continuing to be
discriminated (Holland and Leslie, 2009). His speech would
have another title but due to his use of anaphora that stressed
these words, the speech entitled itself, “I Have a Dream.”
The use of hyperbole explains the seriousness of the matter
of injustices. He believes that real and credible justice will only
come when the whole society believes in freedom for all. He
asserts that freedom is not for only white people but all
Americans in every corner of the State. “...when this happens,
we allow freedom to ring, we let it ring from every hamlet,
every state and every city.We will be able to up that day when
all of God’s people will be able to join hands and sing (King
last paragraph). Apart from highlighting the seriousness of the
matter, hyperbole is also used to unite the Africans that have
been alienated by the white supremacy. King is passing the
awakening call to end injustices by the whites.
King is using personification to cast American society as
someone who has committed African-Americans wrong. He
believes that those that are fighting for their civil rights are not
fighting one person but rather an entire weak system rooted
11. with historical injustices against the blacks in a dominant white
society. He says, “ today that America has defaulted on his
promissory note insofar as her colored citizens are concerned.
Instead of American honoring this sacred obligation, she has
given the Negro people a bad check, which has come back
labeled insufficient funds” (King par. 4). This paragraph also
means that blacks are put aside from the national cake just
because of their skin color. He calls the government to honor
the sacred obligation and treat all people equally irrespective of
their skin complexion (Bobbitt, David, 2004).
Moreover, King uses synecdoche by representing the
people as bodies of flesh. He continues to remind his listeners
that the problems they undergo are due to their skin color. “We
can never be satisfied as long as our bodies...cannot gain motels
of highway...” (King par. 13). In addition, the King assures
them that all these problems shall end one day, and all men will
be the same. “I have a dream that every valley shall get
exalted...the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked
places will be made straight...and all flesh shall see it together.”
(King par.24)
The king uses simile to demonstrate righteousness and the
power of justice. He also puts special attention to the belief that
equality is a natural thing that all men need in any society. “No,
no we are not satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and
righteousness resembled a mighty stream” (King par.13).
In conclusion, Martin Luther’s use of various stylistic
features has helped to explain the message of “I Have a Dream’’
in a simpler manner. Despite the different colors on earth, all
people should be treated equally because we have the same
blood .
Works Cited
Bobbitt, David A. The Rhetoric of Redemption: Kenneth
Burke's Redemption Drama and Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "i
Have a Dream" Speech. Lanham: Rowman & Littefield
12. Publishers, 2004. Print.
sGraves, Kerry A. I Have a Dream: The Story Behind Martin
Luther King, Jr.'s Most Famous Speech. Philadelphia [Pa.:
Chelsea Clubhouse, 2004. Print.
Holland, Leslie J. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s I Have a Dream
Speech in Translation: What It Means. Mankato: Capstone
Press, 2009. Print.
Lincoln, Abraham, and Tom Walker. Gettysburg Address.
N.p., 2011. Print.
Writing Your Self-Assessment Essay
Your final essay for the course is one in which you will reflect
on your work in English 1100. This will be an academic essay,
as were each of your other final essays for the term. The Self-
Assessment should be a polished piece of writing that tells me
about your experience as a writer this semester.
The essay will be a self-evaluation of your work, and as you
know, an evaluation must be accurate to be useful. This is not a
chance to re-write the events of the term to make them look
different than they actually were. You'll be graded on the
accuracy of your assessment, so be honest, be specific, and be
thorough.
Among other things, tell your readers what you learned about
yourself as a writer, and what challenges you faced on each
assignment. Describe the process each paper went through from
invention through final draft.
Read the rubric carefully. Before beginning the essay, answer
every question on the rubric with regard to your work this term.
You should consider the rubric to be a complete description of
the assignment, so your essay should provide everything spelled
out in the rubric. That should result in a coherent academic
essay, complete with a thesis that states how well you think you
did overall in the course, a body of evidence that supports that
13. main claim, and a conclusion that wraps it all up.
Note that the rubric requires you to use evidence from your
drafts to support every assertion you make. Provide that
evidence by quoting and/or paraphrasing material you wrote in
each of your other essays. Identify the sources of your quoted or
paraphrased words by using signal phrases to introduce them.
For example:
A good example of my research on the context of the editorial
appears on page 3 of my first draft of my Critical Analysis
essay, where I state: "[...]"
Do not include a Works Cited page at the end of your Self-
Assessment essay. There is no need for it, since you will be
referring to essays that you wrote for the class and that I have
easy access to on Pilot.
The objective of this essay assignment is to reflect on your
growth as a writer, student, and individual this semester, and to
put into practice what you have learned by producing an
articulate, organized, polished piece of writing that
demonstrates your growth.
Your essay needs to be of a sufficient length to cover the
criteria listed in the following rubric.
Portfolio Self-Assessment Rubric
Strong
OK
Weak
ASSESS YOUR WRITING PROCESS
---What problems did you face as you wrote?
--- Did you respond to, and solve, those problems?
---What kind of feedback did you receive on your draft(s) from
classmates and/or your instructor?
---Did you incorporate the feedback when revising your paper?
If so, why? If not, why not?
14. ASSESS EACH PIECE OF WRITING IN THE PORTFOLIO
--- Did the essay meet the requirements for the assignment?
(Evaluate the essay using the grading rubric that goes with it)
--- What, if anything, makes this piece good?
--- What surprised you in this piece?
--- What would you do differently if you had more time to
revise?
ASSESS THE PORTFOLIO AS A WHOLE
--- What do you want your writing tosay to others about you?
What does your writing in this portfolio actually say about you?
What are the differences?
Discuss how the writing you did in this course fits into your
overall development as a writer over time:
--- How is your writing now similar to writing you’ve done in
the past? How does it differ?
ASSESS YOUR PERFORMANCE AS A STUDENT
--- How well did you budget your time for required work?
--- How energetically did you go about doing the work of this
class, as a writer and as a student? Did you complete all
activities? If not, why not? If so, why?
--- How has doing, or not doing, the assignments benefited you?
--- How did your work habits affect the portfolio's contents?
KEY FEATURES
Include an introduction with a thesis, a body of evidence that
15. supports your thesis, and a conclusion.
The essay's thesis, evidence and conclusion must address and
answer the following main questions:
--- How well do you believe you did in this course?
--- Did you achieve what you set out to achieve?
As always, the essay must follow MLA guidelines and be
relatively free of grammar/spelling errors.
Adapted from an assignment by Chuck Holmes
Student 4
Student
ENG 1100
Self-Assessment Essay
Although I took several English courses in high school, I
didn’t know exactly what to expect during my freshman year
college English class. I was aware that it would be more
focused on writing papers and essays rather than reading novels,
which made me happy because I prefer to write rather than read.
I entered this course with the intent of being successful and
possibly improving my writing and learning more about
academic writing at the collegiate level. I can verify that I gave
great effort in this course and attempted to make each essay or
paper a respectable piece of writing. Therefore, I believe it
would be best to discuss the writing processes I undertook, the
pieces of writing I put together, and my overall performance as
a student in this course, which led to my success in this class.
First, the writing processes and techniques I employed
were pivotal to my success in this class. When I wrote my
essays, I always seemed to struggle in a couple key areas. The
first was definitely verb tense, and I even stated at the
16. beginning of the semester that this was one of my main
concerns in writing. I believe that through peer revision and
teacher conferences, however, I have improved in this aspect of
my writing. I was told a couple of times by my peers to check
my verb tense during essays, and I would go back and do so to
improve the writing. Next, I also had a bit of a problem with
wording. I would use good language, but sometimes I wrote a
sentence that should have been written a different way to make
the message clearer. This was caught in both teacher and
student conferences, and I was able to re-arrange sentences to
make my paper’s sound even better. During the teacher
conferences and peer review workshops, I was given good
feedback regarding my struggles above as well as a couple other
suggestions to help my essays sound more professional and fit
MLA citation format. An example of this feedback is in my
Research Argument essay when it was suggested that I cite
websites using the title of the article, instead of an organization
such as NASA. This helped my citations become more MLA
accurate and improved the quality of my paper. I would say that
I almost always incorporated the feedback from the teacher
conferences into my papers, and sometimes incorporated the
feedback from peer review workshops into them. However,
every piece of feedback I received was taken into consideration
when I worked on the final drafts of my essays.
The three main pieces of writing that I put together in my
course portfolio were the Ad Analysis essay, the Research
Argument paper, and the Self-Assessment essay. For my Ad
Analysis essay, I believe I met all of the requirements that were
laid out on the rubric. Specifically, I feel that I did a good job
of providing support for my conclusions regarding the different
advertising techniques used. An example of this in my Ad
Analysis paper on page 2 is when I state, “This use of
patriotism evokes a positive feeling regarding Obama, making
him look better as a potential president”. This is an example of
me giving a good explanation for why a specific advertising
technique was used in the ad. The only thing about this essay
17. that surprised me was that we actually included the ad pictures
in our essays (I didn’t think we would do this very often in
academic writing). If I had more time to revise, the only thing I
might have done differently would be to explain why each
technique works with each particular ad just a little bit more. A
sentence or two more explanation could enhance the essay and
continue to develop my conclusions.
In my Research paper, I believe that I again met all of the
requirements on the rubric. In this paper, I believe that I did a
great job in the organization and structure category. I believe
that I followed the exact thesis statement that I presented, and
my body paragraphs all had good topic and transition sentences
to help the paper flow. An example of one of the transition
sentences in my Research paper is on page 2 when I assert,
“Although it is important to discuss the science that causes
climate change, looking at how global temperatures are
changing gives another interesting perspective into the effects
of climate change”. This is a great example of a transition
sentence that helps the structure and flow of the paper. Nothing
really surprised me in this research paper because I have written
several before, including lab reports in college. If I had more
time to revise this paper, I would have added a couple more
significant pieces of evidence to further strengthen my
argument. I also could have possibly acknowledged another
counter-argument, which again helps to strengthen my overall
argument.
In this Self-Assessment essay, I think I have met all the
requirements because I wrote it straight off of the rubric
provided. I believe I did a good job of incorporating all the
material and including some specific examples from the other
papers in my portfolio. Not much really surprised me about this
self-assessment essay (because we have written similar ones
before), but I was shocked to see that we were required to give
specific examples from each of our essays in the portfolio
(which after thinking about it makes sense). If I had more time
to revise this essay, I would have included a couple more
18. examples from each essay to show that I did a good job of
meeting all of the necessary requirements. However, I believe
that what I have written is sufficient and satisfies the rubric’s
requests.
Overall, the portfolio as a whole displayed some
characteristics of myself as a writer. I always want my writing
to display myself as a sophisticated scholar who knows what he
is talking about and can back it up with great vocabulary and
structure. I strongly believe that my writing in this portfolio
does a good job of exemplifying these traits, and shows a wide
range of creative writing skills. The writing that I did in this
course is similar to writing that I have done in the past. I have
used MLA format and cited sources, as well as attempted to use
some intriguing vocabulary to keep readers interested. The
writing that I did in this class does differ from some of my
writing in the past, however, because I paid more attention to
verb tenses (thanks to conferences and revisions), and I made
sure to include this in my final drafts. This is definitely an
improvement from my past pieces of writing.
Finally, my performance as a student in this course can be
discussed. I know that I budgeted my time well and made sure
to get assignments done on time without having to stay up really
late to finish any of them. I came to class every day, and
completed all of the in-class and out of class assignments in
order to help with my success in this course. By completing all
of the assignments, I was prepared to write all of the major
papers for this course and I believe I did a good job with the
finished product (this portfolio). Therefore, the effort and work
that I did in and out of class helped me to make the pieces of
writing in this portfolio well put together pieces of academic
writing at the collegiate level.