My Senior Portfolio includes six works from each course I took in my Advanced Rhetoric and Composition degree: Introduction to Advanced Composition and Rhetoric (ENGL 3050), Twentieth-Century Composition Theory and Practice (ENGL 3100), Practical Grammar (ENGL 3105), Senior Seminar (ENGL 4320), Editing (ENGL 3140), and Electronic Writing and Publishing (3120). Below is my Critical Reflective Essay, which introduces my purpose for including the texts and projects found in the following posts and outlines my journey as a writer during my time at Georgia State.

Critical Reflective Essay

I arrived at Georgia State directly after completing high school in the suburbs of Atlanta with the knowledge that I wanted to write. Since elementary school, I have been an avid reader, devouring novel after novel. I began writing short stories on my own, aspiring to be the next Jane Austen or Ernest Hemingway, and worked for the school newspaper my senior year of high school. Since I had already begun dappling in different kinds of writing, my future career was unknown to me as I dove into an English major with a concentration in Advanced Composition and Rhetoric. I chose the concentration because I wanted to focus on the science of writing: style, rhetoric, analysis, grammar, and editing. My first semester in the major—the spring semester of my sophomore year—introduced me to rhetorical and literacy theories such as Aristotle’s concepts of ethos, logos, and pathos; and Newsweek’s Why Johnny Can’t Write, a 1975 article that presented a literacy crisis and produced many literary theories as a response. These theories opened my eyes to a whole new way of discussing writing: writing defined as a way of effectively communicating to an audience that changes often.

The pieces listed below are some of my favorite projects that I have completed in my time at Georgia State. All of them have contributed to my definition of rhetoric, style, and good writing skills. To me, good writing means using language that is familiar to the intended audience, that communicates clearly and effectively, and avoids unneeded words and blown up language. Editing includes more than fixing grammatical errors; it means revisiting a piece to strengthen its effectiveness, omitting passages that lose its meaning, and adding passages that enhance the argument and strengthen the piece as a whole. These definitions of writing will propel my writing and editing to new heights as I launch myself into a writing career in journalism, publishing, or freelance post-graduation.

As I reflect back on my undergraduate career at Georgia State and how my definition of writing has changed because of my courses and experiences, I have presented my portfolio items in three different sections: language, rhetoric and composition theory, and collaborative projects. The “language” pieces display my ability to analyze writing in its most basic form. The “rhetoric and composition theory” works show my ability for research and application of rhetorical and composition theories. The collaborative projects show my ability to work with a group, imitating the process of working with an editorial team, as well as display my skills in editing and electronic publishing.

Language

I chose to take an Honors section of English 3105 (Practical Grammar), which required me to complete a research paper at the end of the course in order to receive Honors credit. The assignment was left wide open to subject, but required us to make a grammatical analysis of an author (or our own paper). Since I love Jane Austen and was taking a Single Author course and reading her work the same semester I took Practical Grammar, I decided to conduct both a rhetorical and grammatical analysis, focusing on the ways Austen used grammar to show social class and education in two different characters. My process included using an outside source, Jane Austen’s English; my Practical Grammar textbook, Grammar By Design; and the novel itself. I pulled passages when both characters were speaking to find evidence of their use of poor grammar, and I supported my argument by placing those characters’ language next to characters who were more educated and of higher social class. I also used claims in Jane Austen’s English to support my theory that Austen deliberately uses poor grammar in characters’ dialogue to demonstrate social class and education differences.

The stylistic analysis in English 4320 (Senior Seminar) required me to examine a piece of writing more closely than I had ever done before. This assignment called for an in-depth analysis of style, which included conducting a Flesch-Kinkaid reading level test on the text, examining sentence types and length, and breaking down sentences to find patterns and levels of style. My analysis of a memoir from The Paris Review included an examination of transition words, punctuation, sentence type and length, and point of view. To conduct a thorough analysis, it was necessary for me to gather enough data to make stylistic conclusions about the entire writing sample. For me, this included creating a color-coded sheet of paper identifying parts of speech, transition words, and word count for each sentence. This in-depth stylistic analysis taught me how to identify patterns and themes in style, reflect on how the author’s style differs from my own, and discover what elements of style make a piece effective. From this analysis, I learned how to examine my own writing for style characteristics that both enhance and weaken my writing. I also learned the power of sentence variety and the importance of choosing vocabulary that fits the desired meaning perfectly. This analysis was similar to the analysis of Sense and Sensibility because it focused solely on the effectiveness of the author’s style in terms of her sentence variety, use of punctuation, and choice of adjectives; whereas in the analysis of Sense and Sensibility, I focused on one aspect of Austen’s style, grammar, and how it communicated something very specific about her characters.

Rhetoric and Composition Theory

In my final seminar paper for English 3100 (Twentieth-Century Composition Theory and Practice), I was required to write a 5-7 page persuasive research paper on an aspect of literacy. I argued for the importance of home literacy over a formal education of literacy, since, to me, literacy is ecological rather than skills-based. I concluded that home literacy was important based on the research of Felicity Martini and Monique Sénéchal, who asserted that “parent expectations and child interest accounted for differences in a child’s early literacy, and, therefore, broadened the Home Literacy Model.” The assignment allowed me to examine a child’s stages of writing and reading and explore how learning at home is crucial to developing writing skills in the beginning. This final research paper required me to examine many theories about literacy and English education as well as conduct extensive research. I found my sources using the GSU Library, both online and on-campus, as well as drawing from the essays from class and from my textbook. Most of these sources support my argument, but others display the opposite. I formed many research questions on which to base my studies and created an outline on which to base my argument. This paper developed my understanding of literacy studies and the writing process, as well as personally improving my ability to draw from sources to develop and clearly communicate.

The Persona Analysis in my English 3050 (Introduction to Rhetoric and Advanced Composition) course called for a rhetorical analysis of a public figure, asking the following questions: What kind of rhetorical tactics does this person use to form their public persona? How do these elements work to establish that persona? Which rhetorician can these elements be dedicated to? I chose the “Sexy Sax Man,” a musician who is known for dressing in suspenders, black skinny pants, a mullet wig and sunglasses and playing the song “Careless Whisper” as a prank in malls, stores, and other locations. The “Sexy Sax Man” has hit millions of views on YouTube and has become quite known for his pranks across the country. I chose two classical rhetoricians whose ideas about rhetoric fit the Sexy Sax Man’s persona: Aristotle and Cicero. To come to that conclusion, I compared the rhetorical theories and ideas from many different rhetoricians to the actions and ultimate rhetorical intentions of the Sexy Sax Man, including the canons of rhetoric (invention, style, arrangement, memory, and delivery). After making these comparisons, I conducted the rhetorical analysis of the Sexy Sax Man.

Collaborative Projects

The collaborative service-learning project in my English 3140 course (Editing) was a group project designed to teach us about editorial teams and producing a perfect product.  Our job was to write a biography for each SAMLA Honorary Member, and to work as a team to edit the product. In my group of four, each member was assigned an editorial role; I was the layout editor. Though my responsibility was to make the layout of each biography consistent and appealing, we all learned from each other as we edited, drawing from the copy editing lessons in class to copy edit each biography as perfectly as possible. Our tools included a style guide, created and agreed upon by the members of the class; a guide for what content needed to be included within the biography; and our copy editing book, which gave us guidelines for how to edit the product. While writing the biography, I also gathered information and conducted research about Katherine Porter, my assigned honorary member, using resources like interviews from The Paris Review and features in magazines found through JSTOR. This project, which extended over a couple months, taught me how to write in a house style, considering the audience for whom these biographies were being written. It also improved my editing skills as I examined biographies for grammar, style, and layout mistakes. It required me to follow style guidelines, work with a group of people, and write for a very specific audience.

My service-learning project in English 3120 (Electronic Writing and Publishing) focused on website creation. Electronic Writing and Publishing’s purpose for its students was to introduce new ways to communicate effectively and display content on the Internet. This project required my group members and I to collect all we had learned—writing effectively for online, the difference between text in print and online, and how to use WordPress—in this project for the United States Psychiatric Rehabilitation Association of Georgia. The organization did not already have a website, and we took content provided by our contact at the organization and made it into a fully functional website, including a calendar for events and a contact page. Though there were elements that we did not know how to complete (registration), we were proud of the product we were able to produce for the organization. As a journalist and a writer, I will definitely be using the ability to make a dynamic and visually appealing website with quality content for the rest of my life. I’m looking forward to applying what I’ve learned to my personal blog as well as any website I may create or help create in the future. I’ve learned through this project how to take content required by an organization and make it interesting and well presented, while communicating with the contact to make sure everything is presented in the desired format. I very much learned how to visually create something for an audience.

In my time at Georgia State in the English department, I have discovered my love for writing, for the intricacies of language, and for making words come alive in many different fields of writing. I have grown to feel comfortable writing in the field of journalism, working as a writer, copy editor, and senior editor at Georgia State’s The Signal. My rhetorical and editorial training has aided my abilities to confidently write and edit in all the positions I have held at The Signal. I have grown as an editor after courses in grammar and editing, feeling comfortable navigating a document or an article and editing it for both grammatical and content errors. I am writer who has become comfortable as more than an English major completing a major research paper; I can write for any genre or publication due to the skills I have learned at Georgia State.

As an aspiring book publisher, my training in editing and effective communication will prepare me for a career in book manuscript editing. My ability to conduct extensive research will prepare me for fact-checking. My skills in writing for audience will help me edit writers’ content to fit intended audience. I hope to use these skills in a potential writing or publishing career, and will be applying to editorial positions at publishing houses as well as writing jobs at newspapers, magazines, and literary publications.